Since 1999, 23 September has been a day to recognize and celebrate bisexuality, bisexual history, bisexual community and culture, and all the bisexual people in our lives.
The day has gone by various names: Celebrate Bisexuality Day (or International Celebrate Bisexuality Day), Bi Pride Day, but has really become well-known to a broader audience in recent years as Bi Visibility Day. This has been extended in America to the whole week being known as Bi Awareness Week (and to some extent internationally, thanks to the internet; it’s been #biweek all over Twitter).
So Why Do Bisexuals Need Their Own Day?
Most non-bi people probably assume bisexuals are sufficiently included in other “days,” like Pride or IDAHOBIT (the International Day Against Homophobia, BIphobia and Transphobia). The councillors among you might have had requests for your town hall to fly the rainbow flag at such times.
But bisexuals suffer for being “lumped in” with LGBT all the time. Bisexuals’ experiences tend to differ not just from heterosexuals but from gay men and lesbians as well.
As well as homophobia, bisexuals face particular prejudice and discrimination specifically because of their bisexuality. This is called biphobia, and it’s at least as likely to come from lesbian and gay members of the “LGBT community” as it is from people who are straight and cisgender (ie people who don’t identifying with any part of the LGBT acronym).
Academic research collated in the Bisexuality Report found that bisexual people have worse problems in areas like mental health, domestic violence, and homelessness than straight, lesbian or gay people. This has been found to be true in the UK and internationally, and is linked to experiencing biphobia and bisexual invisibility – being left out, misunderstood, or unsupported by both heterosexual and homosexual people has a strong effect on bisexuals.
It’s important to note that there isn’t anything inherently more difficult or damaging about being attracted to more than one gender. It’s not bisexuality itself that causes the problems, it’s the stigma associated with bisexuality. The Bisexuality Report found that attitudes towards bisexual people are more negative than those towards other minority groups. Bis are stereotyped as promiscuous, untrustworthy, or greedy – not just in their relationships but in ways that can harm them at work, when seeking health care, and other everyday experiences where a straight or gay person’s sexuality wouldn’t be considered to dictate their personality or behaviour, but a bisexual person’s does. Bisexual invisibility means bisexual people are generally not represented in mainstream media, policy, legislation and within lesbian and gay communities.
What Can Lib Dems Do to Support Bisexuals and Bi Visibility?
As a Lib Dem, you’re already part of a party that’s making sure bisexuals are acknowledged as distinct from lesbian and gay people, thanks to LGBT+ Lib Dems’ work in everything from making sure we use language that doesn’t exclude bisexuals (like “same-sex marriage” instead of “gay marriage,” since not everyone who wants a same-sex marriage is gay) to helping Jo Swinson put out Bi Visibility Day messages when she was our Minister for Women and Equalities.
Since 23 September often happens to be during Autumn Conference, Lib Dems have taken advantage of this when possible, such as having a flashmob in Bournemouth last year, and joining with Brighton’s 2012 event of videos, speakers, games and colorful cake. And if we happen to be home from Conference by the twenty-third, as we are this year, check here for events you can support nearby.
Some places in the UK have flown the bi flag at the town hall to commemorate the day or week, including Bolton since 2015, Brighton since 2012, Oxford for the first time this year, and Wakefield all #biweek, also its first time. If your town’s not one of those, feel free to ask your local council, or fellow councillors, to do the same!
I spent a lot of time at the LGBT+ stall at our most recent Autumn Conference, and in that time talked to more than one person about bisexuality and biphobia. This is very much a current and pressing issue for bisexual Lib Dems. If you’re not already a member, you might consider joining LGBT+ Lib Dems and help make sure bisexuals are acknowledged, supported and, yes, visible…all year round!
* Holly is an immigrant, bisexual, disabled, and probably can tick most other diversity boxes that you have handy.
9 Comments
A very thought-provoking article about an important issue. Thank you, Holly
Holly
I welcome your posts on here , which are warm and compassionate, and have read your story before , of particular interest as my wife is of American origin.
On this day , I would like to pay tribute to a man who was bisexual , and bipolar, too,and who I knew , and who was kind to me, and became a friend at the very beginning of my entering the professional world of the performing arts.
He was also someone who suffered tremendously from mental health torment that also made him the most caring and wonderful man and actor, he was openly an advocate for these issues , before many. He passed away way too soon .
He was , and is , for anyone who wants to see his many TV performances, each , as extraordinarily generous and flamboyant as he, Jeremy Brett.
A brilliant tribute, Lorenzo. Jeremy Brett is my favorite Sherlock Holmes. 🙂 He sound lovely and I’m glad you got to know him.
Holly
Thank you Holly, so glad you are not only aware of Jeremy Brett,and his work , but admire him as Sherlock Holmes, love what you said, no one can do justice to the part after him, in my view ! He was a remarkable character, indeed , a character sums him up. If you haven’t before, go to you tube and you can find several fine performances in TV from the seventies and early eighties, as well as good interviews. I recommend “Grace” in a series called Affairs of the Heart, also, “Pitt” , from a series , No Ten in which he plays William Pitt, it is a selection of very fine dramas , all there about different prime ministers, and he is terrific in it, and his performance in the classic “Rebecca”, the whole series is there and as good as the Hitchcock, version, with Olivier , who played the role, of Max , in it ,and was Jeremy Bretts mentor.
Look forward to more from you , Holly , see you on the Lib Dem circuit sometime !
Sadly I’ve experienced self righteous biphobia from a few individuals in the party.
The phrases ‘Lib Dem Straight’ or ‘failed gay’ have rung in my ears far too often.
Thanks for the recommendations Lorenzo, I’ll have to check them out!
And Hywel I’m sorry but unfortunately not surprised to hear that’s happened to you. Nearly every time I do a LGBT+ stall at a Lib Dem event, someone comes by to say “but why do we even need a group like this, surely all Lib Dems are on board this whole LGBT thing?” Sadly it’s not true. (Even if it were true we’d still need the group for campaigning, policy, supporting candidates and everything else we do! But that’s another point…) Biphobia in particular is so common and so rarely challenged by any part of society that it really is prevalent in all kinds of groups, even Liberals. This is one reason I’m glad I got to about this for LDV.
If any party ought to get the “there are more than two options here”, you’d’ve thought it’d be the Liberals.
And to be fair when I compare it to the biphobia I’ve heard from Labour circles, the Libs do an awful lot better…
*quietly adds Brett, J to the list of my heroes who are/were bi without me knowing*
Thank you for that, Lorenzo.
Jennie Rigg
So glad , Jennie , he, Jeremy Brett, was a very heroic man in his individual presence and his professional roles, stature , in different ways , is to be seen for what it is , more than physical, also moral, but a bit of either helps ! He was a very complex man , he left his first wife for a male actor he fell in love with , later , after the tragic loss of his second wife, he had the nervous breakdown that , if not triggered , certainly worsened his bipolar nature that had not been diagnosed.