Bisexual Activist Amy Andre Named to Lead San Francisco Pride
October 7, 2009
Amy Andre photo by Marlo Gayle
On Tuesday, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee announced that longtime bisexual and LGBT activist Amy Andre would become the organization’s next executive director, overseeing the production of its annual San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade.
Andre, who was recently interviewed on GLAADblog during Celebrate Bisexuality Day, brings to her new position over a decade of experience working with LGBT nonprofit organizations as well as an MBA in nonprofit management and a master’s degree in sexuality studies.
SF Pride Board President Mikayla Connell stated in BiNet USA’s press release:
We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Amy Andre to the Pride team with her wealth of talent, experience, and history of activism as we continue planning and preparing for the fortieth anniversary San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade in June of 2010.
The Committee’s decision to select an openly bisexual leader represents an important step toward the slow reversal of the type of biphobia and invisibility Andre has discussed in her written work, and most recently in her September GLAADblog contribution:
When it comes to sexual identity, self-identified bisexuals make up fifty percent of the LGB population. And yet, we bisexuals (and our allies) remain in so many ways invisible and marginalized and not quite aware of the extent to which bisexuals are part of the larger LGBT community.
Andre is also the co-author of Bisexual Health: An Introduction and Model Practices for HIV/STI Prevention, a book published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, BiNet USA and the Fenway Institute, as well as the director of On My Skin/En Mi Piel, the internationally-screened documentary about a mixed-race transgender man and his family.
Commenting on her selection, which concluded a national search process that began in March, Andre said:
I’m honored and delighted by this opportunity to be a part of Pride. Celebrating ourselves is one of the most important, courageous, affirming, and, yes, even political, things we as an LGBT community can do. This year’s theme is Forty and Fabulous. But, of course, Pride has always been fabulous, and we’ve got even more wonderful things in store!
We at GLAAD congratulate SF Pride on their selection of such an inspiring leader, and look forward to tracking Amy Andre’s success in her new position.
Related Posts:Editor’s Note: Reflections on Bi Visibility and Coming Out
September 23, 2009
Amanda Morgan
When I first came out as bisexual at age 12, I did not imagine that this was something I would have to do over and over…and over. I figured I’d tell everybody once, they’d get it and word of my sexual orientation would pass quickly and stick to me forever the way small-town gossip does.
When I came out, my mother was my strongest ally. She joined PFLAG, read many books about gay and bisexual youth and women. She even wrote a letter that was published in her church newsletter addressing the silence around LGBT issues and the accompanying homophobia that existed in the church. In this letter, she declared:
“My daughter, Amanda Morgan, is bisexual.”
This was the first time I had heard her describe me as such. My mother, a woman I used to think of as a timid church mouse, was earning her activist stripes by refusing to let her congregation ignore LGBT issues. And she began by sticking up for me. Proud barely begins to describe how I felt.
My senior year, both my mother and I participated in what is now known as the True Colors Conference, in West Harford, CT. I, as a speaker on a youth panel. My mother, representing PFLAG as the organizer of the Hug Room. The Hug Room, open throughout the conference, was a welcoming and affirming place for LGBT youth to go for a hug and a supportive ear, a place they could go if their own families were not supportive.
Fast forward to 2008.
I called my mother to see how she enjoyed a retreat she had recently attended. She told me about all the women she met. She was telling me about how she explained her various identities to the other participants, when she said:
“I’m also a proud parent of a gay daughter.”
I inhaled sharply. I am my mother’s only daughter.
“Mom, what? Why did you say that?”
Of course, my cell phone picked this opportunity to cut in and out. I told her we would discuss this when I came home to visit. As soon as she picked me up from the train station in New Haven, I repeated my question. I could tell she was nervous.
“Well, I mean, what would you like me to call you?”
“Mom, I’m bisexual.”
“Yes but, I just didn’t want to tell them that because I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about you…”
“What wrong idea?’
“….I don’t want them to think you go sleeping around.”
It seems somewhere between her proud declarations in the mid-nineties to the present day, my mother’s perceptions of bisexuality had changed. Simply put, her image of me as her studious, responsible daughter did not jive with nearly every other representation of bisexuality she had ever seen. So in my mother’s mind, I really was gay. Not because I was confused about my sexuality but because I did not fit the bisexual stereotypes that she had seen. And since she knew full well I wasn’t straight, I must be gay.
I urged my mother not to let this stop her from being a proud parent of a bisexual daughter. Not to react to the lack of accurate representations by perpetuating them through the erasure of my bisexuality. She said she’d think about it. It is a conversation we are still having.
This summer, I had the opportunity to be interviewed on the Today’s Show about the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. I was very excited. And nervous. But after speaking to one of the show’s producers about bisexual and trans activism and how much the erasure of our histories upsets me, I felt good. He was both supportive and receptive.
Due to other stories that broke around that time, the segment got bumped to the website. I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to be broadcast in the living rooms of my mother, grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. Until I saw the segment. They identified me as a gay activist. Well, I thought, at least if no one sees it, it’ll save me the trouble of having to come out. Again.
It makes me wonder, how many other bisexual people have been gay-washed by the media? I can think of a few off the top of my head, but only because I am aware of them as very openly bisexual writers, activists and artists. In those cases, when they are identified as gay by the media, it is immediately laughable. For myself and others without such a public face, we have no opportunity to have the last laugh.
In a media culture where our very existence is frequently called into question whether via an alleged joke, or bad science, we can’t afford, nor should we have to, lose these voices and representations. This past Monday, when Kanye West claimed that bisexual men do not exist, I was reminded again of Peter Ruggiero’s words during the Bi Media Summit:
“Hearing bi men don’t exist had detrimental effects on me – I literally thought of doing myself in.”
Research suggests that Ruggiero is not alone. As we heard from bisexual health expert Amy Andre, bisexual people have higher rates of suicidal ideation than gay or straight people. I have to think that the near constant onslaught of widely affirmed propaganda that we do not exist is a strong contributor to this. At age 13, my own therapist told me I was straight, causing me unnecessary and unwarranted despair. Yet despite what many have said, we are still here and we are still bisexual.
As much as these thoughts weigh on my mind, today I am smiling because I am proud of all the openly bisexual people who stood up in the face of all this and continue to fight against defamation, persevering in spite of so much that works against us. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to commission, edit and compile this series of posts for Celebrate Bisexuality Day because it gave me the chance to work with people for whom I have so much admiration and respect and to share the results with the world.
I am proud of our achievements as openly bisexual people. When you tell the truth about your lives, you tell the truth of all our lives. I found myself nodding along to every piece. And most of all, I am excited to forward these links to my mother so that she can know (again) what good company I am in.
I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our participants and especially to Cindi Creager, GLAAD’S Director of National News for being my main point person/support network/ ally/cheerleader during this whole process from conception to completion.
Amanda Morgan is an openly bisexual writer and photographer living in Brooklyn, NY. She is currently the Digital Media Initiatives Fellow at GLAAD. Please visit www.AmandaMorgan.com for more info.
Related Posts:How to be an Ally to a Bisexual Person
September 23, 2009
![Ellyn photo[1]](http://glaadblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Ellyn-photo1.jpg "Ellyn photo[1]")
Ellyn Rusthrom
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By Ellyn Ruthstrom
I’ve drawn up a few tips that can certainly be taken into account by organizations, but my main focus was on the individual level. Straight allies can benefit from these recommendations, but I know that a lot of them developed for me more from my experiences with gays and lesbians over the years.
Believe that I exist. Despite ongoing scientific research that seems so determined to disprove the existence of bisexuality, plus the general lack of interest by the greater gay and lesbian community to acknowledge us, we really do exist.
When I tell you I’m bisexual, please don’t try to talk me into redefining my identity into something more comfortable for you. Please don’t tell me that if I haven’t been sexual with more than one sex in the last three, five, or ten years that I am no longer bisexual.
Celebrate bisexual culture along with me. We have a vibrant and rich cultural history within the bi community. Not only do we have fabulous examples of cultural communities that accepted and practiced bisexual living/loving—Bloomsbury Group, Greenwich Village, Harlem Renaissance—but from Sappho to Walt Whitman to Virginia Woolf to James Baldwin to June Jordan, we have many daring voices that have expressed love beyond the monosexual confines.
Please don’t try to convince me that people who lived bisexual lives in the past would have been gay if they had lived today. You don’t know that, I don’t know that, and your insistence that it is true says that you believe that people were bisexual only out of necessity, not by desire. I believe there have always been bisexual people just as you may believe there have always been gay and lesbian people.
Validate my frustration with the gay and lesbian community when they ignore or exclude bisexuals. Please don’t try and defend an action such as a keynote speaker who is addressing a LGBT audience but consistently says “gay and lesbian” when referring to all of us. It bothers me, so even if you don’t think it’s that important yourself, please don’t try and talk me out of my feelings.
Ask me, if appropriate, about my other-sex relationships and my same-sex relationships. Bisexuals live our lives in multiple ways. Some of us are monogamous and we would like to discuss that relationship openly with the people in our lives, no matter whom it is with. Some of us have more than one relationship going on and we’d like to be able to share that with others without feeling judgment.
If there is some sort of bisexual scandal in the news, don’t use it as an opportunity to make derisive remarks about bisexuals generally. As we know, all communities have examples of “bad behavior,” and painting everyone with the same brush doesn’t create much understanding between us.
When I’m not around, or any other bisexual, speak up when bisexual people are being defamed or excluded. It’s great when we can witness your support, but I’d love to know you are helping us even when we are not looking. You’ll be the best ally possible!
I’d love to hear your response to this list and add some tips of your own. You can email me at elruthstrom@comcast.net.
Ellyn Ruthstrom is the current president of the Bisexual Resource Center, past editor of the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network’s Bi Women newsletter, and a long-time community activist on social justice issues.
Bisexuals Front and Center
September 23, 2009
Mimi Hoang, Ph.D.
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Mimi Hoang, Ph.D.
A holiday is meant to make people pay attention to a significant cultural event or person, such as Independence Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Not only does it remind you of something important , it also can lead you to pay homage to that person or event in ways you might not otherwise year-round. Many people hang their U.S. flags and light fireworks for Fourth of July. Many remember Dr. King’s civil rights work on the third Monday of January. What does Celebrate Bisexuality impel people to do?
As a bi community organizer, educator, and activist for more than a decade, I have seen firsthand the ups and downs of a very marginalized and misunderstood community. After I came through my own rocky coming out journey, I co-founded and co-chaired the first ever bi student group at UCLA because I knew that there just had to be a safe, centralized space for other bi students who had struggled like me, just like there were spaces for gay and lesbian students, transgender students, and students of color on campus. Now, after founding another bi social group, developing a bi resource center, conducting bi clinical research, and presenting bi lectures and workshops, I can say that there just has to be a day to toast the bi community because it does not get accolades during other parts of the year, or at all.
With all the dismissing and bullying the bi community faces from prejudicial gays and straights alike, the bi community most certainly deserves to be put front and center, surrounded by cake, balloons, and cheers. For once, the bi community is the focus of attention, rather than living in the margins. Imagine that – that bisexuality is central with straightness and gayness surrounding. Actually I’ve always conceptualized the spectrum of sexuality that way. Many people have relationships with more than one gender. So every time I get a confused or mocking look when I tell people that September 23rd is Celebrate Bisexuality Day, it just impels me to continue my work as a community builder and educator. Every time I get a, “What exactly is bisexuality?” or “I just don’t like bisexuals,” it just keeps me going. Until one day I don’t have to.
Mimi Hoang, Ph.D. is an out bi psychologist, researcher, educator, community organizer, and activist. She is currently on the steering committee for the Los Angeles Bi Center, as well as co-organizer of the annual Bi/Fluid Pride March. Dr. Hoang co-founded and chaired AMBI (A Meeting of Bi Individuals), was the Bi Advisory Board Chair of ‘Ohana House/Asian Pacific Islanders for Human Rights, and co-founded and co-chaired Fluid UCLA. She completed a dissertation on bi identity and internalized biphobia and has conducted numerous lectures and workshops on bisexuality at conferences, universities, and community agencies.
Related Posts:Q & A with Bisexual Activist Sheela Lambert
September 23, 2009
Sheela Lambert
This Q & A with Sheela Lambert is part of GLAAD’s tribute to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, September 23rd 2009.
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Can you tell me how you got your start as a bi activist? What has motivated you to focus on bisexual issues?
I’ve been out as bi since I was 16. I’ve liked boys since I was 3 and the minute I had feelings towards a woman, I just announced to my friends that I was bi. That was in 1972.
In college, in 1974, I was the only female member of the campus gay and bisexual group. It had been a gay group before, but they changed it to gay and bisexual because of me. Since I was the only girl, they asked me to be the female co-chair. I was the only out girl on my whole college campus and very visible.
Then I found a bisexual women’s group at the LGBT Center, which at the time was the Lesbian and Gay Center. I was going to the bi women’s group twice a month as well as other groups and I got tired of walking in the door under a sign that said lesbian and gay but not bisexual or transgender. I brought it up with the bi women’s group and we drafted a letter, got some bi guys involved and went to the Center and said, ‘Hey bi and trans people are here and we participate, can you expand your name?”
But that took ten years to actually happen.
So when did they change their name?
It was in 1991 that we made first formal request. They changed it in 2001.
Now that the Center has made the change, they are fully LGBT-inclusive. It’s not just lip service they really get it. That’s why we love them.
Before that, every time I walked past that sign, I felt pain and I knew that other bisexual and transgender people felt that pain as well. That’s what motivates me to do activism on inclusion.
The Pride march was the same thing – before the name was changed being in that march was both euphoric and extremely hurtful. And I knew that others were feeling the same pain that I was.
It was the same thing with NewFest. Within a period of 3 years they all switched from lesbian and gay to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Pauline Park, who is this amazing trans activist, worked with me on that.
Can you talk a bit more about your collaboration with trans activists around bi and trans issues?
There was a big grassroots effort. We, Pauline and I, were the catalysts of that effort at that time. Obviously, if it was just us, just two people, nobody would’ve cared.
We are actually working on another project right now. Since we were successful in New York, we are taking it national. As you know, in May, the Bi Writers Association, together with the LGBT Center held the National Summit on Putting the “B” in the LGBT because we felt that it’s still not being done anywhere near as much as it should be.
One of the issues we raised was that there are many national LGBT organizations that still have lesbian and gay names. A lot of the organizations responded by saying ‘yes, we ought to think about changing our name.’ We’re taking them up on it. So now we’re in the process of sending formal letters to a half dozen organizations.
I want to congratulate you on the wonderful success you had with organizing “Putting the ‘B’ in the LGBT.” I know it was hard work. You were able to bring a lot of people together – what was that process like? How long did it take? Was this something you’d wanted to do for a long time?
It was a year out of my life.
What sparked the idea–I was on the ENDA conference calls in the beginning of the year in 2008 [about trying to get congress to make the ENDA bill transgender-inclusive] and I noticed that in the beginning that one person had written a press release about it that used lesbian and gay language in describing why a trans-inclusive ENDA isn’t just important for transgender people. They were saying that language protecting gender expression is important for lesbian and gay people too. There was a press release that said something like “if an employer thinks a gay man walks too swishy or a lesbian looks too butch, they could still be fired,” if only sexual orientation but not gender identity and expression was included in the bill.
I pointed out to them that this can also be true for bisexual people who are not trans. There’s quite a wide range of gender expression in the bi community. But this non-inclusive language had already been sent out by the committee and reproduced by all the state orgs prior to my involvement. By the time the official inclusive ENDA press release was changed to include bi people in their example (actually, they only changed it to include bi men—not bi women), it was already too late because 50 state organizations had already posted the action alert on their website and the press were already repeating it.
So I was thinking about, how do we break this cycle? How do we make sure that the first press release and the reporting that follows it are bi-inclusive? And I was thinking about the presidential candidate debate on Logo where “lesbian and gay” was used by the politicians and their questioners much more than LGBT.
I realized we needed an event where we were talking about putting the B in the LGBT where we invite the people who write press releases at LGBT rights orgs, the press, politicians – we had to hit all points of the cycle so that it can go from being a vicious cycle to a positive, inclusive one.
I’ve really been enjoying your column in the Examiner – how did that all come about and what has the experience been like for you?
It’s a great opportunity. Writing about bisexuality is my passion. I love to write about bisexuality as it shows up in media, arts and culture. I also have complete freedom. As soon as I get an idea, I can execute it. I can spend all my time writing articles instead of spending half my time pitching articles to magazine editors. And I don’t have to convince an editor it would be newsworthy to the non-bi majority of their readers before I can get it published…it only has to be of interest to the bi audience, although non-bi people are reading them too.
When I was growing up, there was nothing gay or bi on TV. Because of that, it seemed very mysterious, like there must be something wrong with being bisexual or gay because no one wanted to show it or talk about it.
It was so exciting for me to see anything gay or anything bisexual on TV, whether it was a movie, a guest character on a show, a passing comment. No matter what it was, I would tape it. Since Logo came on (laughs) I had to kind of stop taping everything. Now I just stick to bisexual themed material and mainstream reporting on LGBT rights news.
Every time I see something, it’s exciting. Even if it’s some horrible stereotype, it’s meaningful. Of course, I’d rather see a representation that’s not a stereotype, that’s not biphobic.
I was very excited to see the character of Callie on Grey’s Anatomy for example, who I think is one of the most well rounded bisexual characters on TV and then of course, there’s Torchwood.
You’ve gone from working to change how bisexual people are perceived in the media to now also being a part of the media yourself. What, if any, major changes have you seen in the ways bi people are perceived/depicted?
Of course, I still see the stereotypes being promulgated. There are those stereotypical categories that get repeated over and over.
What are the ones you see the most?
That we’re super sexy, oversexed, easily distracted, not serious minded, shallow, cheat on our partners – and I’m very, very tired of that.
What I liked on Torchwood was Captain Jack Harkness, a character that was very nonchalant about his bisexuality. He was like ‘oh you people and your quaint little categories.’ There was no coming out or fearfulness. He was just very confident. And a hero. Ianto was bisexual too, he had a girlfriend and after she died, a relationship with Jack. And all the other main characters had bisexual episodes too. What I like about Callie on Grey’s Anatomy is that she’s very real and an admirable character without being a superhuman hero, just human.
When it comes to bi issues, what is your biggest hope for the future?
I have to name just one? (laughs)
I’d like to see all the LGBT rights organizations become fully inclusive and change their names because that will send a message to the world that it’s the LGBT community not just the LG community. That will be an important step.
I’d like to see everyone getting it, getting that bisexual people marry their same sex partners, bisexual people are in the military and have been kicked out for being bi and have had to actually sign a statement saying that they are bisexual. We’ve been fired from jobs and bashed on the street.
People don’t understand that these issues affect us. People don’t see that because they’re reading newspaper articles and hearing speeches and interviews that say “gay marriage” or “gays in the military.” I’d like to see the press to start include us whenever they’re writing about LGBT issues. Interview a bisexual same-sex couple or a bi veteran. I’d like all the LGBT orgs to include a bisexual example in their examples of how an issue affects real people when they put out a press release about an LGBT rights issue.
I would like to see newly coming out bisexual people be accepted and supported for who they are. When bisexual people come out, they go to whatever queer community they can find and very often – much to their great surprise – they get rejected for being bi. I would like to see newly coming out bi people not have to go through that same pain that so many other bi people have gone through.
Many gay people went through a phase where they thought they were bi. So when someone comes out as bisexual, the gay people who used to identify as bi draw from their own experiences and say ‘this is just a phase, you’ll get over it.’
As a result, sometimes it takes bisexual people a longer time to come out because they’ve been told that their feelings aren’t real and will go away as they get more involved in the gay community.
So we’re trying to educate. That’s part of my reason for doing the column – so that bi people can be validated. So they can know – these are all the representations of you that you might have missed, characters on TV, articles that have been written, I’m trying to pull together everything in one place so that bisexual people don’t have to feel so alone. So that they can be educated as well as entertained.
Sheela Lambert is a veteran bi and LGBT activist, presenter and writer with a national bisexual column on Examiner.com. She founded the Bi Writers Association and co-founded the New York City group Bi Women of All Colors. She has been published in LGBTQ America Today Encyclopedia, Huffington Post, Advocate.com, Curve, AfterEllen, Bi Magazine, AfterElton, Lambda Literary Review, Jane & Jane and GO Magazine.
Related Posts:Bisexuality Exists, and Mika is Proof
September 23, 2009
Yesterday, on the eve of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, it was reported that U.K. pop star Mika acknowledged his bisexuality, ending speculation that began when he first burst onto the music scene with his 2007 album, Life in Cartoon Motion.
In an interview with Dutch magazine Gay & Night, Mika said:
“I’ve never ever labeled myself. But having said that; I’ve never limited my life, I’ve never limited who I sleep with. So, whatever…call me whatever you want. Call me bisexual, if you need a term for me.”
Mika
As news spread throughout the blogosphere yesterday, reaction from many commenters mirrored many of the gay community’s longstanding misconceptions regarding bisexuality. Towleroad reader Crispy put it best when he commented: “Isn’t bisexuality just the last exit to gaytown?” Even rapper Kanye West chimed in on the topic of bisexuality this week in an interview with hardknock.tv in which he stated: “There’s no such thing as a bisexual guy. If a guy is bisexual that makes him gay. Don’t try and re-term it.”
West went on to deliver an outstanding message in support of the gay community despite his lack of knowledge on bisexuality. GLAAD would like to point out that bisexuality does in fact exist and we are proud to have bisexuals as part of the LGBT community. AfterElton today published a list of their “Eight Favorite Bisexuals Ever” and we would like to commend Mika for joining the likes of Michael Stipe and Alan Cumming, as well as Margaret Cho and Lady Gaga, as prominent out bisexual celebrities.
Mika went on in the interview to say:
“Let’s say if you’re a 16-year-old guy, and you’re not sure about your sexuality, you should be as free as you want…Having a role model who makes you feel like it’s alright to do whatever you want, without the pressure of a label, I think that’s a good thing as well. I think there’s a million different ways to do it, there isn’t only one. And I hope I’m right.”
The decision to come out as gay, lesbian or, yes, bisexual is a personal one. Though Mika clearly still prefers not to label himself (as is his right), we are glad that Mika has recognized the importance of being an out role model for questioning youth.
Mika’s latest album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, came out yesterday. Learn more at his official website.
Related Posts:First Person Biography of a Bisexual US Army Veteran
September 23, 2009
Official U.S. Army photo of Pvt. Clifton Francis Arnesen, Jr. at Fort Dix, New Jersey: (Age 17) December 1965
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, the following is an edited excerpt from Cliff Arnesen’s First Person Biography of a Bisexual US Army Veteran. Please click here for the original piece.
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“As a bisexual in the military, there is no distinction in terms of punishment, no refuge in being bisexual. You get the same consequences; you don’t get half a discharge.”
–Cliff Arnesen, Lesbian News, October 2001
At seventeen, I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and talked my mother into signing a waiver for me to join the US Army–in an attempt to escape fr0m a life of poverty, filled with despair and devoid of hope.
However, several weeks into basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, I realized that although I had managed to escape fr0m the oppressive environment in Brooklyn, I had also painted myself into a corner. I agonized over the painful necessity of having to conceal my sexual orientation.
Also, fear was a constant reality, as I was well aware that I could be discharged or court-martialed for perjury — having lied on the entrance questionnaire which read:
“Are you a homosexual; and have you ever engaged in sexual activities with a member of the same sex?”
Thus, I held my fears in check and completed basic training, went on to Advanced Infantry Training School (AIT), earned a military high school diploma, and finally, based upon my performance evaluation, was selected by my superiors to attend Trainee Leadership School. But, I never made it to the school.
Instead, I went AWOL because I felt psychologically trapped in the military due to the tremendous stress and fear of trying to hide my sexual orientation and also because I found out that my Mother’s life was in danger. The danger was fr0m another alcoholic man she’d met who physically assaulted her. I kept a close eye on her during the three weeks I was AWOL.
Finally, after feeling assured that my Mother was as safe as could be, and knowing that I could be tried for “Desertion in time of War” after thirty days, I surrendered to the Military Police at Times Square. They handcuffed and arrested me and drove me back to Fort Dix.
Upon my arrival, I finally told my Company Commander that I was gay. Thereafter, I was put under house arrest for several days, then transferred to the stockade on a “holding status,” where I was interrogated by agents fr0m the Army Central Intelligence Division. (CID)
It was during the interrogation that the two agents told me that they thought I was a coward who made up the story of being gay in order to avoid combat duty in Vietnam. To my utter dismay, the agents told me that they needed explicit “proof” in order for me to satisfy their thinking that I was not lying. Needless to say I was shocked and bewildered that the Federal agents would blackmail me because they did not believe the admission of my sexual orientation.
Therefore, due to the ultimatum by the agents–and against my will –I committed what they defined as an “illegal act of sodomy” with another soldier. Afterwards, the other soldier and I were forced to sign a joint “confession.” Then, I was ordered to seek the council of a Roman Catholic Chaplain and a psychiatrist.
The next day, I had a brief session with the Chaplain, who simply told me that:
“God still loves you despite your sin.”
The Chaplain’s words stung my heart, as I know to the core of my soul that all love had to be okay with God because God did not make mistakes! Thus, I was not a mistake!
However, it was during the interview with the psychiatrist that I felt a sense of relief and a glimpse of understanding when the officer asked,
“Private Arnesen, do you like both boys and girls?
In response, I simply answered, “Yes.”
After my affirmative reply he asked, “To whom are you most attracted, boys or girls?”
Without hesitation, I told him my feelings were equal. I was physically and emotionally attracted to both genders. Then, he looked into my eyes and warned that I could be discharged as a “homosexual” because the military made no distinction between a person who was “homosexual or bisexual.”
Leaving his office under armed escort, I felt confused and lost, as I thought of myself as gay due to the rigid codes of sexual behavior within both the straight and gay communities. I thought I had to identify as gay because I didn’t know any bisexual people and would not be accepted in the gay community if I told anyone I liked girls, too.
Then, one morning shortly after the interrogations and meetings, a young soldier with a loaded .45 caliber pistol entered my 8 x10 cement cell, handcuffed me, and ordered me at gunpoint to march several miles through Fort Dix to a courthouse — all the while taunting that he would “shoot to kill” if I tried to escape.
Arriving at the courthouse, I was court court-martialed and sentenced to a year at hard labor in the stockade–of which I served four months in segregated confinement because other prisoners had threatened to rape and kill me. After completing the sentence, I was sent back to my AIT unit to face further threats of death and psychological intimidation by my superiors and fellow soldiers.
Finally, on Wednesday, January 25, 1967, I was given an “Undesirable Discharge,” which effectively precluded my receiving any and all future VA medical and educational benefits. I was escorted outside the gates of Fort Dix by two armed military policemen. I took a lighter out of my pocket, set fire to the “Undesirable Discharge,” and threw it on the ground. Then I hitched a ride back to Brooklyn with nothing but a subway token in my pocket.
May 16, 1990: Second day of Cliff Arnesen's Congressional Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans' Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
On May 3rd 1989, Cliff Arnesen became the first openly bisexual Veteran to testify before members of the United States Congress during formal hearings held before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations — addressing health care issues relating to LGBT veterans who suffered fr0m AIDS, homelessness, Agent Orange, drug and alcohol abuse, and less-than-honorable gay and bisexual related discharges. He continues to advocate for the rights of LGBT veterans as president of New England Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Veterans, Inc.
Related Posts:Come Out for Celebrate Bisexuality Day
September 23, 2009
Julie Cohen
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them. _______________________________________________
By Julie Cohen
Often when the discussion of sexuality comes up, close friends will say “You’re the only real bisexual I’ve ever known.” For a while I fell for the same delusion, telling people that bisexuality doesn’t exist except for me. It took me many years to realize that the reality is that bisexuality exists all around us, but we don’t often define it that way, and we don’t often enough define ourselves that way.
Last year a friend of mine, Jimmy, made a movie about struggling with sexual identity. The movie was based on a true story about Jimmy having a relationship with his male boss and how it made him question his straight identity. When the real life events were happening I told Jimmy that I thought he was afraid of calling himself gay. I jokingly suggested he go around for a week telling people he was gay. I figured that if he got over the fear of being labeled gay, he might better understand whether or not he really was.
When I saw the film screened for the first time, Jimmy was there for a Q & A and he was asked whether or not he’s gay. He said, “I don’t know. It depends on the day.” At that moment I really wished I had told him to claim he was bisexual for a week, because I understood that what he was really afraid of was calling himself bisexual.
Many people say that they don’t consider themselves to be a bisexual. These people will define themselves as gay or straight depending on the sex of the person they are currently involved with. I understand the psychology behind that kind of thinking. It’s the same reason I told people that I was the only real bisexual. You want to be taken seriously. If you’re in love, you don’t want to be questioned about whether or not you’re really attracted to the person you’re with. But while those who deny their bisexuality may be taken more seriously in their own life, they are doing a disservice to the bisexual community.
This September 23rd for Celebrate Bisexuality Day, if you’re bisexual, please tell someone. Prove to at least one person that bisexuals are real people. Otherwise, I’ll have to celebrate alone with a bottle of champagne and a marathon of Tila Tequila. And I know there are a lot more interesting, more real, more remarkable bisexuals out there than Tila Tequila.
Julie Cohen has been performing stand-up comedy around Los Angeles for the last three years. On Sunday nights she runs “Palms Sunday” Los Angeles’s only queer open mic at The Palms Bar in West Hollywood. By day she is a reality television video editor.
Related Posts:Celebrate Bisexuality Day
September 23, 2009
Mike Szymanski
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them. ____________________________________________
By Mike Szymanski
There’s really a Bisexuality Day? Where’s the celebration? Where’s the flag? Where’s the parade?
Yes, there’s a Bisexuality Day, but it’s up to actual real-life bisexuals to acknowledge it. And, the handful of places that have activities where you may celebrate Bisexual Pride on Sept. 23 will be places where you’d be preaching to the crowd. That’s not where to go if you really want to celebrate.
Go out and confuse your friends, by explaining how you’re not confused about your sexuality.
Go to that homophobic neighbor’s house and sit on his fence.
Go visit your best gay friend’s house and jump out of every closet s/he has.
Don’t be ambiguous about who catches your eye.
Decide that you don’t need to decide, or make any decision.
Or, just be normal all day and wear your bi purple, blue and pink triangles, or your Freddie Mercury T-shirt or write “I’M BI” in big purple letters on your forehead and wear it to work all day.
Or, if you’re too shy, or feel like it’s just nobody’s business, just say “bi bi” to people and go home with the satisfaction that you don’t have to explain anything to anyone . . .
Mike Szymanski is the Bisexuality Examiner. He came out as gay and then found himself sneaking around with a girlfriend for a few years, until he came out for the second time in a big way on national TV. Now he’s an activist and author about bisexual issues and won a Lambda Award for co-authoring “The Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe.”
Related Posts:Celebrate Bisexuality Day: Musings
September 23, 2009
Heidi Bruins Green
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Heidi Bruins Green
The idea of Celebrate Bisexuality Day makes me smile. I imagine the section of Hallmark cards dedicated to sending greetings to the bisexuals in our lives. There are the ones for parents to send their children, such as “You were always our surprising little bundle of joy!” that opens up to “We can’t wait to meet your new girlfriend/boyfriend!” Then there are the ones for siblings, “I’m sure glad you are my sister (or brother),” opening to “Please bring home a girl (boy) next time so the neighbors have something new to talk about!”
The cards for work colleagues could be a little smarmy and politically correct, like “Thank you for thinking outside the box” followed by “You’ve really helped our team grow” or a little more honest “I’m glad you work here” and inside “Our co-workers finally have someone else to gossip about!” And for your friends, fans, and partner(s) there is the cheering from the sidelines, “To a woman who charts her own path.” and inside, “YOU ROCK!”
I myself celebrate bisexuality every day, multiple times a day, in fact. That is my own personal party, however, and I think having a Celebrate Bisexuality Day delivers the fun but firm expectation that we don’t intend to be put up with, or tolerated, or allowed what is sometimes thought of as our instability as long as we keep quiet about it. In the greatest tradition of taking pride in ourselves, we are inviting and expecting non-bisexuals to join in celebrating our lives along with us. Curiosity and envy are understandable, and especially for Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we are happy to answer questions about how well our lives work.
Heidi Bruins Green is an out and proud bisexual who actively seeks to educate both bisexuals and non-bisexuals about how our issues have many differences from those of gay men and lesbians, as well as unique from those of straight people. She teaches workshops through Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, as well as working with individual company employee resource groups to actively engage with all their missing bisexual members. Heidi lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her charming bisexual husband, their two dogs, and part-time kitten. She can be contacted at hbgreen@earthlink.net.
Related Posts:Why Representing Bisexuality is Hard; Why Trying to is Important
September 23, 2009
Richard M. Juang
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Richard M. Juang
If you learned about bisexuality strictly from a quick scan of mass media representations you would learn that being bisexual is hard. Not that bisexual people have tough lives, but that bisexuality is, variously, an experiment, a phase, a passing fad, or a brief excursion en route to a more stable, longer-lasting gay, lesbian or straight identity.
This misrepresentation of the identity isn’t done maliciously, I think. Rather, it’s part of a larger cultural reality in which the story we like to tell ourselves about how love and affection works centers around the idea that there is, out there, one and only one person who satisfies all of a person’s emotional needs, that the big emotional task of our lives is to find that person, and that one of the defining features of that person will be his or her gender. Most romantic comedies are built this way, for example. The unfortunate part for bisexuals is that is become difficult, perhaps close to impossible, to represent, in any ordinary romantic, way, what it means to be attracted to more than one gender, to be attracted, sometimes, to a plenitude of genders which cannot be contained in any one person.
Which is not to say that bisexuals are incapable of monogamy. But it is hard to represent, on TV and film, complex bisexual attractions in ways that affirm fully the reality of our attractions to more than one gender.
We’ve gone our merry way, of course, not relying on mass media for accurate representations. Romantic comedies, and mass media portrayal of human attraction and sexuality are pretty limited for everyone, anyway. So bisexual people are hardly alone: transgender persons, persons of color, persons in poverty, persons with disabilities, persons who aren’t terribly interested in sex, persons of faith, and even straight persons all get misrepresented at times.
Nonetheless, I do think that trying to get accurate representations of bisexuality out there is important. I’d like to see us doing, as a culture, some growing up about how we think about human sexuality, attraction and love. Sexuality, attraction and love are complicated. We live in a reality that is something more than “finding the right one,” and “happily ever after,” and we need to find ways of affirming that complexity.
Media representations affect how laws get made, what political goals we have as an LGBT community and whose human rights get respected and why. So, as we celebrate bisexuality, I hope that we, to quote the title of Robyn Ochs’ book, start getting, I mean really getting bi.
Richard M. Juang is a bisexual, genderqueer writer living in Cambridge, MA. He’s the co-editor of the anthology, Transgender Rights. His writing also appears in the anthology, Getting Bi.
Related Posts:Q & A with Bisexual Activist Amy Andre
September 23, 2009
Amy Andre
This Q & A with Amy Andre is part of GLAAD’s tribute to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, September 23rd 2009.
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Can you tell me how you got your start as a bi activist? What has motivated you to focus on bisexual issues?
I read Bi Any Other Name when I got to college, in 1992. I was already out by then (as a bisexual, which I still identify as to this day), but the book really motivated me to get active around bisexual politics. It’s a book that continues to inspire me, as do its editors, Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins.
Bisexual Health is an amazing book full of vital information – can you tell me how that project got started and what it was like working on it?
Around 2006, BiNet USA and the Fenway Institute (part of Boston’s famous LGBT health organization) were working on the book with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, (which published the book). Lani and Loraine, who, by this time, were not just mentors and inspirations to me but also friends of mine, were involved in editing the book, and the Task Force asked me to come on board the project as a co-author. I had recently finished my master’s degree in sexuality studies, where I did my thesis on bisexual women’s identity development. So, I had already been doing research and writing on bi issues.
The project was already underway when I came on board. A lot of the research had already been done, and my work involved synthesizing the findings and writing about them. I had a full-time job at the time at Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. I worked on the book in my spare time, on evenings and weekends; it was a little over a year between the time I got involved and when the book came out.
It was an incredible experience, and one that continues to this day. I do a lot of public speaking about the book. Just this year alone, I’ve lectured at Brown, Stanford, Rutgers, among other schools.
You’ve also made a documentary film, On My Skin/En Mi Piel, about a mixed-race transgender man and his family. As a mixed-race person myself, I really appreciate the way you are bringing these issues of race, skin privilege, and gender together and addressing the ways they overlap and affect each other. How did that project come about?
My partner is a filmmaker, and I’m a film buff. So, in 2005, just for fun, I decided to take a free film-making 101 class at a local community center. I’m a biracial African American Jew, and I’m a sexuality studies writer; and I had this idea to write a piece based on interviews with mixed-race people talking about their sexualities. (I think we as mixed-race people have a unique take on sexuality and the intersections of race and sex.) But when the opportunity came up to take the class, I thought, “why not create a film instead of an essay?” I wanted to capture not just the words but also the images of mixed people.
At the same time, a friend of mine, a queer mixed transman who has a master’s in sexuality studies and a master’s in ethnic studies, was writing some amazing stuff about his mixed and trans identities. He’s incredibly smart and articulate, and I ended up building my film around him and his words and his journey.
The film came out in 2006, and I started showing it at LGBT film festivals. It gained tremendous momentum and eventually showed at festivals around the world. I even had a version made with Spanish subtitles, and it got shown in Spain and Latin America – and not just in LGBT festivals, but also in Latino film festivals. I still get requests for it to this day, through my site, www.amyandre.com.
Screenshot from On My Skin/En Mi Piel
Many of the bisexual activists I have spoke to have collaborated with transgender people and activists because, not only are there many trans people who are also bisexual, they see a natural alliance between bisexual and transgender issues. Would you say you have found this to be true in your work as well?
Absolutely. I think that we have similar ways in which we analyze, deconstruct, and reconstruct concepts like gender and its salience in our lives.
You’ve frequently been a resource for the media on bisexual health as well as LGBT health disparities. Last month, you participated in the Bi Health Summit in Chicago. What can you tell us about the way bisexual health is treated in the media? As a spokesperson, have you noticed a change over time in the type(s) of questions you get asked or the circumstances in which you are sought out to speak on these issues?
I think the media has a long way to go in creating accurate portrayals of bisexual health. For example, the average article that touches on anything bisexual is usually along the lines of: “Do they exist? This expert says yes, but this one says no. Hmm. Who has the stronger evidence? I’ll conclude that it seems that they do exist, but not much more is known.”
Of course, anyone who wants to debate the fact of my existence – or my right to call myself bi – disgusts me. But the underlying idea, that this is the most we can say about bisexuals (“yes, there are some people who identify as bi”) is equally appalling. It wastes an opportunity to educate about bisexual health, which, in my biased opinion, is what we need to be talking about.
The four questions I get asked the most are:
- What percentage of people identify as bisexual? According to a ton of research, the answer is: 50% of people who identify as either gay, lesbian, or bisexual, identify as bisexual. We make up half of the LGB population.
- What is bisexual health about? Don’t bisexuals have better health than gays/ lesbians, but maybe worse than heterosexuals? Aren’t they in the middle? The answer is no. Bisexuals have poorer health than gays and lesbians. Gays and lesbians have poorer health than heterosexuals. This means that there is a hierarchy of health, with heterosexuals at the top, gays and lesbians in the middle, and bisexuals at the bottom. And I’m speaking here of people who identify as straight, identify as gay and lesbian, and identify as bisexual. I’m not even talking (yet) about behavior!
- Why are bisexuals at the bottom of that hierarchy of health? The answer is simply: biphobia. Studies of stigma show that bisexuals are more stigmatized than gays and lesbians. In fact, out a group of 100 stigmatized identity categories, bisexuals are second only to IV drug users in level of stigma. That means the average person would rather hang out with almost anyone except a bisexual person – unless they have to choose between a bisexual person and an IVDU. (This group of 100 categories includes gay and lesbian, by the way.) That biphobia, that stigma against bisexuals, has very real health consequences.
- What health issues do bisexuals face? Compared to gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals, bisexuals have significantly higher rates of smoking, drinking, drug use, depression and other mental illness, suicidal tendencies, cutting and other self-harming behaviors, and domestic violence victimization, among other health and safety problems.
The bottom line is: we make up half the LGB (sexual identity minority) population, and we’ve got the worst health – and really bad health. That means our community has a health crisis on our hands. So articles debating my existence and the existence of my fellow bisexuals are beyond the pale compared to what we should really be focusing on.
What are some of the recent developments in bisexual health? What do you think our next big challenges are, when it comes to our health and how it is perceived?
I think the biggest challenge is drawing attention to the problem – and letting people know that there are solutions. Fenway Health in Boston, for example, has made tremendous strides in caring for bisexuals and dealing with bisexual health. Other LGBT health centers and health care providers need to be educated on bisexual health, so they can apply or adapt the Fenway model – or create solutions of their own.
A simultaneous challenge is getting at the root of what’s causing these issues: biphobia. If we build bi community, if we speak out against biphobia at every opportunity, and if our allies really come through to support us, I believe we can eradicate biphobia and cause a true shift in the health of bisexuals. You’ll notice, after all, that each of the bi health problems I mentioned is related to the impact of being part of a deeply stigmatized group. Take away the stigma, the shame, and the oppression, and we can change the world, and not just for bisexuals but for all sexual minorities.
Amy Andre, MA, MBA, is a writer, university lecturer, and the co‐author of Bisexual Health, a book published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. A biracial, bisexual, African American Jew, she lives in San Francisco with her partner, a filmmaker. With a master’s degree in sexuality studies (focusing on bisexual identity and LGBT community) and a business degree in nonprofit management, Amy does consulting for LGBT organizations. Visit her online at www.amyandre.com.
Related Posts:What Celebrate Bisexuality Day Means To Me
September 23, 2009
Amy Andre
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Amy Andre
Celebrating bisexuality is an act of healing and an opportunity to claim and create community. According to leading studies, when it comes to sexual identity, self-identified bisexuals make up fifty percent of the LGB population. And yet, we bisexuals (and our allies) remain in so many ways invisible and marginalized and not quite aware of the extent to which bisexuals are part of the larger LGBT community.
Research also shows that bisexuals are more stigmatized than people of other sexual orientations, including gays and lesbians. This stigma – and the accompanying sense of invisibility and marginalization– has a tremendous impact on bisexual health. Biphobia is real, and causes real health problems.
Recently, I co‐authored Bisexual Health, a public policy book published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in association with the Fenway Institute and BiNet USA (and available as a free PDF download on the Task Force’s website). In the book, my co‐authors and I document the fact that bisexuals suffer from poorer health than gays and lesbians. When it comes to sexual orientation, there is a hierarchy of health, with bisexuals at the bottom, heterosexuals at the top, and gays and lesbians in the middle.
For example, bisexuals have higher rates of smoking, drinking, drug abuse, depression, suicidal ideation, cutting/ self‐harming behavior, and domestic violence victimization, compared to gays, lesbians, and heterosexuals. These health issues are intimately connected to the biphobia and the higher levels of stigma that bisexuals encounter.
Celebrating bisexuality means celebrating the community that we are creating with each other. Celebrating bisexuality means affirming our place in the broader LGBT community. Celebrating bisexuality means recognizing one another, and saying to one another, “I see you, I know you, and I want you to enjoy health and well‐being.” Celebrating bisexuality is an act of self‐love and community love – which is an appropriate response to a sexual identity that is about one’s capacity to love others. And that’s what Bisexual Pride means to me.
Amy Andre, MA, MBA, is a writer, university lecturer, and the co‐author of Bisexual Health, a book published by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. A biracial, bisexual, African American Jew, she lives in San Francisco with her partner, a filmmaker. With a master’s degree in sexuality studies (focusing on bisexual identity and LGBT community) and a business degree in nonprofit management, Amy does consulting for LGBT organizations. Visit her online at www.amyandre.com.
…But Every Day is Celebrate Bisexuality Day
September 23, 2009
Faith Cheltenham
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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Racially speaking, I’m African-American, British West Indian, German and American Indian. Culturally I’m a cross-culturally raised African American with 2 Irish American step-parents and 6 biracial half siblings. I’m a woman as well, but the hardest label to apply has been bisexual. Why? Could it be the multitude of untoward, tawdry references to my orientation as flights of fancy, sex addictions and/or confused fence sitting? Or is it just the lack of bisexual visibility in media, political leadership and LGBT organizations that has left us with stereotypical representation?
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” so I’ll take this moment to say, I exist HAPPILY within the label of bisexual! I’m proud of our history, and of heroes like Brenda Howard who co-founded the New York Pride Parade and Cliff Arnesen, the first openly bisexual veteran to speak to Congress on the LGBT veteran experience. I’m proud of myself and others who’ve successfully navigated their way through landmines of mono to a life in stereo; without silence, shame or regret. The bisexual movement is now two decades into a thriving bisexual renaissance, with bisexual politicians (Go Micah Kellner!), models (Amber Rose, what’s not to like!) and even a bisexual dating show.
I am not half gay, nor half straight but ALL BI! As less time is spent defending our right to exist, the wealth we have to share with communities of Straight and Gay becomes apparent. For years we’ve devised successful strategies for discussing equality with opposite sex partners, hard work we now share during Marriage Equality efforts. And while racism and sexual orientation/gender identity discrimination are similar but not the same, I find hope in the success of a biracial African American man who created change by redefining it. President Obama chose not to straddle lines of black and white, preferring instead a whole and undivided self. Like me he is one without being the other, and today I urge you to celebrate the pride of adjusting your reality to defy expectations.
Faith Cheltenham pounded pavement as a HRC “Campaign College” intern on the Gore 2000 campaign and was a cast member of “Black. White.” a 2006 Emmy-winning reality show on Race in America for FX Networks. A web and media producer, Faith’s clients have included Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and Tor.com, a Science Fiction social networking website she co-developed. A 10-year bisexual activist and BiNet USA Vice President, Faith is also an occasional contributing writer for advocate.com and stand-up comedian in Southern California.
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September 23, 2009
Jackson S.
As part of GLAAD’s ongoing series of posts dedicated to Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we invited bisexual people to share their stories and talk about what today means to them.
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By Jackson S.
I did not know about Celebrate Bisexuality Day until last year, a week after it was over, when I was involved in my campus’s LGBT group. The fact that none of us had heard about it is ironically an important part of what the day now means to me.
Even though many members of our group identified as bisexual, our bisexual-specific programming was (and still is) sorely lacking because people decided that gay and lesbian programs were more accessible to straight people and therefore a more important part of our program. Even transgender inclusion, so often overlooked, was more common than bisexual inclusion, to which I can attest because I have always been pigeonholed as “the trans guy” instead of “the bi guy.”
As a queer activist, it was frustrating how many bad excuses I would hear for our groups’ refusal to include bisexual programs:
“Bisexuality is included in gay and lesbian.”
“There aren’t enough bisexuals to hold a program.”
“Bisexuality is too much of a choice.”
And my personal favorite:
“We need to worry about what we could sell to straight people.”
The few bisexual programs we did have only came into being after some intense conversations with people who were trying to block them.
For bisexuals like myself, this lack of visibility can take a horrible toll, especially when it is orchestrated by members of our own community. Our sexuality is too often treated like a burden, complication, or afterthought. We become a token addition to an acronym, rather than being truly celebrated.
On September of last year, it hit home for me how bad this problem really was. A whole day dedicated to celebrating our corner of the community, and nobody had heard of it.
But don’t think that my assessment is in some way denigrating Celebrate Bisexuality Day! Quite the opposite. I think about Transgender Day of Remembrance, and how having that observance provided a time in which nobody could claim transgender issues were too irrelevant for inclusion.
Celebrate Bisexuality Day is a time when the only logical conclusion is to open up a dialogue in which bisexuality is included and, of course, celebrated. This is something I think bisexuals, especially those hidden within other queer people, really need. But, like bisexuality itself, it is difficult to advocate its inclusion when few realize it exists.
Jackson S. is a bisexual and transgender activist living in Wisconsin with his cat and three dogs. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, where he remains active in the LGBT community. In his free time he enjoys web design, camping, and writing science fiction.
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