Why Bi? (Organizing, Activism etc.)

So Bisexual Health Awareness Month is here again, the Bisexual Resource Center even has specific themes for each week and day. However I feel as if my friends, family and other followers will be less interested than if I just write from the heart so hear goes. Why this Bi stuff? folks ask me sometimes. It’s my third year of being on the Bisexual Organizing Project board. In my personal life, being openly bisexual hasn’t seemed like much of a big deal since I came out back at age 16 and I’m 35 now! For the most part I was pretty fortunate in having a supportive family and living in an accepting liberal metro area- the Twin Cities. So while I’ve gone on to mention it and there, it seemed to not really matter that much and I didn’t think about it much after being involved in groups in college.

Then a couple years ago I went to the Celebrate Bisexuality Day event held by BOP and learned about new research that had come out showing health disparities between bisexuals and gays and lesbians. Up til this point, bisexuals had simply been lumped in with lesbians and gay men, or heterosexuals, or every statistician’s least favorite category of “Other”. Now most people are bored to death by statistics but I’m a political science major so my ears perked up. We finally had data to show what many bisexual activists and scholars had long suspected- that there were hidden costs to being bisexual that were different from being exclusively gay or lesbian. These were for both women and men (more gender options not on the table at the time) both single, partnered or married to same or different genders. Especially disturbing were the rates of intimate partner violence, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and so forth.

So that is why I insist on That Pesky Unnecessary Label. If you have reached a beautiful social nirvana, in which you have no need of any labels, congratulations! We down on planet Earth still find them handy to find like-minded people and information.

 

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