Last week, there was an international day devoted to awareness of bisexuality, and below are a few links to various stories about it. While the awareness day is over, our awareness, as well as our need for dialogue about it ought to keep expanding.
I believe that the “B” of LGBTQ is the most ignored part of the Rainbow Coalition. Honestly, I only know one person, out of perhaps thousands, who self identifies as bisexual. So it may not be surprising that the “B” is so ignored, but the reality is that even if bisexuals don’t publicly identify so readily, they deserve more awareness, and their inclusion in the LGBTQ rainbow coalition is essential.
One of the successes of the anti-LGBTQ forces, has been to perpetrate the myth that people are either straight- what they should be, by their account- or homosexual. You see them use that “H” term over and over. A false myth to be sure. Actually everyone is born as a human being with a sexual orientation, where that orientation mat range from exclusively heterosexual, through bisexual to exclusively homosexual. In other words, sexual orientation exists across a broad and complex spectrum where the majority of people may be bisexual.
Some in the gay community have participated in perpetuating this myth, focusing strictly on Gay Rights. By making “Gay” a political identity or cause, unwittingly we have helped leave bisexuals out. I wrote some about this last week, and I believe this is an essential issue our community must grapple with moving forward.
A second success of the anti-LGBTQ folks has been to position sexual orientation as being all about behavior. The religious language for this is “love the sinner, but hate the sin.” Even some in the queer community accuse bisexuals in this regard, claiming that they are either really gay or straight and just act out in another way.
But condensing sexual orientation down to how we act, we stymie our own own progress by perpetuating the myth that there is no such thing as “a homosexual” just “homosexual behavior.” Let’s stop feeding into the false truths of those who seek to oppress us and reframe the dialogue around sexual orientation. Let’s begin to work against heteronormative privilege, rather than for Gay Rights where we exclude those who don’t identify as gay.
So everyone- those inside as well as outside the LGBTQ Community- needs to become more aware of the reality of bisexuality. As important as Identity is in the struggle towards Full Equality, we must be ready to think past it and reframe the dialogue around sexual orientation. We all have one, and these orientations fall along a spectrum rather than fitting in one or two neat and tidy boxes.