Incite! Celebrates Bisexuality
London’s premier LGBTQ poetry night marks Bi Visibility Month with an evening dedicated to spoken word art that goes both ways.
Incite!@The Phoenix is the home of LGBTQ+ poetry as diverse as we are, hosted by LGBT Poet Laureate Trudy Howson and taking place monthly in an iconic west end venue.
September’s Incite! celebrates the B in LGBT with performances from Bella Cox and Dan Webber as well as an open mic slot. Admission free. 13th September, Phoenix Artists Club, WC2H.
“I feel tolerated, but very rarely more than that” – Being Bi on the Scene
Bisexual people were very nearly edged out of the Pride parade all together; a Guardian columnist (who can tell Divine Gender Identity without asking, even in dimly-lit London clubs) told a group of self-identified bisexual and queer people to stop dancing and kissing so aggressively in a gay space, before writing about it in the national media.
Exclusion is an experience that is ubiquitous among the bisexual community. As well as the obvious exclusion same-gender attracted people face from heterosexual society, bisexuals often can’t find refuge within LGBTQ created partly by and for them.
Although this phenomena is widely written about in the bisexual community, as is the imbalance of the effects being excluded from society has over being excluded from the feeble resources allotted to the LGBTQ community, it’s important that when these kind of incidents happen we take the time reflect on the prejudices we still… Continue reading
Coming Out Sucked: How Biphobia Ruined My Coming Out
Coming out in the new millennium is nothing like it was for our predecessors, or we’re told. For them coming out was fearful and even dangerous. For us it should be a joyous occasion. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Biphobia, both external and internal, can make coming out just as hard as it ever was. Here, Alex takes us through her journey.
Coming out sucked.
I remember looking out over the black water as I stood in my favourite thinking place – a now eerily empty and quiet park on my way home in Berlin – and saying those three magical words for the first time: I am bisexual.
The thing is, they didn’t feel magical at all. I spat them out like bile rising in my throat. They never soared, they fell right back down on me, paralysing me with fear and dread. Those three words were… Continue reading
San Junipero: A Bisexual Character We Can Actually Admire
Bisexual communities don’t have a lot of luck when it comes to our portrayal in films and on television. Often our bisexuality is no more than a plot point to be forgotten when it’s no longer convenient, or rendered in broad stereotypes and insulting cliches. When we find a great depiction of bisexuality in an unlikely place, that deserves celebrating, says Holly.
(I have tried to keep this article as spoiler-free as possible, but if you don’t want to read any hint of the plot, go and watch San Junipero (Black Mirror series 3, episode 4) on Netflix before reading any further!)
Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is a show known for exploring the ways that technology might influence our future. The episodes are often dark, and happy endings are rare. I’ll be honest, it’s the last place I expected to find a beautifully nuanced, proudly bisexual character. But when I… Continue reading
Raising Our Standards: How to Get Your Local Council to Fly the Bi Flag
It may only be February, but bi activists up and down the country are already planning their activities for Bi Visibility Day 2017, and getting our flag raised is on most of their agendas. But how do they do it?
After successfully hoisting the bisexual flag over Oxford in 2016, Stephanie talks us through the steps.
This is a photo of the Bi flag flying proudly over Oxford Town Hall for the first time on Bisexual Visibility Day 2016. Since I began lobbying councillors and senior staff to make this happen I have acquired a detailed and unprecedented knowledge of flag flying protocol at Oxford City Council, (OCC). Not every council is the same, but most are at least similar. Here’s my handy ‘how to’ guide should any other bi activists feel inspired to give it a go.
Realise it will take time
I first had the idea to do… Continue reading
Give Up Men? But Why?
Buckle in, because it’s going to get bumpy.
This entire response can be summed up in one word: No. However, that wouldn’t make a very good article, so I shall continue.
I won’t stop dating men, just as I won’t stop dating women, and I won’t stop dating nonbinary people. I won’t have anyone else policing my romantic or sexual life, regardless of their sexuality. I don’t fuck with biphobic respectability politics from within our outside of the LGBT+ community,… Continue reading
“It boils down to visibility in the end”: We talk to Marcus Morgan about CaBiRet
Following the success of CaBiRet in October, and with whispers on the wind of another event in the new year, we caught up with Marcus Morgan of the Bisexual Index to find out how CaBiRet came about – and what we can hope for in the future.
Hello Marcus. Let’s get right down to business. How did the idea for CaBiRet come about?
As August progressed I found myself looking ahead to Bisexual Visibility Day. Looking ahead but not so much looking forward. I realised that although there were things planned for the launch of the book I’d been involved with, Purple Prose, I didn’t have any bisexual events I could go to for Bi Visibility Day itself.
There wasn’t anything in London on the day?
That’s right. And not just geographically – the sort of event I would want to go to wasn’t happening. I have very fond… Continue reading
There’s no “I’m Bi” Speech Bubble: Bisexuality in Comics
The world of comics has long been a haven for stories that the rest of the literary world aren’t quite ready for. Perhaps that is why a whole raft of LGBT+ characters have found a home in this medium over the years.
The first comic book series I fell in love with was Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Amongst the characters in this epic series were gay faerie Cluracan, lesbians Judy, Donna and Hazel, trans character Wanda and the quite-literally-genderfluid Desire.
It’s fair to say that Sandman was ahead of its time in terms of queer representation. However even in such an inclusive comic, there were no overtly bisexual characters. Realising this got me thinking about some of my favourite modern comic books. Here, I examine three series’, to determine if bisexuality has yet found a place in the medium. (Please note the following discussions contain some minor, character-based… Continue reading
“My Sexuality is Relevant to All Parts of My Life”: Parenting while Bisexual