Author Archives: Ian

Why have a Bi Visibility Day? Consider the case of Susan Sontag…

She was an American writer and activist, not afraid to upset Americans with her views on the Vietnam war, the 9/11 attacks, or the colonialism of white civilisation. She was bisexual and out about that, particularly later on in life. She used the b-word about herself in New Yorker magazine in 1995. An interview in the Guardian in 2000 quoted… Read more »

It's A Sin 'not nearly as biphobic' fanedit

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As should be obvious, I am not a fan of the broadcast version of It's A Sin, because of the biphobic and bi-erasing script.. .. but some fanedits are about removing the worst of the crap and seeing what's left1 and assorted gushing articles about the show in the past month, both in 'best of year' pieces and on the… Read more »

Positive? Well…

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2021 is the fortieth anniversary of the first UK death from Aids, and Sky has done a three part documentary series, Positive, about the UK epidemic. The good news: it's better than It's A Sin in terms of showing the time. The bad news: that's partly because it's '99 and 44/100%' total bisexual erasure, rather than having Russell T Davies'… Read more »

The Curate's Sin?

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With the piece on Cucumber finally posted before the premiere of It's A Sin.. has the representation of bisexuality in Russell T Davies's 'gay life in the UK' dramas improved in the past six years? Let's just say that, once again, the acting is great, the direction, camera work and editing are great, and the soundtrack is great too. The… Read more »

The Curate's Cucumber?

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As It's a Sin, Russell T Davies' new series, is about to be broadcast, I thought it was about time I did the rewatch of his previous GGGay series, 2015's Cucumber. If you haven't seen it, it'll have plenty of spoilers. Cucumber was described as a "spiritual sequel" to his earlier Queer As Folk series, and would be looking at… Read more »

BiCon 2013 – the letter that was never sent

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I was on the team for BiCon 2013, held at the University of Edinburgh's John Macintyre Conference Centre (sessions) and Pollock Halls (accommodation in surrounding blocks). Pollock Halls is, looked at from one perspective, a large hotel that just happens to have students in it for much of the year. Over the summer, the demand for accommodation in Edinburgh is… Read more »

The LGST Foundation?

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Based in Manchester, the LGBT Foundation was originally the Lesbian & Gay Foundation, formed from the merger of Manchester Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and Healthy Gay Manchester. The idea of getting bifurious.co.uk came at a bi activist weekend that was held at one of their previous offices, but that almost certainly had nothing to do with the way that it… Read more »

Pride in Diversity: pink-washing and bisexual erasure, together at last!

Having been struck by the 'WHAT the fuck' definition of bisexual as "Someone who is attracted to people of the same gender and other genders" in a recent LGBT Foundation document, I thought I'd look to see 'WHERE the fuck' they got that phrase from. It turns out that, I started talking about it, Google knew of exactly one use… Read more »

"I am not the flag: not at all. I am but its shadow"

Two things happened twenty two years ago that still resonate within the bi community. One was a BiCon organising team trying to do away with the sliding scale, the idea that people with less money pay less to attend BiCon. Let's just say that the reaction from the community meant that they quickly accepted they'd made a mistake, and no-one's… Read more »

Was DJ West's greatest hit that great? Not if you're bisexual…

Perhaps because there are other things to report on at the moment, the Guardian has only just published its obituary of Donald James West, author of the 1955 book Homosexuality, who died on 31st January this year. I don't know how many editions it ended up having, but as it happens I have the first three: the original hardback, the… Read more »