Author Archives: Ian

Of course it's not just bisexual people that some bigots don't believe

There is a big overlap between 'bi people' and 'trans people'. The latter have been an important part of the UK bi community from day one, and any 'debate' about whether to accept people's self-identity as any gender (or none) was done and sorted in 1993.* Doing so has been as solid a bit of, say, BiCon as the sliding… Read more »

Bisexuality as conspiracy theory?

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Polling organisation YouGov have a couple of new trackers – things they ask every six months to look at how attitudes and beliefs change over time. One asked over two thousand people in the UK this question: Thinking about sexuality, which of the following comes closer to your view? 'There is no middle ground – you are either heterosexual or… Read more »

How much would he have got with a better reputation to start with?

Speaking of right-wingers who've been in the news recently, it's time to talk about former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor. I am extremely happy to state that Harvey Proctor was not a member of any murderous paedophile group in the 1970s, 1980s, or at any other time. The man who said otherwise, Carl Beech, was convicted last year of multiple counts… Read more »

I don't expect anyone reading this is mourning him, but..

.. Roger Scruton, the "traditionalist conservative" writer, died over the weekend and just in case you see someone talking about him and not using all the words "homophobic", "racist", "sexist", and "shit", feel free to point them here. In queer circles, he's most known for calling homosexuality a "perversion" on the.. odd basis that the bodies of homosexuals are too… Read more »

Occasionally, I am asked why the bi community has awards

I have a new answer: I won a @BiConUK award! #BiCon‘s been going since before I was born. Biggest bi event in Europe. I got to speak on a panel with activists I admired when I started nearly 10 years ago. 1st time my parents have been proud of my activism & that I’ve happy-cried.#BiCon2019[1 of ?] pic.twitter.com/vwVyT68lAg — Sali… Read more »

Be careful what you wish for

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At last year's BiCon, a long motion about the evils of working in financial partnership with arms companies in particular was referred back to this year's event. It re-appeared this year, word for word I think, apart from being split into two pieces. The first one, "Organisers should take into account the principles outlined in [the BiCon Guidelines' section on… Read more »

Pride Power List, business as usual

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Let's see how 'bi' is used on the oh-so-important recently published 'Pride Power List 2019'. Well, it's in the opening line saying what it's supposed to be: "Celebrating the achievements of influential lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in our amazing community." But apart from that.. homophobic/homophobia – 6 uses Bisi Alimi – 4 uses lesbian – 3 uses disability… Read more »

And the most surprising bit is..

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Ben Plaistow was a prison officer who started working at HMP Woodhill in 2014 after eleven years' service. He's bisexual and suffered direct and indirect discrimination when some other officers became aware of that. In the end, Ben ended up being unfairly dismissed within two years of arriving. (Link to PDF of the Employment Tribunal's report.) So what's the most… Read more »

Livejournal compromised in more ways than one?

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TL;DR: If you have or had a Livejournal account, treat the login details as compromised. Which social network becomes popular with which bunch of people is more a matter of chance than anything else. Being a 'great' social network helps, but if another site is 'good enough' and has user base large enough, it doesn't matter. Until enough of them… Read more »

Pride in London fuck up again 2

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Looking at London LGBT+ Community Pride CIC's documentation about the parade, various things strike me. Pride in London have a code of conduct, which starts off by saying Our code of conduct is designed to ensure the Parade is a safe and accepting space for everyone. A code of conduct is a contract on both sides Attendees promise to behave,… Read more »