Author Archives: Ian

Every day is online biphobia day?

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A simple enough tweet, you'd have thought: Happy #BiWeek 2016! Celebrate Bisexuality https://t.co/PRTQ4QBS7e — Everyday Feminism (@EvrydayFeminism) September 19, 2016 'Happy #BiWeek 2016! Celebrate Bisexuality' along with a link to the US LGBT media site. However there are clearly some alt-righters – i.e. white supremacists – who follow EvrydayFeminism just to troll: You spelled 'mental illness" wrong. — NyetToSeeHere (@GRRRR8est)… Read more »

The moment I found out the Telegraph did bi erasure

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Like most of the posh papers, the Daily Telegraph does its own version of 'readers true stories' articles. Last week, just after the Keith Vaz story broke, they had one called 'I felt like I was falling': the moment I found out my husband was leading a double life. He was gay. Gosh, how did they know? Someone had sent… Read more »

Love is complicated, bi erasure is simple 2

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Partly because it hadn't actually been published when the Love is complicated article referred to it, I've only just seen the article by Susie Orbach. Oh dear. Two eternal stories – sexual love and illness – are captivating. The modern twist of cancer and the switching of sexual orientation (Gilbert’s announcement also said that she has ended her marriage to… Read more »

Love is complicated, bi erasure is simple

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Within the past hour, The Guardian website published an article on women in their 30s having relationships with other women. The title? "'Love is always complicated': Elizabeth Gilbert and the rise of later-in-life lesbians – Eat, Pray, Love author flooded with support after she announces relationship with her best friend – but she is far from alone in meeting a… Read more »

A shocking number of people wouldn't have relationships with bisexuals?

Without the question mark, it's the headline of a story in PinkNews today. Just under half (47%) of those polled in some survey said they would not be open to having a relationship with a bisexual individual, 35% of the respondents said they were open to it and 19% said they were undecided. This is what biphobia looks like. You… Read more »

The news about Keith Vaz may not be a surprise, but neither is the tone of some of the coverage

I don't know how he identifies to himself, but that Keith Vaz is behaviourally bisexual is not a surprise – it was being talked about in the Asian communities over twenty years ago. Sadly, neither is some of the coverage: today the Sunday Mirror can reveal Keith Vaz, a married father of two, is leading a double life If I… Read more »

Leicester Pride 2016

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Let's look at the Pride Guide for this year's Leicester Pride. It's 32 pages long. Editorial material says: [] Gay: 6 times [] Lesbian: 1 time [] Bisexual: 0 times [] LGBT: 16 times, including several for the city's LGB&T Centre. Worst example of bi erasure comes from someone ('a local LGBT community member') talking about the changes over time…. Read more »

Woman's Hour 22nd August 2016

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This had a segment on "the Psychological Pressures Faced By Young Gay, Lesbian and bisexual people". I'm not entirely sure why 'bisexual' doesn't get a capital letter or why the rest of it does – looking at other episodes, the house style is clearly that only the first letter the title of any segment has one. It started about 35… Read more »

TL;DR (too long; didn't read) sticky post

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The basic basics you need to know: 0. We use the simplest and best definition of bisexual: attracted to more than one gender. Note that there's nothing in that about being attracted equally to all genders, or there being only two, or being sexual with more than one, or being attracted to your own gender, or not being monogamous, or… Read more »