Health promotion often talks about 'men who have sex with men'. One reason might be to emphasise that we've known for over twenty years that a very large proportion of men who have sex with men do not have a sexual identity in the way that the vast majority of LGB activists do. If you say 'gay and bisexual' –… Read more »
When an article about gay and bisexual men starts with "A pardon for Britain’s persecuted gay men", you know the bisexual erasure is strong with the author. And indeed it is. Looking at the text, we see: [] gay men – 1 use [] gay and bisexual men – 1 use [] straight allies – 1 use [] LGBT people… Read more »
LGBT History Month is on us again and, as ever, there's a distinct shortage of the 'B' to be seen. Unfortunately, there isn't a shortage of biphobes being given a platform. This year, the main one is Julie Bindel who will be speaking at the Working Class Movement Library on the first Saturday. Unfortunately, Schools OUT UK, the creators of… Read more »
The more I think about it, the more outraged I am that the Scottish Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) would pay to ask fifty questions about discriminatory attitudes in the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) study and not once use the word 'bisexual' in them. Elsewhere in the same survey the Scottish Government also paid to ask… Read more »
There's an annual survey of social attitudes, excitingly named the British Social Attitudes survey. There's also a separate Scottish one and, partly because it was in the news today, it's that one that I've looked at first.* The Guardian headline is Scotland survey shows greater acceptance of same-sex relationships. This is based on the report saying: Between 2010 and 2015,… Read more »
How the story is shown on the front page of The Guardian's website: .. and the story itself: This is what erasure looks like.
Wonder Woman's history says quite a lot about real life history. Created in 1940 by a husband and wife in a poly relationship with a woman said to be one of the inspirations for the character, she was first published in 1941 and started by fighting Nazis. Later that year, she joined the Justice League of America, an assembly of… Read more »
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 »
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 »
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 »
