From the Co-founder of Bis of Colour
There are very few ways to get me to give a shit about the ‘rainbow’ list/to support lists in general.
In fact, putting Jacq Applebee on the Independent Rainbow list (no.58!!) is pretty much the only way. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/therainbowlist/rainbow-list-2015-1-to-101-a6731391.html
I don’t like these lists, because of the individualist/celebrity focus. And also because they always have the same type of people on them.
BUT they are visible/googleable and so they are important – I just keep thinking that a young bi person of colour might be googling/wondering if they’re the only one – because that’s STILL what most UK scenes (poc or white) , media and representations will tell them at best.
More likely, they’ll be told that as part of a noxious blend of racism/biphobia/homophobia – that they should ‘get off the fence and decide’, that bisexuality doesn’t exist, that ‘all this stuff’ is a white invention, that ‘black people are more phobic than white people’, that bi poc *really* don’t exist (this from everyone) except as a fetish/disposable exoticised fantasy item (this from white lgbtq AND het people)
And that young person might google and find this which = lifechanging. I know it would have been so for me, in 1999 when I was looking. And the idea that my first exposure to bi community/activism/art would have been a black person is making my 40 year old heart soul and head explode.
So proud of Jacq, so deserved.
Please continue to support bisexual people. We often feel so alone and erased out there. I am honoured to be on the Rainbow List, but wonder how many others on the list receive little to nothing in funding or support. So if you’re able, donate to www.gofundme.com/bochistory and help a bisexual out!
