Thirty one years ago there was no bi scene as such in the UK. There were people who identified as bisexual, but they weren’t getting together and arguing about what the word meant. Thirty years ago that changed, when the London Bisexual Group was founded. The regular meetings gave birth to another bi event – called “The Politics of Bisexuality” – a little one day conference that had 40 attendees. That became a regular occurrence, and changed its name to “BiCon”.
The rest is history, yes, and it’s time we celebrated that. This year’s BiCon is, we are told, going to have a 30th Anniversary theme, and the ball starts rolling next month with the “20th Century Bi” event for LGBT History Month.
I’m extremely pleased to announce this, because of a number of reasons – I’ve been the bisexual speaker at LGBT History Month events in the past, and it’s good to see them support an entire bisexual event. I’m also an ex-organiser of BiCon, and it’s good to see people recognise what a backbone to the UK bi scene it provides.
But most of all, I’m extremely pleased that the London Bisexual Group gets the credit for kickstarting BiCon. The LBG was the first bi group I ever went to, and was the first bi group I was involved with as an organiser, though it was twenty years ago I first went, not thirty!
I still have friends today I first met at the LBG back in the 90s. It’s hard to realise these days just how radical the idea of a bisexual group was. Back then there was no “LGBT”, there was “Gay” and if you were lucky “Lesbian and Gay”. Such groups felt it completely normal to exclude bisexuals, doubt our existence, smear us. And sure – there’s some of that today, but thanks to the proliferation of “LGBT” as the acronym for “who is the gay scene”, far far less. Here was a chance, every week, to actually meet people who wouldn’t sneer, or doubt. In the days before the social internet it was an amazing lifeline, a rock to many many people.
Time passed, technologies grew, and by the early 21st century the LBG was fading. The same old faces came back, but no-one new stayed. Maybe the web killed it off in the end – people no longer seemed to need to wait until Friday to have someone affirm their sexuality face to face over a cup of instant coffee.
But my fond memories remained. In September 2001 we organised a party for the LBG’s 20th birthday – the group itself was still going at that point. It was a great chance for many of us old-timers to get together and swap stories. The event was such a success that in December of that year some friends and I refashioned the format into a regular London pub meet for bisexuals. The next step on from the LBG, born out of nostalgia for it – The Bisexual Underground.
The Bisexual Underground is still going strong – it’s 10 years old this year.
If you do want to know more about our community’s history – please do come to 20th Century Bi on the 12th of February!
Bisexuality, and bisexual activism, is evidently not just a phase.
