From Bi-Visibility to Bi-Inclusion: A Discussion – Jacq…
From Bi-Visibility to Bi-Inclusion: A Discussion - Jacq Applebee.
All the other videos can be seen at http://vimeo.com/channels/821654/videos filmed by Absolute Queer.
September 23rd
It’s Bi Visibility Day again. It’s felt very strange not to have been organising and event or something. But i enjoyed going to an event organised by someone else – particularly when it involved eating delicious ice cream. I’ve been busy with stuff and things lately and haven’t had time to write anything profound for […]
For the complete strip, see…
For the complete strip, see http://empathizethis.com/stories/prejudice-pride/
I was interviewed by Empathize This ( http://empathizethis.com) a great website that creates comic strips based on social justice. I contacted them with an idea, and they encouraged me to tell of my experiences attending LGBT pride. They are very open to people sharing their stories, and were helpful through the whole process.
I wish biphobia at LGBT events didn’t happen, but they do at almost every single one I’ve been to. I felt so sad when I saw the image of myself crying at Brighton pride, after I was spat on; it’s one of the most horrible things to happen in a supposedly LGBT space. I remember how alone I felt when it happened. I also remember how that incident still makes me nervous at times. However, the final image of me hugging a bisexual heart makes me smile. I am happy to be bi. I’m happy that I can love others. I just wish lesbian and gay folks would be happy to leave me alone too.
Edited 22nd May Big Bi Fun Day 2014 was a blast! I had been…
Chilling out in the quiet room
The bisexual flag
Wibbly-wobbly bisexual
The front desk
Jacq and the flower sticks
Edited 22nd May
Big Bi Fun Day 2014 was a blast! I had been very unwell for a month, so I didn’t know if I would be able to make it, but I’m glad I did. The event was held in Leicester, UK, at the Quaker Friends Meeting House (although the Quakers had no involvement in the event)
The weather was sunny and incredibly hot; the garden was full of happy bi folks, their friends and families. There were quite a few children present who all enjoyed the garden facilities, although I did spot a few adults making castles in the sand pit, and taking advantage of the swings!
I found I had very little energy when I arrived, but I still had a go learning how to use flower sticks (I can twirl it now!). I also enjoyed the quiet room with the free books and games.
I returned home at 5 o’clock, totally exhausted, but I had a brilliant time. Most of the other attendees went to nearby Victoria Park for some more fun in the sun.
Big Bi Fun Day managed to raise enough money to cover their costs, so they will be back in 2015. Many thanks to Sanji for a wonderful event!
Posted inbcn bi biphobia biphoria legalise bi lgbt manchester city council researching bisexuality statistics
Manchester Council takes another step in recognising bisexuality
Until not so long ago Manchester City Council had the non-existence of bisexuals as a matter of policy. No, really: in service use monitoring, equal opportunities policies and suchlike, the official line was "at those times a bisexual is lesbian or gay they are covered by those policies and at those times they are heterosexual..."
Things are improving.
They've just published the annual Communities Of Interest report, which is a kind of "here is the evidence base" document on diversity concerns for the council and for voluntary and private sector organisations they work with. This has been published for many years now, and each time has a section on LG(B)(T).
This is the first time there's been a bi section. Previously we were a subset of lesbians, which, hmmm.
Full report here. Flick past the first 64 pages and you come to:
It's fun to see my "four flavours of biphobia" model, albeit in very condensed form, in a council document. It's also a bit scary to think that I wrote it about twenty years ago, citing certain Manchester City Council services as examples of institutional and structural biphobia.
Though it is frustrating that there are no specific actions for the council and its partner organisations to take up, I hope this sets a good marker down illustrating some of the key issues for bis and the evidence base underpinning those on which to build in future years.
Things are improving.
They've just published the annual Communities Of Interest report, which is a kind of "here is the evidence base" document on diversity concerns for the council and for voluntary and private sector organisations they work with. This has been published for many years now, and each time has a section on LG(B)(T).
This is the first time there's been a bi section. Previously we were a subset of lesbians, which, hmmm.
Full report here. Flick past the first 64 pages and you come to:
9.3 Bisexual community
Recent research carried out by BiPhoria in Manchester has suggested that being visible, being included and being acknowledged are some of the main issues for Manchester’s bisexual community. Bisexual people can often experience discrimination from both the gay and heterosexual communities, and at an LGBT Discussion Day event, hosted by the Council in 2011, BiPhoria found that people wanted bisexuality to be referenced explicitly in literature and wanted services to engage more with the bisexual community. This has been a key action for the group since 2011. Bisexual ‘invisibility’, along with bi-erasure and biphobia are recognised as the most common challenges for bisexual people.
Biphobia may be characterised as taking four key forms:––Similar to homophobia
––Similar to heterophobia
––Structural or institutional biphobia
––Internalised biphobia absorbed from a culture of the first three.
Manchester has one of the highest profile bisexual communities in the UK and is home to BiPhoria, and the bisexual magazine Bi Community News. As with any other group that experiences oppression, bisexual people may also encounter additional prejudice due to intersectional marginalised identities, for example bi women, black bisexuals, or bisexual genderqueer people.
Stonewall’s 2009 report ‘Bisexual People In The Workplace’ reflected that the positive impact of LGBT Staff Networks on lesbian and gay employees does not extend to bisexual staff. Research published by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in 2013 showed that bisexual staff are significantly less likely to feel they can be ‘out’ in the workplace than lesbians or gay men:
The Bisexuality Report (Open University, 2012) reflected that these challenges for many bisexual people also extend into areas such as crime and policing, where homophobic hate crime monitoring may fail to address and recognise bisexuals’ experience of biphobia and homophobia.
It's fun to see my "four flavours of biphobia" model, albeit in very condensed form, in a council document. It's also a bit scary to think that I wrote it about twenty years ago, citing certain Manchester City Council services as examples of institutional and structural biphobia.
Though it is frustrating that there are no specific actions for the council and its partner organisations to take up, I hope this sets a good marker down illustrating some of the key issues for bis and the evidence base underpinning those on which to build in future years.
See It. Hear It. Report It. FA films help rid football of discrimination.
We all want to feel welcome and safe at football matches, whether we are on the pitch, in the dugout, or in the stands. Anti-LGBT discrimination, be it ‘banter’ between players and coaches or more blatant chanting from spectators can often lead to us feeling uncomfortable or even threatened. As an FA disciplinary chair and […]
Stonewall: a new dawn for the UK’s top LGBT equality campaign
Anyone who has read my blog on LGB&T issues may have noticed a scepticism in my tone about the work of Stonewall, the biggest and most influential equal rights campaign in the United Kingdom, this despite being listed by them amongst 17 LGB ‘Role Models’ in their publication of that name back in 2012. In […]
Poem: On being alive
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB ZH-CN AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
My heart is still beating.
It’s a political event;
This desire to be here,
To keep breathing.
I want to live.
.
I want to be happy when my eyes
Welcome sleeping.
I want to rest in peace,
Long night hours I’m keeping.
My only torment: a sweaty pillow.
I’ve been unknowingly drooling.
I want to live.
.
Rush me to a hospital bed.
Blood transfusion, see it dripping.
The burn of a scalpel, my only proof,
I’m still capable of feeling.
Strap me down, see me raw
From incessantly screaming:
I want to live!
.
If the shadows in the corners
Rise up around me, all consuming.
If this body, fat and brown
Brings nothing but pain unrelenting,
Then let this pain be my only proof
My heart’s indeed still beating.
Fear and dread will make my brain
Crackle with terrible feeling.
I want to be alive,
Even when my life is only fleeting.
****
Being present and visible is something that I often struggle with. There have been countless incidents in my life when I’ve been told, “Are you sure you’re in the right place?” This doesn’t happen when I’m lost, but almost every time I go to a queer space, or a white-dominated space (which is often the same thing). After a while I start wondering if there is another place I could be. I keep searching, hoping to be in a more accepting environment, but it hasn’t happened yet. I suppose the thing that has changed is me wanting to stick around when I feel so unwelcome. Biphobia, racism, fatphobia, class-hatred are some of the things that I am bombarded with on a daily basis. It gets tiring. It only adds to me feeling like crap. I don’t know if things will improve, but I don’t just want to exist. I want to be happy to be here: happy to be alive.
Posted inbi biphobia bisexual bisexuality gay hate homophobes homophobia lgbt LGBTQ malebisexualqueer queer Sexual identity society Tom Daley
Tom Daley and the bisexual question
Tom Daley and the bisexual question There are (hardly ever just) two sides to every story. So here are some Continue reading →
The Overwhelming Heteronormativity Of ‘Born This Way’
It seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Here we all are, doing our thing in a world that has plenty real threats against us, and people pick who someone loves or what gender they are as reasons to despise them. On face value, it doesn’t make any sense.