BiBloggers

I have been quiet recently, but didn’t want the month to pass without a post…

What I shall do this post is share important news about bisexual and overall LGBTI issues.

Firstly and most pressingly, within 24 hours the Ugandan parliament will vote on what is being called the “Kill the Gays” bill. I have written about the situation in Uganda for “kuchu” people before (Bisexevil: Uganda, Hate in Focus). It’s important to make all of our voices heard on this issue, putting pressure wherever we can (on our own governments regarding aid and loans, and directly on the Ugandan government via petitions and media).

Full human rights must be afforded to all Ugandan citizens, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. This petition is taking signatures now – very short and simple, making it easy to do the right thing!

UPDATE: less than 12 hours to go to the parliamentary vote.

Here is another petition that is aiming to reach 1 million signatures:

“To President Museveni of Uganda, Members of the Review Committee, Parliament, and donor governments:

We stand with citizens across Uganda who are calling on their government to withdraw the Anti-Homosexual Bill, and to protect the universal human rights embodied in the Ugandan constitution. We urge Uganda’s leaders and donors to join us in rejecting persecution and upholding values of justice and tolerance.”

☮      ☯       ☮

Also, there is a brilliant article distributed via the Associated Press highlighting the bisexual struggle for respect and recognition. It finally brings to wide public attention key issues facing bisexuals in nations in North America and Europe specifically, but also in other parts of the world. The article begins by focusing on the marriage of two bisexual women:

The couple have been married three times...

"For the last 13 years, Lindasusan Ulrich has been in a committed relationship with the same woman. The couple have married three times, twice before it was legal in California and once while it briefly was. But if acquaintances were to assume Ulrich and her wife, Emily Drennen, are lesbians, they would be wrong. They identify as bisexuals and are proud of it.

“This doesn't mean their sexual orientation hasn't presented challenges. Even in a do-as-you-like city such as San Francisco, the women have found bisexuals to be a misunderstood and often overlooked minority. During the state's 2008 campaign to ban same-sex marriages, they forcefully reminded gay rights leaders -- in the form of a cake decorated with the words Having Our Cake and Eating It Too! Bisexuals Exist! -- that political advertising and fundraising appeals referring only to gay and lesbian couples did not encompass their imperilled union.

It's a unique identity as opposed to half one and half the other

…said Ulrich, a 41-year-old writer and musician who recently authored a report on ‘bisexual invisibility’ for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

“The commission unanimously adopted the report, and that could prove a significant step, said Denise Penn, director of the American Institute of Bisexuality.

“Because San Francisco takes its commitment to gay and lesbian rights so seriously, shining a spotlight on the hostility bisexuals sometimes encounter from gay men and lesbians could help ease one of the most painful aspects of having a bisexual identity, Penn said.

"’People don't trust bisexuals, and I've heard some really, really nasty stuff’, Penn said. ‘Oh, you are going to just go back and hide in your straight world.' Bisexuals are (seen as) tourists in the community, opportunists’."

“As gay, lesbian and transgender people have succeeded in putting their fight for equality front and centre in American politics, bisexuals -- the often forgotten B in the LGBT rainbow -- have been waging their own fight for recognition. From adopting a bisexual pride flag and commemorating Sept. 23 as bisexual pride day to urging researchers and government agencies to treat bisexuality as a distinct category, activists who acknowledge their attractions to both men and women say they want to assert their existence.

More Americans identify as bisexual than as gay or lesbian

“In promoting their not-insignificant ranks, activists point out that a UCLA demographer estimated last month that slightly more Americans self-identify as bisexual than as gay or lesbian. But the activist argue their task is complicated by stereotypes of bisexuals as fickle sex fiends, the difficulty in pinning down who counts as bisexual, and discrimination from both the straight and gay communities.

“‘Even people who would not feel comfortable saying bad things about gay or lesbian people feel comfortable trashing bi people,’ said Robyn Ochs, a veteran bisexual activist in Boston [who married long-time partner, Peg Preble, on the first day same-sex marriage was allowed in Massachusetts, May 17, 2004].

“Johnny Fesenko, 42, a computer programmer in San Francisco, said that contrary to popular belief and jokes about male fantasies involving threesomes, living as a bisexual can sometimes feel like the worst of all worlds instead of the best of both. Gay friends and potential partners tell him his interest in women is just a phase. He's had straight women refuse to date him because he's not ‘a real man’. He once was punched in the face while walking with a boyfriend in Manhattan, he said.

"’It's almost like being called an atheist -- you would rather call yourself agnostic because there is such a stigma associated with it,’ Fesenko said.

“Despite the inherent obstacles, activists point to signs of progress. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of the nation's largest gay rights groups, a few years ago started holding bisexual-specific meetings and panels. Students at Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota have established groups for bisexuals. Out & Equal, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates for workplace rights for gays, last year sponsored an international survey aimed at uncovering on-the-job issues that bisexuals face.“

read more: “Bisexuals work for recognition in the LGBT rainbow”

I have been quiet recently, but didn’t want the month to pass without a post…

What I shall do this post is share important news about bisexual and overall LGBTI issues.

Firstly and most pressingly, within 24 hours the Ugandan parliament will vote on what is being called the “Kill the Gays” bill. I have written about the situation in Uganda for “kuchu” people before (Bisexevil: Uganda, Hate in Focus). It’s important to make all of our voices heard on this issue, putting pressure wherever we can (on our own governments regarding aid and loans, and directly on the Ugandan government via petitions and media).

Full human rights must be afforded to all Ugandan citizens, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. This petition is taking signatures now – very short and simple, making it easy to do the right thing!

UPDATE: less than 12 hours to go to the parliamentary vote.

Here is another petition that is aiming to reach 1 million signatures:

“To President Museveni of Uganda, Members of the Review Committee, Parliament, and donor governments:

We stand with citizens across Uganda who are calling on their government to withdraw the Anti-Homosexual Bill, and to protect the universal human rights embodied in the Ugandan constitution. We urge Uganda’s leaders and donors to join us in rejecting persecution and upholding values of justice and tolerance.”

☮      ☯       ☮

Also, there is a brilliant article distributed via the Associated Press highlighting the bisexual struggle for respect and recognition. It finally brings to wide public attention key issues facing bisexuals in nations in North America and Europe specifically, but also in other parts of the world. The article begins by focusing on the marriage of two bisexual women:

The couple have been married three times...

"For the last 13 years, Lindasusan Ulrich has been in a committed relationship with the same woman. The couple have married three times, twice before it was legal in California and once while it briefly was. But if acquaintances were to assume Ulrich and her wife, Emily Drennen, are lesbians, they would be wrong. They identify as bisexuals and are proud of it.

“This doesn't mean their sexual orientation hasn't presented challenges. Even in a do-as-you-like city such as San Francisco, the women have found bisexuals to be a misunderstood and often overlooked minority. During the state's 2008 campaign to ban same-sex marriages, they forcefully reminded gay rights leaders -- in the form of a cake decorated with the words Having Our Cake and Eating It Too! Bisexuals Exist! -- that political advertising and fundraising appeals referring only to gay and lesbian couples did not encompass their imperilled union.

It's a unique identity as opposed to half one and half the other

…said Ulrich, a 41-year-old writer and musician who recently authored a report on ‘bisexual invisibility’ for the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

“The commission unanimously adopted the report, and that could prove a significant step, said Denise Penn, director of the American Institute of Bisexuality.

“Because San Francisco takes its commitment to gay and lesbian rights so seriously, shining a spotlight on the hostility bisexuals sometimes encounter from gay men and lesbians could help ease one of the most painful aspects of having a bisexual identity, Penn said.

"’People don't trust bisexuals, and I've heard some really, really nasty stuff’, Penn said. ‘Oh, you are going to just go back and hide in your straight world.' Bisexuals are (seen as) tourists in the community, opportunists’."

“As gay, lesbian and transgender people have succeeded in putting their fight for equality front and centre in American politics, bisexuals -- the often forgotten B in the LGBT rainbow -- have been waging their own fight for recognition. From adopting a bisexual pride flag and commemorating Sept. 23 as bisexual pride day to urging researchers and government agencies to treat bisexuality as a distinct category, activists who acknowledge their attractions to both men and women say they want to assert their existence.

More Americans identify as bisexual than as gay or lesbian

“In promoting their not-insignificant ranks, activists point out that a UCLA demographer estimated last month that slightly more Americans self-identify as bisexual than as gay or lesbian. But the activist argue their task is complicated by stereotypes of bisexuals as fickle sex fiends, the difficulty in pinning down who counts as bisexual, and discrimination from both the straight and gay communities.

“‘Even people who would not feel comfortable saying bad things about gay or lesbian people feel comfortable trashing bi people,’ said Robyn Ochs, a veteran bisexual activist in Boston [who married long-time partner, Peg Preble, on the first day same-sex marriage was allowed in Massachusetts, May 17, 2004].

“Johnny Fesenko, 42, a computer programmer in San Francisco, said that contrary to popular belief and jokes about male fantasies involving threesomes, living as a bisexual can sometimes feel like the worst of all worlds instead of the best of both. Gay friends and potential partners tell him his interest in women is just a phase. He's had straight women refuse to date him because he's not ‘a real man’. He once was punched in the face while walking with a boyfriend in Manhattan, he said.

"’It's almost like being called an atheist -- you would rather call yourself agnostic because there is such a stigma associated with it,’ Fesenko said.

“Despite the inherent obstacles, activists point to signs of progress. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, one of the nation's largest gay rights groups, a few years ago started holding bisexual-specific meetings and panels. Students at Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota have established groups for bisexuals. Out & Equal, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates for workplace rights for gays, last year sponsored an international survey aimed at uncovering on-the-job issues that bisexuals face.“

read more: “Bisexuals work for recognition in the LGBT rainbow”

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) and Ursula K. Le Guin (1929—) tie as my favourite authors of all time. I read Butler when I was a teenager and discovered Le Guin in my twenties – and now, in middle age, I am reading them again. These writers created amazing stories that gave me, as a growing girl and maturing adult, an array of diverse opportunities to expand my understanding of human beings and how we relate to one another…  and now as a growing-older woman living in a different century than the one the authors and I were born in, I am re-experiencing their works with a whole lot of living behind me and new perspectives. They are still fascinating and challenging, and of course thoroughly entertaining!

Butler and Le Guin are the bright lights of the literary sub-genre sometimes known as anthropological SF/F (science fiction and fantasy) or, as Le Guin likes to call it, social science fiction. These works explore what it means to be part of the grand notion Humanity, by way of exploring kinship, social organisation, sexual relations, psychology and power. Butler’s and Le Guin’s characters live in societies facing ‘alien’ admixture and challenges to the norm: such as interracial relations; the centralisation of non-heterosexual identities; the juxtaposition of male/female with non-binary gender relationships; the comparison and contrast of monogamy with polygamy, polyandry, polyamory and a variety of other modes of loving and mating; and the radical expansion of the definition of what it means to be a family. All the while providing us with some of the most mesmerising characters in fiction.

In stark contrast with their peers – and quite in sympathy with the imagination of a brown-skinned girl growing up in the 70s & 80s – Butler and Le Guin wrote stories whose characters were not just young, robust, white spacemen with more than a passing resemblance to John Wayne, but people of varying ages and hues (mostly brown and black and grey); people of female, male, asexual, intersex and third-sex biology; and people who formed ‘alternative’ partnerships and families of two, three, four or even five loving mates and (literally, in Butler’s Lilith’s Brood and Seed to Harvest novel series) villages of children and extended relatives.

Their characters were simply people – intensely realised people, both humane and inhumane, from many complexly imagined societies. And they were absolutely fascinating in their ability to evoke a dazzling array of thoughts and emotions, theories of how we are who we are, and challenges about what we human beings have turned out to be vs. what we could evolve into being.

Which do you prefer… really?

Many have speculated on Butler’s sexuality and claimed her as one of their own, not out of idle curiosity, but because she was so adept at depicting people of any sexual orientation with an even-hand and a sense of given-ness or naturalness that was not the hallmark of her times or even (yet) ours.

This passage, from her first published novel, is a dialogue between the protagonist, Teray, and his new lover and fellow warrior in exile, Amber. They are patternists, humans genetically bred by a near-immortal to have telepathic and healing powers. They travel on horseback through hostile territory on a quest for sanctuary in the land of the Patternmaster. As they speak of their unusually close bond and their pasts, lives and loves, Teray is nervous that Amber may not find him mature enough and wonders whether she would prefer another female lover over him.

Butler’s depiction of Amber’s response brilliantly resonates with the experiences of many bisexual people. Whether Butler herself was bisexual or not, she certainly knew how to pithily and accurately describe one of the central drama’s of a bisexual person’s life when in a relationship with someone struggling to understand them:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Which do you prefer, Amber, really?”

She did not pretend to misunderstand him. “I’ll tell you,” she said softly. “But you won’t like it.”

He looked away from her. “I asked for the truth. Whether I like it or not, I have to know….”

“When I meet a woman who attracts me, I prefer women,” she said. “And when I meet a man who attracts me, I prefer men.”

“You mean you haven’t made up your mind yet.”

“I mean exactly what I said. I told you you wouldn’t like it. Most people who ask want me definitely on one side or the other.”

He thought about that. “No, if that’s the way you are, I don’t mind.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“You know I didn’t mean any offense.”

She sighed. “I know.”

Patternmaster (1976)

Even in a bisexual society the politician is very often something less than an integral man.

Sex is a natural or biological feature and gender is the cultural or learned significance of sex. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin leads us through a world, Gethen, where the humans are neither male nor female. She asks us to take a look at how our lives are defined by which sex and gender positions we each occupy and the power relations that emerge as a result.

In the novel Le Guin uses the terms ambisexual and bisexual, but not in relation to sexual orientation as we think of it today. Le Guin’s characters, in effect, are biologically without sex. They are bi-sexual or trans-sexual in that, for a brief period each month they take on the sexual characteristics of either a male or a female and then after a few days return to being non-sexed.

Linguistically, Le Guin was faced with a problem: what pronoun would she use for the non-sexed characters? She rejected ‘it’ as too cold and unsuitable for human beings and settled on having her main character -- Genly Ai, a young black man, an envoi from Terra (or Earth) to Gethen  -- use the pronoun ‘he’ as a matter of expedience. This is a decision Le Guin, years after publication, says she regretted, wishing she had created or found a more suitable set of non-gender-specific pronouns to use. This dilemma, I always thought, shows us a great deal about ourselves and our limits in being able to describe, label and negotiate our world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was.

Until then I had rejected him, refused him his own reality... I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who was a woman, a woman who was a man…

… it seemed to me, and I think to him, that it was from that sexual tension between us, admitted now and understood, but not assuaged, that the great and sudden assurance of friendship between us rose: a friendship so much needed by us both in our exile, and already so well proved in the days and nights of our bitter journey, that it might as well be called, now as later, love…

But it was from the differences between us, not from the affinities and likenesses, but from the difference, that that love came: and it was itself the bridge, the only bridge, across what divided us.

The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) and Ursula K. Le Guin (1929—) tie as my favourite authors of all time. I read Butler when I was a teenager and discovered Le Guin in my twenties – and now, in middle age, I am reading them again. These writers created amazing stories that gave me, as a growing girl and maturing adult, an array of diverse opportunities to expand my understanding of human beings and how we relate to one another…  and now as a growing-older woman living in a different century than the one the authors and I were born in, I am re-experiencing their works with a whole lot of living behind me and new perspectives. They are still fascinating and challenging, and of course thoroughly entertaining!

Butler and Le Guin are the bright lights of the literary sub-genre sometimes known as anthropological SF/F (science fiction and fantasy) or, as Le Guin likes to call it, social science fiction. These works explore what it means to be part of the grand notion Humanity, by way of exploring kinship, social organisation, sexual relations, psychology and power. Butler’s and Le Guin’s characters live in societies facing ‘alien’ admixture and challenges to the norm: such as interracial relations; the centralisation of non-heterosexual identities; the juxtaposition of male/female with non-binary gender relationships; the comparison and contrast of monogamy with polygamy, polyandry, polyamory and a variety of other modes of loving and mating; and the radical expansion of the definition of what it means to be a family. All the while providing us with some of the most mesmerising characters in fiction.

In stark contrast with their peers – and quite in sympathy with the imagination of a brown-skinned girl growing up in the 70s & 80s – Butler and Le Guin wrote stories whose characters were not just young, robust, white spacemen with more than a passing resemblance to John Wayne, but people of varying ages and hues (mostly brown and black and grey); people of female, male, asexual, intersex and third-sex biology; and people who formed ‘alternative’ partnerships and families of two, three, four or even five loving mates and (literally, in Butler’s Lilith’s Brood and Seed to Harvest novel series) villages of children and extended relatives.

Their characters were simply people – intensely realised people, both humane and inhumane, from many complexly imagined societies. And they were absolutely fascinating in their ability to evoke a dazzling array of thoughts and emotions, theories of how we are who we are, and challenges about what we human beings have turned out to be vs. what we could evolve into being.

Which do you prefer… really?

Many have speculated on Butler’s sexuality and claimed her as one of their own, not out of idle curiosity, but because she was so adept at depicting people of any sexual orientation with an even-hand and a sense of given-ness or naturalness that was not the hallmark of her times or even (yet) ours.

This passage, from her first published novel, is a dialogue between the protagonist, Teray, and his new lover and fellow warrior in exile, Amber. They are patternists, humans genetically bred by a near-immortal to have telepathic and healing powers. They travel on horseback through hostile territory on a quest for sanctuary in the land of the Patternmaster. As they speak of their unusually close bond and their pasts, lives and loves, Teray is nervous that Amber may not find him mature enough and wonders whether she would prefer another female lover over him.

Butler’s depiction of Amber’s response brilliantly resonates with the experiences of many bisexual people. Whether Butler herself was bisexual or not, she certainly knew how to pithily and accurately describe one of the central drama’s of a bisexual person’s life when in a relationship with someone struggling to understand them:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Which do you prefer, Amber, really?”

She did not pretend to misunderstand him. “I’ll tell you,” she said softly. “But you won’t like it.”

He looked away from her. “I asked for the truth. Whether I like it or not, I have to know….”

“When I meet a woman who attracts me, I prefer women,” she said. “And when I meet a man who attracts me, I prefer men.”

“You mean you haven’t made up your mind yet.”

“I mean exactly what I said. I told you you wouldn’t like it. Most people who ask want me definitely on one side or the other.”

He thought about that. “No, if that’s the way you are, I don’t mind.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“You know I didn’t mean any offense.”

She sighed. “I know.”

Patternmaster (1976)

Even in a bisexual society the politician is very often something less than an integral man.

Sex is a natural or biological feature and gender is the cultural or learned significance of sex. In The Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin leads us through a world, Gethen, where the humans are neither male nor female. She asks us to take a look at how our lives are defined by which sex and gender positions we each occupy and the power relations that emerge as a result.

In the novel Le Guin uses the terms ambisexual and bisexual, but not in relation to sexual orientation as we think of it today. Le Guin’s characters, in effect, are biologically without sex. They are bi-sexual or trans-sexual in that, for a brief period each month they take on the sexual characteristics of either a male or a female and then after a few days return to being non-sexed.

Linguistically, Le Guin was faced with a problem: what pronoun would she use for the non-sexed characters? She rejected ‘it’ as too cold and unsuitable for human beings and settled on having her main character -- Genly Ai, a young black man, an envoi from Terra (or Earth) to Gethen  -- use the pronoun ‘he’ as a matter of expedience. This is a decision Le Guin, years after publication, says she regretted, wishing she had created or found a more suitable set of non-gender-specific pronouns to use. This dilemma, I always thought, shows us a great deal about ourselves and our limits in being able to describe, label and negotiate our world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And I saw then again, and for good, what I had always been afraid to see, and had pretended not to see in him: that he was a woman as well as a man. Any need to explain the sources of that fear vanished with the fear; what I was left with was, at last, acceptance of him as he was.

Until then I had rejected him, refused him his own reality... I had not wanted to give my trust, my friendship to a man who was a woman, a woman who was a man…

… it seemed to me, and I think to him, that it was from that sexual tension between us, admitted now and understood, but not assuaged, that the great and sudden assurance of friendship between us rose: a friendship so much needed by us both in our exile, and already so well proved in the days and nights of our bitter journey, that it might as well be called, now as later, love…

But it was from the differences between us, not from the affinities and likenesses, but from the difference, that that love came: and it was itself the bridge, the only bridge, across what divided us.

The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)