bisofcolour: Saturday 25th June marks London LGBT Pride. It…

bisofcolour: Saturday 25th June marks London LGBT Pride. It…



bisofcolour:

Saturday 25th June marks London LGBT Pride. It also marks the Queer Trans and Intersex People of Colour picnic in Burgess Park, London.  So if you’ve had enough of pinkwashing of racism, colonialism, biphobia and transphobia in London’s Lesbian and Gay scenes, go to the picnic instead!  There will be no corporate sponsors pushing alcohol, no armed forces, and no facist hate groups.  In fact, this will be the polar opposite of what London LGBT Pride has become.  The hashtag for this picnic is #Notyourfuckingrainbow and that kinda says it all…

Visit the page at  https://www.evensi.uk/queer-picnic-2016-burgess-park/177570693 to see the map and to learn more.

Honoured!
Posted inbi ldb

Honoured!



I’ve been sitting on this for weeks now but at last it is public: today’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List names me among the many others recognised for their work.

So from today I’m Jen Yockney MBE, which is one of the weirdest things I could imagine.

The Honour is for my extensive volunteering work with the bisexual community and on wider LGBT issues over the past couple of decades, whether with BCN, BiPhoria, Bisexual History Project, the Bisexuality Report, Bi Life, Bisexual Action, LGBT+LD, lobbying of ministers and GEO, or other things that just now I’ve forgotten.

When I saw the full citation for my activities – and all unpaid – it did come as a bit of a frightener.  By doing at least something every month for such a long time it adds up and by now I have done quite a bit.

In the 80s I was a teenager, following the progress of Clause 28 in the broadsheets but still in the closet about gender and sexuality both to others and myself.

I started to come out and get engaged in community organising and LGBT politics in the 90s, with student groups and the like. I found that they were very LG in their LGBT, with bi people, voices and experiences silenced and sidelined. This meant seeking out bi and trans spaces: at that point my activism could have gone either way, but the bi spaces I found were perversely more inclusive of gender diversity than the trans spaces.  Don’t take that as meaning either that bi spaces were perfect – they definitely weren’t! – or that trans spaces were all dire: it’s just the balance of comfort between the two, then, for me.

Over time I came to be involved in different projects.  Publishing magazines and pamphlets and lobbying local and national government and LGBT organisations can be removed from ordinary lived experience so I’m glad to also have BiPhoria keeping me - I think and hope - grounded in the day-to-day challenges of bisexual life for ordinary bi people.

The high points have included the first full-colour issue of BCN, the huge scale of the two Manchester BiCons, and being the first representative from a bisexual community project to be invited to the annual 10 Downing Street LGBT reception.  And now, of course, today.

Thank you.
See me walking down the streetBig hips, fleshy armsSee me smile,…
Posted infatphobia misogynoir racism

See me walking down the streetBig hips, fleshy armsSee me smile,…



See me walking down the street

Big hips, fleshy arms

See me smile, all toothy and bright

See my skin

See my fat


The little girl inside me laughs and claps
I skip over cracks
See my stride, watch my flow
See me strutting through this town
See me walking.  See my fat

A white boy catches the little girl’s eye
He’s nothing but a teen, but still he knows how
To spit, to scowl, point and laugh
See me falter
See my fat

I ain’t your mammy, shut your mouth
I ain’t your dancer, your exotic queen
I’m just a shadow when the lights burn bright

See her shrinking

See my fat

If my little girl disappears who will take her space

The space she takes just walking down the street?

How can any fat person ever make it out in one piece

When hard eyes make every step a feat?

This fat black soul is wounded as I speak

See my fat

And just let me be.

10 years on: Fritz Klein
Posted inbi bi academics ldb statistics

10 years on: Fritz Klein

Sexuality researcher Fritz Klein died ten years ago today. Fritz on the cover of BCN magazineOf all the 'names' in sexuality theory his is probably the second best known to bisexual people and those with a wider interest in research around bisexua...