September 23rd marks Celebrate Bisexuality Day around the globe, with some countries commencing a week of promoting awareness of the bisexual members of the LGBTIQ community.
First celebrated in 1999, Celebrate Bisexuality Day was conceived by US bisexual activists Michael Page, Gigi Raven Wilbur and Wendy Curry. The day was created to promote bisexuality in particular, to highlight the marginalization the bisexual community experience in the heterosexual world, as well as from LGBTIQ individuals.
US media watchdogs GLAAD (formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) are promoting this week as Bisexual Awareness Week, which aims to include pansexual, fluid and queer individuals as well.
“For one thing, our community is often overlooked, misrepresented, and even erased from the media, from policy and from the conversation at large – even in LGBT spaces,” GLAAD strategist and proud bisexual Alexandra Bolles writes.
Website StillBisexal, a confessional style website, is compiling video submissions from the community expressing their experiences as bisexual individuals.
OUTinPerth contributor and resident bisexual Sophie Joske wrote of her own experiences identifying as the B in LGBT entitled: The Perpetual Awkwardness of Going Both Ways.
Sophie has also curated a handy guide to Celebrate Bisexuality Week and being a true friend to the Bs.
Leigh Hill
