Bisexual Visibility Day

Last week on September 23 was Bisexual Visibility Day. This day is meant to both celebrate bisexuals in the community and to highlight their continued struggles to be seen and validated by both the queer and the heterosexual communities due to biphobia. Although over half of queer individuals identify as bisexual, bisexuals often find they are invisible or erased in both heterosexual and homosexual spaces.

The biphobia intersects with gendered assumptions such that bi women and femmes are “actually straight” and that bi men and masc individuals are ither going through a phase or afraid to come out as gay.

Common stereotypes of bisexuals include their being overly promiscuous, as the “sex” in bisexuals is over-emphasized in our culture.

Bi-erasure happens when bisexuals and their experiences are ignored, removed, or reframed as not bisexual. This can come in the form of telling someone they’re gay now that they’re dating someone  of their own gender, even if they’ve had other gendered partners in the past. And in the spirit of education, it’s important to know that bisexuality is defined as being sexually or romantically attracted to more than one gender.