Celebrating Bisexuality Day 2008: Bisexual Leaders We Salute!
By Sue Hyde, Director of Creating Change, September 23, 1:58 pm
At the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, we honor and celebrate with bisexual sisters and brothers today, the Ninth Annual Celebrate Bisexuality Day (CBD).
Happy Bisexuality Day!
We mark this important day with an understanding and appreciation for all that our bisexual brothers and sisters bring to our vibrant and diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. After all, it has been our bisexual friends who most closely embrace the radical notion of being able to love one another, irrespective of gender. Bisexual people challenge and question the fundamental assumptions about sexuality, gender and relationships. Our bisexual leaders, thinkers and lovers shake it up and in so doing, help us all break free to live and love as our hearts desire.
On this Celebrate Bisexuality Day, we celebrate Bisexual Leaders:
Elias Farajaje Jones: a theologian and out proud bisexual community and religious thinker. Elias rocked the house at the 1995 Creating Change Conference in Detroit with a keynote address that connected sexual liberation and freedom with the on-the-ground aspirations and work of our political movement. Elias also spoke at a Minnesota Equality Begins at Home event in 1998.
Lani Ka’ahumanu: bisexual activist, AIDS educator, writer and thinker. Lani served on the Task Force Board of Directors and brought her keen insights about community organizing and bisexual visibility to her work with the Task Force. Lani advocated for a 1997 revision of the organizational mission statement that remains inclusive of bisexual and transgender people. Lani has presented many workshop sessions and trainings at The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change. She is the co-editor of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Alyson, 1991).
Robyn Ochs: bisexual community organizer, speaker, and writer. Robyn is a founder of the Boston Bisexual Network, editor of the Bisexual Resource Guide, and editor of Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World. Robyn regularly presents workshops and trainings at The National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change. She and her wife were among the first same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts in 2004. Robyn serves on the Board of Directors of MassEquality, the statewide organization that successfully defended our freedom to marry in Massachusetts.
Loraine Hutchins: sex educator and writer. Loraine delivered a keynote speech at the 2005 National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change in Oakland, entitled “Bi Rights and Visibility.” Loraine received a 2005 Creating Change Award, in appreciation of her long leadership in the bisexual community. In addition to co-editing Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Alyson, 1991), Loraine co-founded AMBi, the Alliance of Multi-Cultural Bisexuals in Washington, DC, and BiNet USA.
Amy André, Marshall Miller and Julie Ebin: co-authors of the 2007 Task Force Policy Institute report, Bisexual Health: An Introduction and Model Practices for HIV/STI Prevention Programming, co-published with BiNet USA and the Fenway Institute. Amy, Marshall and Julie wrote cogent commentary in January 2008 about a groundbreaking study that found “being bisexual is a distinct orientation in women, not a temporary phase.”
Chrysanthe Tan: Task Force intern extraordinaire, Summer 2008. Creator of the Bisexuality Resource Kit, a soon-to-be-released publication of the Task Force Policy Institute. The Bisexuality Resource Kit, for use in LGBT organizations, will support the goal of building a fully bi-inclusive movement by busting myths about bisexuality, offering ideas for bi-specific programming, recommended reading and viewing lists and tips about how to become more bi-inclusive.
We encourage friends and colleagues around the LGBT movement to lift up the good works and valuable lives of bisexual colleagues whose presence, energy and vitality enrich and inform our communities and our movement. Turn to a bisexual woman or man today and say, “Thanks for all you do to make more space for all of us!”
Amy André, Lani Ka’ahumanu and Chrysanthe Tan reside in California.
Background on Celebrate Bisexuality Day
Similar to the annual National Coming Out Day (celebrated each October), CBD is a day that bisexuals may choose to come out to others. The day was created in 1999 by Gigi Raven Wilbur and other bisexual activists and since then September 23rd has been set aside as a day each year to celebrate bisexual visibility. Bisexual activists attending the 1999 International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) World Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa were inspired to see the official Bisexual Flag, with its pink, blue and lavender colors flying over the conference on the First Annual Celebrate Bisexuality Day on September 23, 1999.
ILGA leaders issued a proclamation: “On International Celebrate Bisexuality Day, ILGA calls on people, researchers, organizations, services and governments to apply the same respect, recognition and rights to bisexual peoples as they do to any other group of people in society. Around the world today, September 23rd, from the cities of North America to those in Australia, from Japan to Europe and here in Johannesburg, South Africa, bisexual people, their partners, families, friends and their lesbian, transgender, gay and straight allies, are joined in solidarity for the 1st international Celebrate Bisexuality Day.”
Since that time, bisexuals and bi organizations all over the world have celebrated CBD every year in their own unique way.
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Wednesday, 9/24/2008, 2:18 PM (EST)
Sue’s blog was so great and so few groups did anything on the topic, I had to share the information with the Iowa Statewide PFLAG listserv.
Sue did a wonderful job in explaining the history and some of the people and the work they have done for the LGBT community. One can only see why the Task Force has Sue in the job you do.
Thank you for sharing this information with all of us. It is sad; no other national group saw the importance of the Bisexual members of the LGBT community.
Again, thanks for all of the work you do.
Sandy Vopalka
Wednesday, 9/24/2008, 3:47 PM (EST)
I wanted to write a response to Sue Hyde's "Celebrating Bisexuality Day 2008". First though, I want to say thanks for bringing up this important day because I had no knowledge of it at all. Far too often bisexuality is left out of serious discussions of LGBT movements, and it's refreshing to see this discussion - placed front and center on the blog and in the newsletter!
However, I was surprised by the short list! I know you want bisexual activists and not just famous bisexual people, but activists come in many flavors: Where are Sapphire,Meshell Ndegeocello and Jamison Green?
OK, Sapphire and Meshell are perhaps artists before activists, but their work is infused with their identities and Jamison, while more famous for being transgender, has always emphasized the need to be inclusive of all sexualities. I understand that this was a short post meant to inspire more, but if the Taskforce can only think of 5 activists it sets a bad precedent for the rest of the world that tends towards being bi-phobic or to participate in practices that make bi folk invisible.
Thanks for the post...I look forward to seeing more and more inclusive pieces!
Mik Kinkead
Wednesday, 9/24/2008, 4:26 PM (EST)
Thank you so much for celebrating bisexuality with us through your wonderful post recognizing bi leaders. I also appreciate the personal shout out. You and The Task Force have helped us to bring bi activism and support to a much broader level on the national stage by supporting publications like Bisexual Health and The Bisexual Resource Kit and supporting bisexual health efforts at Creating Change. I really appreciate all The Task Force does for the bisexual community.
Julie Ebin
Thursday, 9/25/2008, 6:42 AM (EST)
It actually warmed my heart to read Sue's entry on Celebrate Bisexuality Day when I woke up in the morning. It feels really great to be not only tolerated by leaders in the LGBT community (which is what it feels like sometimes, barely even), but acknowledged, accepted, and appreciated as well. The Task Force seriously rocks. Happy belated Celebrate Bisexuality Day! And also, thank you to the other wonderful bi leaders out there. I am greatly humbled by the list of names above me.
Chrysanthe Tan
Friday, 9/26/2008, 3:47 AM (EST)
Just wanted to send my thanks to the Task Force for recognizing Celebrate Bisexuality Day. It meant a lot to see the B word in a headline and to read Sue Hyde's shout-out to some of our fabulous leaders.
At the same time, what a sad statement that bi folks like me are so starved for seeing ourselves reflected in the broader LGBT movement that a mere mention of bisexuality could get me all choked up. When did crumbs start to feel like a feast?
This is not intended as an indictment of the Task Force, which has been better than many LGBT organizations at truly addressing the needs of bisexuals. It's just demoralizing to think that getting others to acknowledge our very existence still feels like a major victory.
Lindasusan Ulrich
