15th annual Bi Pride Day to be celebrated worldwide
Today is Bi Pride Day and we’ll be celebrating by posting a series of guest blog posts today focused on bisexuality. This is the first in the series by Ellyn Ruthstrom, president of the Bisexual Resource Center and the past editor of Bi Women newsletter. She’s also a writer and editor and you can find her work at ellynruthstrom.com.
Bi Pride Day (also known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day and/or Bi Visibility Day) has been celebrated internationally for the last 15 years. The occasion raises awareness about bisexuality, helps to educate the community about bisexual issues, and encourages bi people and their allies to be visible and proud of their bi identity. (We use bisexual as an umbrella term for any who honor their potential to love more than one gender.)
Since 1999, Bi Pride Day has been held yearly on September 23rd. Organizations and individuals have marked the occasion with film festivals, community forums on various issues important to the community, drag shows, art displays, performance events, and just good old-fashioned parties!
As the president of the Bisexual Resource Center, I’ve been involved with planning various Bi Pride Day activities for many years. Boston is lucky to have one of the most vibrant and politically active bi communities in the U.S. and we love to gather our forces once a year to celebrate how awesome we are. It’s also exciting to know that there are groups of people all over the planet getting together to celebrate the same holiday!
This year, a growing number of communities are participating in the celebration, including the ones below:
Washington, DC will have its first official Bi Pride Day celebration on Monday, September 23, 6:30-8pm at the Residence at Thomas Circle Hotel, 1330 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., in the first floor conference room. The event is entitled “Bisexual at Any Age” and is sponsored by Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) of Metro D.C., the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals (AMBi), and the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community. Long-time LGBT advocates ABilly Hennin-Jones and Sabrina Sojourner will be featured speakers. More info here.
St Paul, MN is handing out Community Recognition Awards on Monday, September 23, 7- 930pm at the Chatterbox Pub. The Bisexual Organizing Project is sponsoring the annual celebration with free pizza and soft drinks! Come see who gets the shiny plaque this year! More info here.
The Bisexual & Queer Alliance of Chicago is sponsoring their celebration on Monday, September 23 at the Center on Halsted with the speaker Wendy Curry, a long-time bi activist and one of the originators of Celebrate Bisexuality Day. More info here.
In Boston, the Bisexual Resource Center is gathering at the Lir Pub on Friday, September 27, 7-10pm to hand out their annual Unsung Hero and Bi Ally awards and to share with the community the many exciting bi achievements of 2013. Icebreakers and a bi culture quiz will add to the community atmosphere. More info here.
International celebrations are also being held in Paris, Dublin, Tel-Aviv, London and several other UK cities, and in several cities in Australia.
For more information about Bi Pride Day events around the world visit
http://binetusa.blogspot.com/2013/09/2013-BiPrideDay-Events-Worldwide.html. And follow #BiPrideDay on Twitter for up-to-the-minute notices about the bisexual holiday festivities.
