“I do not in the least underestimate bisexuality. . . I expect it to provide all further enlightenment.” – Sigmund Freud.
Welcome to Bisexual.org!
Bisexual.org
is a project meant to introduce our community to the
world. With this site, we hope to
give a voice to the bisexual community, share accurate information, answer
questions, and provide resources to learn more. The Faces of
Bisexuality page introduces visitors to bisexuals from
around the world who share their own stories and chime in with answers to
frequently asked questions. We hope this site will be a valuable resource for
your investigation of bisexuality, whether you are here to better understand
your own sexuality, you are here to better understand a loved one, or you simply
wish to learn.
This site will grow and
evolve over the years ahead. Please join us and help us discover the full
potential of this site by submitting questions, sharing your own story,
correcting mistakes, or providing feedback. We cannot make this journey without
you.
Bisexual.org is a
project of The American Institute of
Bisexuality (AIB) and the Bisexual Foundation. We
are a 501(c)(3) public charity that supports and sponsors projects likely to
promote understanding and visibility about bisexuality through education,
research, training, and media outreach. The American Institute of Bisexuality
raises awareness about the diversity of sexual orientation. The AIB is dedicated
to the support of the bisexual community and the education of the public at
large about the bisexual community.
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and frequently asked questions.
RESEARCHERS NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE BI MEN’S UNIQUE NEEDS
I’m a
factual man and coming in to my bisexuality I wanted to know the hard
statistics; how likely is it that I’ll end up with a man or a woman? How likely
is it that I’ll suffer depression? How likely is it that I’ll catch an
STI?
From my endless
Googling, I realised one disturbing trend: hardly any research differentiated
between gay and bisexual men.
The
truth is bisexuality is hardly ever specifically examined, and if we bis do get
a shout out we are looked at under the same scope as gay men. In short, bi
people are just cannon fodder unworthy of the time or money to have research
specifically looking at our issues.
The most disturbing thing about all this is that a lot
of this research comes from LGBT groups and official health organisations. If
LGBT groups don’t see the difference between gay and bi men, then what is the
point of them? If they think that it is ethical and helpful to look at the
subgroups through the same lens, what effect will this approach have on the
people they are supposed to be protecting?
From looking at the findings, I was appalled. What are
young bi people realistically supposed to learn from the research they are
putting out?
Here are some of the headlines generated from the research that
I’m encouraged to take note of as a bi man:
Young gay and bisexual men more likely to attempt
suicide – The
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and
Stonewall
Why it’s
unhelpful: Am I just as likely to attempt suicide as a
gay person or is there a difference? Are gay men suicidal because people keep
telling their partner that their relationship is a phase too? The truth is other
than having sex with men, gay and bisexual men don’t actually have much in
common. Not only am I subjected to biphobia but I’m also subjected to homophobia
when I date men. How pushed for time was Stonewall that they didn’t realize gay
and bisexual men may be facing different challenges.
Why it’s unhelpful: Gay men only have sex with men, whereas bi men have sex
with both men and women. How can you not assess these two sexualities separately
when looking at SEXUALLY transmitted diseases? Should I interpret this as
discreet homophobia? What you’re basically telling the bi people here is men on
men sex is risky, so stick to women. 
Why it’s stupid: Again: the
sex lives of gay and bi men are completely different! No wonder HIV is at a
record high when public health bodies continue to believe that gay and bi men
have identical sexual encounters.
A Third of gay and bisexual men took illegal drugs last
year – Crime Survey of
England and Wales has found.
Why it’s unhelpful: Let’s just glide right on past people being more likely
to break the law because of their sexuality, how is this actually supposed to
help me as a bi person? Are the gays a bad influence on us? Or are we a bad
influence on them? Do you have to be high to have sex with a man?
Why it’s unhelpful: What’s a bi guy supposed to understand from this? Is it
just men that are having unprotected sex with men or is it women as well? Are bi
guys more likely to use a condom with one or the other? How can researchers continue to
generalize with regard to two groups with completely different sex
lives?
The truth is, all of this
research is commissioned to benefit gay men. Don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly
not suggesting that bi issues are more important than gay issues, simply that
they are different issues that both deserve the same amount of respect. The
problem is when LGBT groups and health organisations keep adding ‘and bisexual’
to the mix to try and pass themselves off as inclusive.
This is dangerous. If LGBT and health organisations are
failing to tell the difference between gay and bisexual men, they are failing
one of the very subgroups they are sworn to protect.
What’s
more, bi people are a far bigger percentage of the population than gay people.
(YouGov: Out of British 18-24 year olds 6% Identify as gay and
43% as not gay or straight- 2015.). If this entire population is being ignored,
what are we missing? What issues aren’t coming to light? If we don’t know about
the problems facing bi people, we can’t hope to solve them.
The truth is: other than having sex with men, gay and
bi guys don’t have much in common. The discrimination we
face is different. There’s whole host issues that
don’t correlate to the issues gay men face.
Although
the American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB) has recently been
financing studies about bisexuality, it is unacceptable that so many LGBT groups
completely ignore the ‘B’ in LGBT. I hope that in the future, LGBT organisations
and health bodies come to realise that there is a difference between gay and
bisexual men. I hope that researchers will understand that lumping them in together to create
shocking statistics is not only lazy and unethical but it is also
dangerous!
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