What Does Bisexual Visibility Mean to Me?
[Visual ID: Three people standing and leaning in for a fun selfie with grins on their faces. The woman in the middle is the writer, Lorena, who is wearing a checked winter shirt and has brown hair. Right of Lorena is her friend Silver. He is wearing beige pants, a reddish long-sleeved top and green scarf. Left of Lorena holding the camera in her right hand is Akira who is waving a peace sign with her left hand. Lorena and Akira are wearing hats. They are standing in a rugged and remote landscape.]
This month we get to celebrate Bisexual Awareness Week, which is about celebrating our identity while raising awareness of the concerns bisexual people face through discrimination, physical and mental health disparities, and representation in media, the workplace, and society at large. However, as a bisexual woman myself, this month I want to focus on how we as bisexual people can answer these challenges through a lens of decolonized gender and sexuality.
Decolonizing Gender & Sexuality
Not every bi/pansexual person experiences their identity with this label in the same way, but I think we are incredibly magical because we have the capacity to love all genders. We believe everyone is worthy of being loved, and gender is not a potential barrier to loving someone in an intimate way. That perspective can lend itself to a more empathetic worldview that builds compassionate communities.
When I talk about decolonizing gender and sexuality, that means I want to understand and dismantle colonial frameworks that enforce rigid binaries on everyone’s gender and sexual identities. Including straight people. I find inspiration in the ways some indigenous groups have viewed gender and sexuality since pre-colonial times. This year I got to learn more when I worked with Dineh elders resisting displacement through herding sheep and planting corn. There I met many LGBTQIA+ supporters and we often talked about how our identities inform the ways we want to move through the world and serve community.
Not all indigenous groups embrace nonbinary genders, but for those that do, people that are Two-spirit, Muxe, etc., also find purpose in fulfilling a specialized role to the community. For example, a Mapuche Machi may be a spiritual healer or adviser because of their nonbinary identity.
LGBTQIA+ communities are already thinking beyond binary roles, but we can also ask ourselves: “How can my identity empower me to serve my community?” Our liberation does not start and end when we find self-acceptance in our own balance of masculine, feminine, and other energies, nor how we go about loving others in their own balance.
What is it about having a unique blend of energies that makes us so magical that we can find multiple ways to channel our multifaceted love into a strong community?
Challenging Discrimination With Loving Education
Biophia within the gay and straight communities exists and should be talked about, but I believe we can begin eradicating discrimination through community care, during which will arise opportunities for moments of education and understanding.
For example, a bisexual farmer like my friend Silver may feed his neighborhood and share the ways nature itself is quite queer, like lily, mustard, and rose that possess both male and female reproductive parts in their flowers. A bisexual seamstress, such as my friend Akira, may teach a class of houseless students how to sew recycled fabrics to create affordable and durable clothing while providing a safe space of listening and self-expression.
When the priority within our purpose is not money, power, or status, but to nurture those around us, we can create communities that open dialogue to answer questions about gender and sexuality, among other topics to dispel harmful myths and stereotypes.
Creating Community-Focused Health
Bisexual people tend to struggle from greater mental and physical health disparities than straight or gay people, and much of that is linked to biphobia. Simultaneously, proper healthcare is inaccessible to a great percentage of the population for a variety of reasons. But that does not mean we should simply suffer in isolation.
Many of us carry intersectional identities that compound health issues, but there’s power in creating community systems of care that can address multiple identities at once. American psychologist Abraham Maslow, who created the popular theory of the Hierarchy of Needs, was inspired by the Blackfoot tribe in so-called southern Alberta, Canada, who he found to be joyful and satisfied. What was their secret?
Unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy, which states we are able to transcend the self once we have our all personal needs met, Blackfoot philosophy believes that we are born as self-actualized beings, and thus grow up involved in communal cooperation that ensures we meet each others’ basic needs. How can this philosophy be applied to bisexual health, and then translate to the rest of the LGBTQIA+ community and beyond?
It’s up to us to create those spaces based on our personal skills and desires. That can look like a weekly popup free health clinic run by volunteer nurses, herbalists, therapists, and other healers, or monthly community workshops that teach emotional resilience, physical self-defense, stress management, nutritional self-care, and other health topics.
However, we must simultaneously advocate for government policies that address health disparities, and for schools to teach comprehensive sex education. We must collaborate across generations to hear the wisdom and stories of elders who are normally isolated in our society, while creating mentorship initiatives for youth. By creating these resources, we can implement preventative measures to these health disparities.
What is Positive Bisexual Representation?
I believe having representation does not automatically translate to positive representation. Besides, the definition of positive varies from person to person, and multiple realities can be true at once. What does positive bisexual representation look like to you in the media, the workplace, and society?
We as bisexual people need to consistently question what systems we even want to see ourselves represented and how we represent ourselves. Some bisexual people may consider seeing ourselves in positions of power and influence as positive representation. But what implications do those positions bring?
For example, should we celebrate when a bisexual person becomes the head of a prison?
Some bisexual people would rather see themselves dismantling particular systems. A prison abolitionist would view a new bisexual leader of a prison as a setback to the liberation of all beings. Bisexual prisoners get to live in a prison now run by a fellow member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Is that considered positive progress?
That answer is up to you, but I think it depends on what they want to accomplish in that position of power.
Do they want to bring in new labor programs that exploit prisoners to grow crops for cents per hour? Are they a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) who will continue to deny gender-affirming care to trans* prisoners? That’s a loss of someone who has assimilated into and chosen to ignore oppressive aspects of a system built on patriarchy, because they now benefit from it.
However, this bisexual leader might want to implement rehabilitation programs that integrate prisoners back into society, dismantle mechanisms that profit off prison labor, or expand gender-affirming care. In this case, you may find it worth celebrating having a bisexual head of prison who wants to reform this aspect of our justice system.
We Need Bisexual Reformists & Revolutionaries
People will always debate whether reform or revolution tactics are “better” for the liberation of marginalized groups such as the LGBTQIA+ community. But I think it will always be necessary to have both groups working simultaneously.
We need bisexual people trying to change and create new systems free of discrimination, health disparities, and negative representations, and who are leading with a loving and compassionate heart to create the best society possible for all our siblings.
