Bisexual Visibility Week is celebrated from September 16th, culminating in Bi Visibility Day on September 23rd, and is dedicated to celebrating bisexuality and raising awareness of the bisexual community. It is an opportunity to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of bisexual people, to celebrate bisexual pride and to support those who are bi-identified or those who are still exploring their sexuality. It is also a day to recognize the discrimination that bisexual people still face in many areas of life, such as employment, education, housing, and health care. It is also a moment to address persistent erasure that bisexual people still experience in many situations, such as experienced by Brazilian pop star Anitta described in this recent article.
One challenge is the broad misunderstanding of bisexuality: GLAAD provides insights from leading bi advocate and author Robyn Ochs, who describes bisexuality as: “the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.” They also add: ‘Some people who have the capacity to be attracted to people of any gender choose other words to describe their sexual orientation, such as bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, omnisexual, fluid, or queer. Some people prefer to avoid any label at all.’
The varied and sometimes changing nature of bisexuality can spark questions, even for those in the community – to find out more the folks at bi.org have created a helpful 101 page here, and FAQ here.
Representation matters and happily the folks at HER are reporting more bi visibility in movies than ever before, though there’s still a long way to go. Check out their list of 27 must-see movies streaming now that include bi characters or are created by bi filmmakers here.