82 First Person Stories from Western Pennsylvania Offer Good Reasons to Affirm and Celebrate our Bisexual Neighbors

Bisexual Pittsburgh — Some of the contributors to #AMPLIFY whom identify as bisexual

In honor of Bisexuality Awareness Day (September 23), I think it is always fitting to get out of the way and allow bisexual folx to have the floor.

We published 82 Bi+ Stories From Western Pennsylvania from 2015-2019. I can honestly say that reading these responses changed my life. Scroll to the bottom to see the 82 stories.

Bi erasure is so, so prevalent as is this notion that ‘passing privilege’ if in an opposite sex relationship is like a get out of queer oppression card – its ridiculous. Bisexual folx in 70% of Pennsylvania can be fired, denied housing, kicked out of businesses and worse for being bisexual, regardless of relationship. We should be celebrating the largest segment of our community, instead we browbeat them back into closets because of our ignorance about the whole notion of ‘passing.’

I take heart that among the young folx with whom I am acquainted, the vast majority identify as bisexual (or pansexual) for those 16 and under. That’s my circle of awareness (not my actual peer circle). The young people I know, their friends, neighbors, family, etc. They take to heart the idea that they should be free to love who they love without constraints. They also understand that their identity is not defined by other people. And they don’t stigmatize their friends who do identify as gay or lesbian.

Thank goodness they’ll be running the show one day soon.

I went through my own posts to find a smattering of those that center bi+ folx. I guess that flies in the face of what I wrote above, BUT it is important for any LGBTQ+ media site to do the centering. In just the past week, I’ve come across two separate incidents of bi erasure in high profile online sites. Sometimes it feels like cisgender lesbians and gay men are succumbing to their own fears rather than remembering the facts of our past.

Bisexual and transgender neighbors pose no threat to our welfare. We are the ones at fault – erasing bi identities, denying trans identities, setting standards for passing and other gatekeeping ugliness. It is so pervasive and destructive that I am rather hesitant to embrace any queer women’s anything that doesn’t explicitly include trans women, bi women, and nonbinary folx. I don’t trust other lesbians and gay men to excise their internalized phobias. I ask bluntly now.

So here are a few posts I’ve published over the years that touch on these matters.

Over the years, we’ve interviewed seven out bisexual candidates for office. Five won their offices and some have been reelected.

Betty Who, Lesbophobia, and the Unacknowledged Trauma of Bisexual Erasure

Review: Blank My Life series offers intriguing emotional layers, a bisexual storyline, and lots of Pittsburgh touches

Her Name Was Dalia Sabae

#ReelQ30 Preview ‘Margarita With a Straw’

Victory in the Campaign to Establish a Memorial for Andre Gray

Bisexual Resource Center in Pittsburgh

Bisexuality In The News, New Group Forms in Pittsburgh

The Bisexual Umbrella