BOP members Martha Hardy and Sarah Weaver recently published "Preserving BTQLG History and Preventing Bi Erasure" in the January, 2015 issue of The Tretter Letter: Newsletter for Friends of the Tretter Collection from The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at University of Minnesota Libraries. Here's an excerpt: Archives like the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection protect, preserve, and make accessible primary sources that document the lives of queer communities. We highlight the “B” in BTQLG because too often bisexuals and other non-monosexual communities are subject to a phenomenon called bisexual erasure. Bisexual erasure is the tendency for bisexuality to be denied an existence by refusing to believe it is a valid orientation, or by omitting it as an identity in history and media.(1) With the support of community members, the Tretter Collection can play an important role in correcting the problem of bisexual erasure simply by doing what the best archives do well, collecting a diverse array of primary source materials, describing them appropriately to make them findable, and making these materials accessible to users. Click here to read the rest of the article and the entire January, 2015 issue of The Tretter Letter.
If you are interested in donating materials to The Tretter Collection, please contact Lisa Vecoli, Curator of the Tretter Collection. You can also talk with Martha Hardy, Tretter Collection Advisory Board Member and Director, Bisexual Organizing Project at martha.hardy@bisexualorganizingproject.org.
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Huffington Post Gay Voices put out the call last week for bisexual folks to share pictures of themselves on Twitter with the hashtag #whatbilookslike. For the past several days, bi+ people have been doing just that. We've shared some of our favorite photos here. Check out more amazing photos of beautiful bisexuals (to borrow a phrase from Loraine Hutchins) at Huffington Post.
Even better, share some photos of your own on Twitter tagged with #whatbilookslike, then let us know if you want your photos shared here. We can't wait to see all the beautiful bisexuals! A few weeks ago, Salon published a piece called "I'm a Lesbian Marrying a Man" by EJ Levy. It spurred lots on conversation in online spaces about sexual orientation labels, how they are defined, how they are assigned, and who gets to claim them. Some of these conversations were hard. Bisexuals are tired of getting erased, but what if a person who appears to be behaving as a bisexual rejects the label? Each of us gets to choose how we identify, but how might this effect the bisexual community? Writer AJ Walkley published a commentary in The Advocate today that explores some of the issues: "Op-ed: Aversion to the Big Bad B Word Continues". She talks about her own experiences as a bi woman in a relationship with a cisgender male partner: "I can understand how falling in love with a man after identifying as a lesbian could be a very scary thing for someone who has identified strongly with that label and the community and politics that go along with it. During my own sexual evolution, after coming out as bisexual I only felt welcome in certain LGBT+ spaces if my partner were female or genderqueer. When I became involved with a cisgender man, I was terrified my queer card would be taken from me by others who saw me as retreating to the safety of presumed heterosexuality. In fact, my fear and anxiety over losing my community led to a lot of relationship problems with my then-boyfriend as a result. It wasn’t until I discovered the booming bi community online and realized that there were plenty of happy bisexuals in different-gender relationships that I started to feel more comfortable with my own relationship, coming to terms with the fact that my current partner did not negate my bisexuality whatsoever." Here, Walkley discusses some of her concerns about a person who appears to be bisexual publicly rejecting the term: "In my view, continuing to identify as a lesbian doesn't work here, because it throws a wrench into both the lesbian community she wants to remain affiliated with, and the bisexual community she's negating entirely. A real concern is the potential for it to create even further confusion about an already marginalized and widely maligned community. Unlike LGBT-specific spaces where such an article can be framed within a “queer theory” discussion, Salon, like many mainstream news organizations, can be bi-erasing, often even when reporting on the overall LGBT population. And because of that, there's the possible danger that comes in the ability for a queer youth’s parents to use such an article to “prove” that their child can choose heterosexuality." Read the entire commentary here.
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BECAUSEBECAUSE 2024
October 4th - 6th, 2024 Murzyn Hall Columbia Heights, MN We hope you will join us for the BECAUSE Conference in fall 2024! MissionBuild, serve and advocate for an empowered bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and unlabeled (bi+) community to promote social justice. Vision
Within the next five years grow Bisexual Organizing Project (BOP) into a successfully-run Upper Midwest nonprofit organization with annual funding of $100,000 that provides community building, education, and advocacy for the bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and unlabeled (bi+) community and our allies.
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