March 05th, 2019

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The BOP Connection March 2019 A Newsletter bi the Bisexual Organizing Project  Edited by Cary Crawford and Sally Corbett Bi-Lesque: Unicorns Unite a Magical Night for Bi+ Community  by Shawna McNamara Known as one of the most diverse burlesque and variety shows in the city, Bi-Lesque is a night of entertaining activism that aims to empower bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer, and unlabeled (bi+) community by building an event that advocates for bi+ visibility and representation. By featuring all bi+ performers and creating a space where bi+ community is the majority, we hope that Bi-Lesque is a safe place to celebrate your authentic self. Our societal goal is to create change with Bi-Lesque by sparking excitement with beautifully bold entertainment. Featuring inclusive art that represents our local bi+ community could be an effective way to battle bi-erasure and bi-phobia. By celebrating individuals within the non-monosexual community in a joyous and entertaining light, who wouldn’t want to jump on the equality train to take down the hierarchy? Bi-Lesque's third production, "Unicorns Unite", took place Saturday, January 26 at The Pourhouse in downtown Minneapolis. The show's hosts were Sweetpea and Butch Charming. Featured performers included Allurr'em Velvit, Amir Kinara, Blaze Bordeaux, Deeva Rose, Del the Funky Homosexual, Emerald Eve, Esmé Rodríguez, Jean Luc Dicard, Jewels Darling, Joy Coy, Minda Mae and Sasha Sentinel, Scarlette Revolver, Seebie Sparklehaus, and Stella Rosa. All proceeds benefited the Bisexual Organizing Project. Photos courtesy of Barb McLean Photography and Lavender Magazine. March is #BiHealthMonth!   Welcome to the 6th annual Bisexual Health Awareness Month! Bisexual Health Awareness Month, or #BiHealthMonth, is a social media campaign pioneered by our dear friends at the Bisexual Resource Center (BRC). Throughout the month of March, we will be participating to raise awareness about the bisexual community’s social, economic, and health disparities, advocating for resources, and preventing or decreasing these disparities. This year’s campaign theme is "Representation"! We will center on bisexual+ representation in healthcare, education, politics and advocacy, and media, and its impact on bisexual+ people’s everyday lives. Check out this year's campaign website for more information!    BOP Members Attend Creating Change 2019 by Sally Corbett The 31st annual Creating Change conference took place January 23-27, 2019, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. Creating Change is the annual conference of The National LGBTQ Task Force, which bills it as “the foremost political, leadership and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ social justice movement.” The five-day long conference includes over 350 workshops and training sessions, as well as daily plenary sessions, art studio space, worship gatherings, a healing and wellness space, people in recovery meetings, and hospitality suites dedicated to multiple marginalized communities. The conference reports attracting over 3,500 attendees annually.  This year’s opening plenary, “Welcome to Detroit: Revive, Thrive, Decolonize”, was interrupted by activists representing the Cancel Pinkwashing Coalition, an anti-Zionist organization, chanting “Free, free Palestine!” as they took the stage.The first speaker of the protest, Stephanie Skora, asserted that the conference did not include pro-Palestinian programming because it could upset donors, and also that the only Jewish workshop this year was a meeting of the Jewish caucus, and that there was no Muslim caucus meeting. In addition, Skora stated that the coalition submitted seven proposals for workshops on Palestinian issues, all of which were rejected by the Task Force. A statement from #CancelPinkwashing said that the lack of Jewish and Muslim programming is a “violent erasure [that] reinforces the anti-Semitism and Islamophobia already deeply rooted in Creating Change.” It called on the Task Force to endorse the movement to boycott Israel. Pinkwashing is a term that connotes what critics see as Israel’s covering up of human rights abuses by trumpeting its LGBTQ-friendly policies.The second speaker of the protest, Mina Aria, called on the Task Force to fight “pinkwashing, Zionism, Islamophobia and colonial violence.” Activists from the Cancel Pinkwashing Collective have previously organized protests and guerilla programming at Creating Change in 2016 and again in 2018. Bisexual Organizing Project recognizes the invaluable access to community spaces that Creating Change continues to provide for the bi+ community, a community that is already disproportionately affected by isolation and invisibility, even in LGBTQ+ spaces. That said, Bisexual Organizing Project stands in solidarity with movements that oppose anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Zionism, pinkwashing, and colonial violence.                       Bi+ programming and spaces were well represented at Creating Change this year. Bi+ specific workshops included a Bi+ Identity Caucus, a Bi+ Hospitality Suite, “Not so Straightforward: Advocating Bi Ourselves through Bisexuality+ and Mental Health”, Robyn Ochs’ well-renowned “Beyond Binaries: Identity, Sexuality and Movement Building”, a Bi POC Identity Caucus, “The Hidden Biphobia and Transphobia STILL Experienced in the LGBT Community”, “Invisible within the Visible: Understanding Biphobia” and a workshop about “Sustaining Spaces for the Bi+ Community” presented by officers of the Bisexual Resource Center. The Day-Long Bi+ Institute, titled “Breaking Bi: Challenging Binary Thought and Identity”, was facilitated by friend of BOP and BECAUSE 2017 keynote Denarii Monroe, and co-facilitated by former BOP Director-At-Large and BECAUSE Co-Chair AL Genaro, as well as Andy Izenson and Aida Manduley. The institute took a deep dive into issues connected to identity and the intersections within our whole selves as bi+ individuals, such as bi+ terminology and history, monosexism and bi+ erasure, community, class and mutual aid and the impact they have on our organizing and relationships, and survival and burnout. Small group breakout sessions addressed topics such as consensual and anti-capitalist non-monogamy, sexual violence, disability justice and accessibility, pop culture and media, faith and spirituality, and sex and sexual health. Once again, this year’s Bi+ Institute was inspiring, fulfilling, and empowering.  Meet BOP Director-At-Large, Emily Boyajian by Cary Crawford  I met with Emily Boyajian early in February to discuss her background and what brought her to BOP.  She said in puberty, she had gender dysphoria, especially in relation to the way the media was portraying binary genders.  She made some good trans friends in graduate school, where she was studying music theory at UW Madison.  When she finished grad school, she found a job in the Twin Cities and moved here.    She recently started taking hormones and is discussing her experiences of transitioning with a therapist. For now she works in IT, and wants job security to save up money for her upcoming surgeries. She feels that she’ll blend in more as a transgender woman afterwards. Just within the last year she has started to question whether she might be bisexual as well, as well as questioning living under heteronormativity and gender roles.  Emily heard about BOP when she she had started questioning her sexuality. Unfortunately, her family is not supportive of her transition. They are supportive of LBGT folks in general, but "just not for their kid".  She’s met some friends through BOP,  BOP game night events and Minneapolis public libraries, and she goes out with some trans friends to parties. She likes to dress as a casual femme.  She is currently serving as BOP Board Treasurer, attends book club at the Quatrefoil Library, and is also starting a bi+ movie night series at Quatrefoil. Watch for updates on that in your email, and BOP's Facebook.  BiCities is Back! by Sally Corbett The world’s longest running show on bisexuality is back on the air after a three and a half year hiatus! BiCities airs on Channel 15 in Saint Paul on Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm. Full episodes can also be viewed on the BiCities Youtube channel, and www.bicities.org. In this weekly talk show, hosts Dr. Marge Charmoli and Dr. Anita Kozan sit down with members of the bi+ community and LGBTQ+ community at large to talk about current events, local activism and organizing, arts and entertainment, healthcare, and any variety of topics that explore and promote bi+ visibility, inclusion, and activism.   The returning premier episode of BiCities, which aired January 23, featured BOP members Shawna McNamara and Leah Yoemans, talking about this year’s Bi-Lesque production, “Bi-Lesque: Unicorns Unite”. Our guests delved into the vision behind Bi-Lesque’s creation, its impact in the local performing arts and LGBTQ+ communities, and other details about organizing and producing this fabulous “night of entertaining activism”. Guests to look for on new episodes include Rhys Preston and Ali Sands, who will share their love story about remaining together during Rhys' gender transition, and Ali’s memoir and Ted Talk about their story. Another episode will feature Dr. Cesar Gonzales and Dr. Oscar Manrique, surgeons who will talk about their work at the Mayo Clinic's Transgender and Intersex Speciality Care Clinic. Also, don’t miss an interview with burlesque performers Sasha Sentinel and Minda Mae, known as “The Disaburleduo”, who made their debut performance at BOP’s Bi-Lesque: Unicorns Unite! They will be discussing how their identities as disabled folks intersect with their experiences learning burlesque, how they met, and performing together for the first time in public at Bi-Lesque.  BiCities is produced by a team of both veteran and new crew members, including lighting director and floor manager Tom Jones, sound engineer Paul Craven, camera operators Amelia Demulling, Mark Demulling, Allison Mulvihill, and Future Lisa; director Sally Corbett, and producer and editor Daniel Thomas-Commins.  Check out the SPNN broadcast schedule HERE.  An Interview With Jessie Miller, Former BOP Board Member and New BQAC President by Cary Crawford  Jessie Miller is the current President of the Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago, or BQAC, which is "basically the same thing as BOP, just in Chicago!" She is a former BOP Director-At-Large and volunteer. Cary Crawford recently interviewed her about her coming out story, her relationship with her bi+ identity, activities with BOP, and plans for the future.  CC: When did you figure out you were bi, or what was your childhood like as a bi person? When did you come out, how did you get support for yourself as an evolving bi person? JM: I figured out I was bi at about 12 or 13 years old. Like the quintessential gay movie cliches, I, too, fell for my straight best friend, a girl named Aly (funny side note though, she came out many years later as bi too!). So I started having these feelings for my best friend and at first, I tried to suppress them, and I'm still not sure why as truly I've never been ashamed of it, even then. After about a year though, I really started accepting the feelings I was having and told a couple of my friends, one of them then betrayed and outed me to the entire school. I always tend to undermine this period of my life because in a way I forgot how bad it was? Or maybe because I was just trying to push through it? I was never very well liked at that age and was severely bullied for many years. Hence, when this news broke, the normal just got worse. Some boys in my neighborhood egged my house 5 times, they started following me around calling me f*****, girls tried to corner me in bathrooms and exclude me. Quite honestly, the most impressive thing I find about myself during this time was how much I shrugged it off, I was so sure and confident of myself as a bi person that their hatred did not matter to me (it helped that I never liked them anyway). In high school, I was finally allowed the opportunity to come out for myself in a very public LGBTQ rights speech in front of my high school, but I was not attacked there for it, though my Mother hated me for it. I grew up in a very conservative area outside of Chicago and was the first openly out person in my area, there was no talk or support for the likes of me. In all then, my childhood as a bi+ person was essentially a rugged, overgrown path that I somehow made liveable for myself because what has always mattered to me most is to assert my truth and nothing more. CC: What are some of the organizations you've been active in?  How did you come to BOP? What are you doing for BOP currently? JM: I've been active in many organizations most notably, the LGBTQ Guard and BOP. While the LGBTQ Guard no longer exists, I was the founder of this volunteer-run organization that was simply a buddy system to help prevent hate crimes. I had followed BOP for a few years and even went to one BECAUSE conference before getting involved, but I stayed away for a while because I had a bad experience at my first BECAUSE and felt isolated and alone. A couple years later, I gave BOP another chance at a Celebrate bisexuality day picnic and we've been intertwined ever since. I truly love my fellow board members and the turnaround this organization has seen in its last few years. Currently, I'm working on a survey to figure out what our community would like to see from BOP. CC: What are your future plans as a bi person? JM: My future plans as a bi person? I don't know. To live? To exist? To state my bisexuality proudly and commit further bi bad-assery? lol This is a loaded question, but no, in all seriousness, I plan on becoming a case manager with homeless youth as this is my professional background. CC: What do you want BOP readers to know about you? JM: I want BOP readers to know that while I've stated I've always been proud and never ashamed, that is both true and false. As a demigirl, I have NEVER been ashamed of my attraction to women or nonbinary people, but I have struggled in more recent years with my attraction to men and the bi label. The reason I tell you all this is to show you that even someone as involved in the community as me can still have internalized biphobia and that's okay. Being involved with BOP has only strengthened my hold over it. Editor's Note Let me introduce myself, my name is Cary Crawford, and I’ll be the editor of the BOP newsletter for the duration of the ride.  I hope you enjoy reading about our various activities and personalities, I’ll try to feature an interview with a BOP board member, and a BOP member profile, info about all our activities that we offer for member participation, upcoming events, and features on BOP allies. I’d also like to include member poetry and creative writing, artwork, and photos.So send me yours.   Let me know if you want to interview and write an article, or edit another’s writing.  Right now it’s just me and Sally Corbett.  I’ll try to get this newsletter out quarterly, with a special editions dedicated to the BECAUSE conference and PRIDE weekend.  If you think you’d like to help out or include your work contact me at cary.crawford@bisexualorganizingproject.org, I’d love to see what you’ve got for me.   Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*