So now we’ve got a Bisexual Awareness Week? Give us a day and we take a whole week! Sure. Why not? This is the beginning of a whole week when bisexual people are encouraged to celebrate themselves; to “come out,” letting everyone see just how varied, ordinary and average we really are. Then the formally unaware world will realize that they’ve been surrounded by invisible bisexuals (like me) all the time.
September 23 was officially designated Bisexual Awareness Day about 15 years ago. Is it a siren’s call to catastrophe or a perfect day to uncloak our beautiful bisexual/fluid orientation for all the world to see?
I’ve been wrestling with this question for many years. Should I live out loud or should I continue to operate on a need-to-know basis? Biphobia is devastating, and there’s still plenty of it to go around among both straights and gays. I consider the stigma and professional risks. So I ask myself, “Do I want to attract small-minded speculation about my private life?” So far, the answer has been “no.”
Yet I’m thrilled by the growing awareness about bisexuality and the increase in bi visibility in the media. Check out all the bisexual celebrities flowing out of the closet and showing us their famous faces, and sayin’ ‘Yeah, me too.’ But after way too many years in the bisexual closet, I’m thinking, “Times have surely changed, but I still don’t feel safe revealing my orientation to people I don’t know.”
“All-y All-y in come free; come out, come out wherever you are!”
Enjoy this week with bi friends and allies. Check out the shiny, new website, http://www.bisexualweek.com/ and all the cool events that have been planned by many amazing volunteers. I’m proud to be part of this diverse group of human beings. Their fierceness gives me courage. Hopefully, one day I’ll have enough courage to join the unveiling.
~The Invisible Bisexual
Tags: Bi invisibility, Bi Pride, Biphobia, Bisexual Awareness Week, September 23
