A nice TEDx presentation on bisexuality. Πsexual!
Showing posts with label bisexuality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bisexuality. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Don't be silly...
Last year, the New York Times published an article, “The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists“. Think about that for a second, and then imagine replacing the word “bisexuality” with aspects of your own identity — “The Scientific Quest to Prove Gay Exists” or “The Scientific Quest to Prove Black Exists” or even “The Scientific Quest to Prove Femininity Exists.” Kristal noted that a common thread she finds among the bisexual community is that their sexuality is flat out denied. “Almost all of the out bisexuals I know have been told they don’t know who they really are, that they don’t exist, that they’re really gay or really straight.” That they’re “selfish” or “greedy.”
— Don't Be Silly, You're NOT Bisexual! | Styleite
Related:
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Desiree Akhavan talks about filmmaking and bisexuality
Desiree Akhavan describes auditions for Inappropriate behavior:
A lot of people came in and did something on par with blackface—I call it "gayface": when straight actresses walk in with, like, a backward baseball cap and baggy jeans and do their impression of a lesbian, as though a lesbian would not be a real human being. So, that happened a couple of times, and I remember thinking, This is both hilarious and really telling of how most people approach films with gay protagonists.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Two quotes by bi women this week...
Two quotes:
“The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades…As a bisexual woman myself, I’ve experienced hurtful comments like this many times. People are quick to assume queer women’s identities are a ‘phase’ and to refuse to recognize the important relationships in their lives — an attitude which can cause depression, result in families rejecting their daughters (or forcing them into abusive conversion ‘therapy’), and even put young women at risk of suicide. Vogue should have taken this opportunity to combat negative stereotypes, not reinforce them.”
— Julie Rodriguez, quoted by inquisitr commenting on a Vogue writer's "just a phase" comment
"I don't want to have to deny my sexuality in order to be me. But I don't want to have to be defined by it. I'm fundamentally opposed to trying to edit myself to be palatable or popular. I don't give a f**k. I fight, but I shouldn't have to."
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Bad news in the UK
Bad news from the UK. Hate crimes:
The report from the University of Leicester's Centre for Hate Studies says that some 35,000 hate crimes towards people in the LGBT communities go unreported every year, motivated by the fears of being outed, negative experiences with authorities and the normalisation of victimisation.
— Hate crimes 'routine' for Britain's LGBT community, report warns, Blathnaid Healy @ Mashable
STDs:
Large increases in diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were seen last year in men who have sex with men (MSM), according to figures published today.
— Gonorrhoea and syphilis on the rise as STI diagnoses soar among gay and bisexual men, Tim Moynihan @ The Independent
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Compare/Contrast: Transracial and Transgender
Comparing transracial identity to transgender identity strikes me as very much along the same idea as comparing the anti-vax position to modern immunology because, after all, they're both theories and we should "teach the debate."
The word and self-identity of LGBT people has never been sufficient. Medicine and psychology has reluctantly come to support and acceptance in the 21st century. This happened because the alternatives were proven failures that were more brutal than non-intervention. We can debate the etiology and ontology of sexual and gender identities until the cows come home. We can't debate the practical problem that attempts to coercively change those identities kill people.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Links saved over vacation
Bookmarks saved over vacation:
African American lesbian or bisexual women and health care
More than one-third of the sample (African-American lesbian or bisexual women) reported a negative health care experience in the past 5-years. One fourth of those reporting a negative experience attributed it to discrimination including race/ethnicity (70.4%), gender (58.2%), and sexual orientation (46.2%). (The categories were not mutually exclusive). Reduction in health care utilization (i.e., didn't see a doctor next time when they were ill) following the negative experience was common (34%).
Predictors and Consequences of Negative Patient-Provider Interactions Among a Sample of African American Sexual Minority Women, Chien-Ching Li @ LGBT Health
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Girlfriends
In a hashtag chat with DC Comics, writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner confirmed that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are totally a thing.
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Confirmed As Girlfriends “Without the Jealousy of Monogamy”, Jessica Lachenal @ The Mary Sue
Suicide Risk among trans teens is preventable
Bauer’s team looked at 13 modifiable factors in the lives of trans people. They found that strong parental support for expressed gender “corresponds to a potential prevention of 170 trans persons per 1000” from seriously considering suicide, and those who reported experiencing lower levels of transphobia were 66 per cent less likely to have seriously considered suicide in the past year.
Suicide risk for trans people can be reduced, new study shows, Julian Uzielli @ The Globe and Mail
Health risks for bisexual men
Psychosocial vulnerability and HIV-related sexual risk among men who have sex with men and women in the United States, Dyer, et. al @ Archives of Sexual Behavior (Pubmed)
The Notorious RGB
“Gay people stood up and said, ‘This is who I am,’” Ginsburg said, and Americans saw that the person was a neighbor, a child’s best friend or maybe even their own children. They were “people we know and love and respect.”
As she was speaking, the gay pride parade was rolling through downtown just a few blocks away, and the Capital Hilton, where the ACS was meeting, was flying a rainbow flag just below Old Glory.
“The court is not a popularity contest, and it should never be influenced by today’s headlines,” Ginsburg said. But she added that it “inevitably it will be affected by the climate of the era.
Looking for clues to Supreme Court’s final rulings in Ginsburg’s good mood, Robert Barnes @ The Washington Post
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Things I Call Biophobia (Reposted from Tumblr)
(Reposting this from tumblr.)
Biphobia I have personally experienced:
- sexual education materials in the 1980s that described homosexuality but did not name bisexuality and treated bisexual attraction as transitory and irrelevant if not acted on
- death threats because I "give straight women aids"
- pressure to have an open relationship because "you're going to cheat anyway"
- followed by abuse when I negotiated another relationship
- having my relationships interpreted as inherently casual by partners
- sexual and physical violence within a relationship
- being blamed for sexual and physical violence because I was "deceptive"
- harassment and physical violence because I don't present as straight
- having my mannerisms exaggerated and mocked by partners and friends after coming out
- being personally mocked by a conservative clergyman (part of an organized anti-gay protest that bussed into the meeting) after outing myself in front of a city council meeting
- attempts to shorehorn my non-binary sexuality and spirituality into dichotomous binary "sides"
- having a psychological therapist repeatedly focus on my sexuality in sessions (thankfully only once)
- hearing my sexual orientation and corresponding politics, spirituality, and aesthetics dismissed as a "phase," "fashionable," and "rebellion"
Biphobia I've witnessed in my culture:
- retributive outing by ex-partners
- bisexuality used as evidence of bad faith in divorce and custody hearings
- the apparent bisexuality of people used to sensationalize crime and scandals
- over 100 years of psychological theory describing me as incomplete, immature, unbalanced, in transition, and confused
- the use of that theory in a century of medical and therapeutic atrocities including criminalization, forced hospitalization, castration, reparative therapy, electroshock, hydrotherapy, medicalization, and mass murder
- seeing my sexuality debated as false on the basis of dubious scientific research in the New York Times
- discovering that the man who "falsified" my sexuality is still getting research funding to explain it as essentially straight or gay
- Bill Donohue using "bisexual" as a slur in describing David Bowie
- non-apologies from a leading sexuality columnist putting the blame for stereotypes on bisexual people for not coming out, in spite of having a presence at pride marches since the early 90s, speaking in front of city hall, and devoting hours to educational work
- monthly articles and op-eds on blogs treating my sexuality as titillating, threatening, problematic, or something to be kept secret
- a mass epidemic of relationship violence and abuse including rape against bisexual people (A "privilege" that can be violently withdrawn by straight partners at any time with the support of legal, medical, psychological care, and religious systems isn't a privilege.)
- bisexual non-monogamy used as the slippery slope argument against same-sex marriage, again, and again, and again, in the 1990s when same-sex marriage was first used as the conservative wedge issue, right up to the current month
- the murder of Lawrence King in 2008 while he attended middle school (and the hate-murder of other bi-identified people since)
Free to Be Miley: Amanda Petrusich @ Papermag
She says she has come to consider her own sexuality -- even her own gender identification -- fluid. "I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult -- anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me," she says. "I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl." She says she's had romantic entanglements with women that were just as serious as the ones (Liam Hemsworth, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Nick Jonas) that ended up in Us Weekly. "I've had that," she admits. "But people never really looked at it, and I never brought it into the spotlight."
(Since everyone else is blogging Miley.)
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
HIV risk among young gay, bi men tied to societal issues - Business Insider
HIV risk among young gay, bi men tied to societal issues - Business Insider:
People who described themselves as being in low to average social and economic groups were more likely to become HIV-positive than those in higher socioeconomic groups.
...
"HIV is a biological phenomena and it is a behavioral phenomena, but in this day and age it is a social and structural phenomena," he said.
ETA
Homophobia Increases HIV Risk In Gay, Bisexual Men @ University Herald
"Our findings suggest that rather than primarily being the result of personal failure, HIV risk is largely determined by national laws, policies, and attitudes toward homosexuality," John Pachankis, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "This study shows that gay and bisexual men in homophobic countries are denied the resources, including psychological resources like open self-expression, that are necessary to stay healthy."
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from the European MSM Internet Survey, which was completed by 174,000 gay and bisexual men. They compared this data to a measure of country-level laws, policies, and social attitudes toward homosexuality.
They found that attitudes about homosexuality varied greatly across the continent, but they noticed that men living in countries with higher levels of homophobia knew less about HIV and were less likely to use condoms. This finding leads the researchers to conclude that homophobia reduces the use of health services and compromises health-service quality.
Monday, June 8, 2015
The Evolution Of Angel Haze: Shanon Keating@Buzzfeed
“I spent a lot of time, in my earlier years of limelight, suppressing myself.” The rapper, who tackles homophobia and rape culture in verse, is making forays into TV and photography, working on a new record — and refusing to be suppressed any longer.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Sense8: First thoughts on Episodes One and Two
Sense8 (released on Netflix) tends to get a bit preachy at times. But it does something that I've seen lacking in many treatments of sexuality in mass media. It puts the LGBT community and culture of Nomi and her lover on the same footing as the other communities that the protagonists live in. Participation in San Francisco Pride is treated the same way as a Russian/German funeral, prenuptial celebrations in India, the business etiquette of Seoul, a Mexican movie premiere, and a day on the job for a Chicago police officer. And it's nice to see LGBT people who are not "straight-acting" as characters that are not played up for comedy, including the punky bears in the opening credits.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Bisexual community mourns loss of bisexual teen, Adam Kizer: BiNET USA
Bisexual community mourns loss of bisexual teen, Adam Kizer
REMEMBER before you pack for a trip that has no return, try and reach a community of people who have pretty much been there and survived. Give us the chance to remind you of your inheritance still to come. From orange juice boycotts to sex education to PRIDE itself, you are part of a legend still in the making but only if you make it to tomorrow.
--Faith Cheltenham
Bi Links: 4 June 2015
Father of Bisexual Teenager Who Died by Suicide: ‘It’s The Worst Pain You Can Ever Imagine’ (Advocate)
Advocate coverage of the Adam Kizer suicide.
Bisexual Jamaican Deportation Flight Canceled Pending Another Appeal (Advocate)
Deportation is on hold, again, for bisexual Orashia Edwards. His forced flight from the U.K. to his native Jamaica has been canceled, pending another appeal, as he tries to convince British authorities he is, in fact, bisexual.
Can Sexuality Be Changed? (The Atlantic)
A trial in New Jersey this week will determine whether telling gay people that they can become straight constitutes consumer fraud. The ruling might mean the end of so-called “conversion therapies” for good.
…
For one session that reportedly cost $100, Downing asked Levin to stand in front of a full-length mirror. According to court documents, Downing told Levin to say a negative thing about himself and remove an article of clothing with each criticism. When he was fully naked, Levin alleges that Downing told him to touch his penis and his buttocks. Eventually, Downing said “good,” and the session ended. Downing allegedly tried similar nudity-based methods on other JONAH clients.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Queereka | #BiphobiaKills – Why We Need To Talk About Bi Suicides - http://queereka.com/
Queereka | #BiphobiaKills – Why We Need To Talk About Bi Suicides - http://queereka.com/:
According to a 2011 study conducted by Joseph Robinson and Dorothy Espelage of the Illinois College of Education, out of the 33% of LGBTQ students surveyed who reported thinking about suicide during the past month, 44% of the bisexual youth surveyed they had contemplated suicide, placing bisexuals at a higher risk. The report also shows bisexual youths “wereat elevated risk of suicide attempts, with more than 21 percent reporting that they had made at least one attempt during the prior year.”
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