How are you planning on celebrating this September?
BY CALYPSO LLOYD-DAVIES
It’s almost September, which can only mean one thing… It’s time to celebrate our brilliant bisexuals.
September is bound to be bi-conic with Bisexual Visibility Week running from 16 September to official Bisexual Visibility Day, 23 September. The entire month is seen as a celebration of bisexuality, so how did Bi Visibility Day come about, and why is it so important?
Back in 1990, in San Francisco, it was first officially declared that there would be a Bisexual Pride Day. Originally, this was decided to fall on 23 June by a bisexual organisation in the US called BiNet USA. A few years later, in 1999, the day was first observed to be celebrated in South Africa, at an International Lesbian and Gay Association conference in Johannesburg.
One of the founders of the Bisexual Visibility Day, as we now know it, was Wendy Curry, working alongside founders Michael Page and Gigi Raven Wilbur. Curry stated the hilarious reason we now celebrate the day on 23 September is because of Freddie Mercury: “We all loved the great bisexual, Freddie Mercury. His birthday was in September, so why not Sept? We wanted a weekend day to ensure the most people would do something. Gigi’s birthday was 23 September. It fell on a weekend day, so poof! We had a day.”
And that was it. From then on, the day grew in popularity and remained a day to raise awareness and celebrate.
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction to more than one sex or gender. But it is a sexuality that faces harmful stereotypes, from both outside and inside the LGBTQIA+ community.
A common stereotype is that bisexuals “can’t pick a side”, labelling them as “greedy”. Another misconception coming from within the queer community is that bisexual people have “straight-passing privilege”.This harmful narrative overshadows one’s identity, and this rejection from their own community gives them no safe haven or acceptance.
Bisexual Visibility Day, Week and Month help us fight this erasure of identity, enhancing visibility, awareness and bisexual role models. Today, we have made great steps to recognise the Bi+ Umbrella, embracing pansexuality, polysexuality, and queer fluidity in general. September is a time to remind ourselves, as Wendy Curry put it, “we are wonderful just as we are”.
So, whether you plan to be out on the town or to have a cosy, autumnal day in, we hope you celebrate all things bi this September, and remember the importance of pride.
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