Today marks the 12th anniversary of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, an international holiday devoted to promoting the visibility and lives of bisexual people. GLAAD encourages media outlets to use this opportunity to explore issues facing bisexual people and to incorporate bisexual stories into their news coverage. Bisexual people face unique challenges every day in the workplace, in schools and in their communities.
While similar events date back to 1991, Celebrate Bisexuality Day in its current iteration was created in 1999 by three bisexual rights activists — Michael Page, who created the bisexual flag; Wendy Curry, the current president of national bisexual civil rights organization BiNet USA; and Gigi Wilbur-Raven, who was also involved in BiNet USA. The celebration was announced at the annual meeting of the International Lesbian and Gay Association and has been celebrated ever since.
Wilbur-Raven released the following statement at that time:
“Ever since the Stonewall rebellion, the gay and lesbian community has grown in strength and visibility. The bisexual community also has grown in strength but in many ways we are still invisible. I too have been conditioned by society to automatically label a couple walking hand in hand as either straight or gay, depending upon the perceived gender of each person.”
This year members of the bisexual community and their allies will be celebrating across the country. In Chicago, Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago is hosting a panel tonight at 7 p.m. at the Center on Halsted to share the coming out stories of bisexual people. The event will be followed by a question and answer session and an hour of networking.
In Boston, the Bisexual Resource Center and their partners have organized a range of activities to celebrate. Tomorrow, Saturday Sept. 24, the center will host games and present their annual Unsung Hero Awards. Go to their website for more details.
GLAAD applauds these organizations and asks supporters to celebrate this day by attending and/or organizing events such as these in their local communities. If you know of any events in your community, please post them in the “comments” section!
For more information about bisexual issues, check out some of GLAAD’s interviews with bisexual rights advocates that were conducted for Celebrate Bisexuality Day in the past, including Robyn Ochs, Amy Andre, Mimi Hoang, and Faith Cheltenham, among others.
