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BiUK- looking back, looking forwards.

BiUK was established in 2004 by Meg-John Barker and Christina Richards, in order to promote and support bisexuality research in the UK and to create a link between academics and activists. It has always been run by a small core of volunteers, with no resources or funding other than that donated by members.

Our achievements so far include:

•  BiReCon: a biennial conference for academics, activists and practitioners   interested in bisexuality research- and its European spin-off, EuroBiReCon;
•  The Bisexuality Report: an influential 2012 report about the experiences of  bisexual people in the UK, with in excess of 100,000 downloads;
• Membership of theNational LGBT Partnership ;
• Attendinga historic White House briefing on bisexuality;
• Working withthe National LGBT Hate Crime Unit to produce resources to help individuals affected by hate crime, and to support agencies tackling hate crime.

Because of this increased profile, in 2014 It was decided that BiUK should become a more formally-constituted organisation.  A Board of Trustees was established, and membership was closed in order to allow the Board to establish the scope and remit of the organisation, and to investigate funding possibilities.

However, this move resulted in an unsustainable administrative burden for the Board, taking time away from our core work of promoting research and activism in the UK and beyond, while also preventing us from recruiting new members who might be able to contribute time and energy to the organisation.

The Board has therefore decided to step back from formalising BiUK, and to return the organisation to its original status as a loose network of academics and activists.

Business as usual

This is a internal restructure, so most stakeholders will be unlikely to notice any change in their dealings with BiUK. Our members will continue to conduct internationally-recognised research on bisexuality; to sit on the National LGBT Partnership; to engage with the media, and to provide research-informed advocacy on behalf of bi people with Government and decision-makers. We will continue to organise events bringing together academics, activists, practitioners and community members, and, where invited, to represent bi people and bi communities on wider stakeholder groups and at speaking/training events.

Stepping back from the formalisation process also means that BiUK is once again able to open to new members, and details of how to join will be announced soon.

Filed underActivism,Community,Events,Media,Research

New Resources by National LGBT Hate Crime Unit Published

ProfessorSurya Monro has worked on behalf of BiUK with the National LGBT Hate Crime Unit. They, and in consultation with other bi* activist groups, have produced a series of resources to help individuals affected by hate crime, and to support agencies tackling hate crime. These are published in advance ofNational Hate Crime Awareness Week that will take place from the 8th to 15th October 2016.

The 17 resources, and 5 videos, offer guidance and practical help on a wide  range of subjects, including:

• Emergency Accommodation
• Financial assistance schemes
• Practical help keeping a record of incidents
• Guidance for LGBT parents on talking to their children about bullying
• Tackling Biphobia and Transphobia

The full set of the 17 resources, and 5 videos, can be found  on the LGBT Hate Crime Unit’s Public Resources pages or at:  www.lgbthatecrime.org.uk.

The leaflet on Tackling Biphobia: A Guide for Safety Services is available to downloadhere.

Filed underActivism,Community,Research

British Bisexuality: Purple Prose out now!

Meg-John Barker reflects on the awesome new book on British Bisexuality…

Last week saw the launch of a book project that I’m very excited to be part of:Purple Prose.

This collection, edited byKate Harrad, brings together experiences from a diverse spectrum of bisexual folk in Britain today. It works as a how-to guide to British bi communities and identities, as well as providing a fascinating insight into the wide range of experiences under the bisexual umbrella.

A particular strength of the book is its focus onintersectionality. Most writing on bisexuality, includingThe Bisexuality Report which I was part of, focus on bisexual people as a fairly unified group: how they are represented, the challenges they face, bi-specific discrimination, etc. The problem with this approach is that bisexual experiences – like all experiences – are very different depending on other intersecting aspects of identity and experience such as gender, class, race, disability, geographical location, generation. Also, asShiri Eisner points out, there are vital links between bisexual activism and feminist, trans and queer activism, anti-racism, and other anti-oppression movements, which are vital to attend to because a single-issue kind of activism can’t get us very far.

For these reasons it’s great to see a book in which at least half of the chapters are devoted to specific intersections (e.g. ‘Bisexual and disabled’, ‘Bisexual Black and Minority Ethic People‘, ‘Bisexuals and Faith’).

Even within these chapters there is a clear sense of the range of experiences that exist amongst any specific group, such as older bisexual people or non-monogamous bis, for example. In the chapter that I co-edited withFred Langdridge, ‘The Gender Agenda’, we decided to foreground the experiences ofnon-binary bisexual people, given that there are already books aboutbisexualwomen andbisexual men, but none on this topic. While we included the voices of bisexual people of many genders, we gave specific attention to those who are non-binary in terms of both their sexuality and their gender. Even within that group we discovered many differences in relation to how they related to the term ‘bisexual’, how they experienced their gender and sexuality, whether these things changed over time or not, and how they were navigated in their close relationships and communities.

We still have a long way to go on bisexuality in Britain given that thebiggest group under the LGBT umbrella still has thehighest rate of mental health problems, and gets the least attention in policy and practice, both outside and within the LGBT sector.Purple Prose is definitely a step in the right direction.

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withactivism,biphobia,bisexual,bisexual men,bisexual women,bisexuality,intersectionality,invisibility,Kate Harrad,mental health,non-binary gender,Purple Prose,The Bisexuality Report

Pink Therapy: Beyond Gay and Straight

On March 12th 2016 the UK LGBTQ+ therapy organisationPink Therapy ran a conference on working with bisexual people. You can read summaries of the conferencehere andhere, and view all of the talks on thePink Therapy YouTube channel for the conference.

Filed underActivism,Community,Events,MediaTagged withbiphobia,bisexual,bisexual invisibility,bisexuality,counselling,mental health,psychotherapy,therapy

Book launch – Bisexuality: Identities, Politics, and Theories – 29 January 2016

BOOK LAUNCH:Bisexuality: Identities, Politics, and Theories

AuthorSurya Monro (University of Huddersfield and BiUK)

Discussants
Christian Klesse (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Milena Popova (Bisexual activist and academic)

Matthew Waites (Glasgow University)
Angelia Wilson (Manchester University)

Friday 29 January 2016, 7.30-9.00

LGBT Foundation
5 Richmond Street
Manchester M1 3HF
Map viahttp://lgbt.foundation/About-us/Contact-us/

To book a place please contacta.holmes@hud.ac.uk (places are limited)

About Bisexuality: Identities, Politics, and Theories:
Bisexuality has been largely erased from studies of sexuality and gender, and people who desire others of more than one gender often remain invisible. This book sets a new agenda for considering sexualities and genders, by focusing on the lives of people who are bisexual or who have other identities that are not heterosexual, lesbian or gay, in an international context. What are bisexual people’s lived experiences? How can these be understood using social and political theories? What are the implications of bisexuality for future theorising and research? In addressing these and other questions, this book maps out under-explored territory. It does so by looking at topical themes, including sex and relationships, community, the commodification of bisexuality, and activism. The book also shows how understandings of bisexuality can usefully inform the social sciences in areas such as identity construction, social inequalities, postcolonial relations, and citizenship.

“This is a must-read book for anyone in the field of sexuality. Not only is it the first academic book for years to deal with the woefully invisible topic of bisexuality, but it is also of much broader appeal given that it synthesises and integrates sexuality theories and research in a way that is both sophisticated and engaging. The global perspective of the book also sets it apart, and will provide a strong foundation for future scholarship and activism in this area to build on.”

– Meg John Barker, The Open University and BiUK, United Kingdom

Filed underActivism,Events,Research

LGBT Hate Crime Project: Number of people seeking help for hate crimes more than doubles

Number of people seeking help for hate crimes more than doubles

Filed underActivism,ResearchTagged withactivism,bisexuality,hate crime,LGBT,LGBTQ,research

Bisexual Health Videos

There’s a brilliant set of videos on bisexual health available now on the Rainbow Health Ontario website covering friendship, partners, family and service-providers. Here’s one of them to give you a flavour.

See more…

It’d be great to do something like this in the UK in future. Take note all LGBT organisations who’re looking to up your B profile! Meanwhile thanks so much to Rainbow Health Ontario for this 🙂

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withbisexual,health,relationships

BiUK response to Stonewall bi consultation

Back in February, several of us from BiUK were involved in a consultation betweenStonewalland the UK bisexual community about how they could improve their work around bisexuality. You can readBisexuality Report author, and head ofThe Bisexual Index, Marcus Morgan’s summary of this hopeful dayhere.

Last month Stonewall published a report of that consultation which you can download here.

Here is BiUK’s response to Stonewall’s report, also downloadable as a pdfhere.

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST BIPHOBIA

BiUK’s response to the outcome of Stonewall’s consultation with bi communities

1. BiUK remains supportive of Stonewall’s decision to consult with bi communities with a view to becoming more proactively engaged with challenging biphobia in the United Kingdom. We also welcome Stonewall’s acceptance that some of its actions over its first twenty five years, whilst claiming to represent the interests of bi people, often led to greater marginalisation and exclusion of people who identify as bisexual, or may have identified in this way had they not been made to feel unwelcome as bi within lesbian and gay communities and spaces.
2. BiUK was pleased to receive the short note prepared by Stonewall following its consultation session with around 40 bi activists and others in February 2015. Like others though, we regret that it took until late July for the note to appear, some three months after the promised circulation date of Easter.
3. In terms of the contents of that note and the actions Stonewall proposes to take internally and externally, we of course welcome any steps which will seek to challenge biphobia in L&G and straight communities and to enhance bi visibility within Stonewall and beyond.
4. In particular, we support Stonewall’s proposals to empower its staff to be bi allies and role models. We regret however that Stonewall has failed to acknowledge that at present none of its trustees or senior staff identify as bisexual, nor did it propose to take steps to rectify this situation. Stonewall has undertaken at least two trustee recruitment exercises in the last twelve months and on neither occasion did it identify that bi people were under/un-represented on its board. BiUK notes that this is in stark contrast to the efforts Stonewall has made to recruit both a trans trustee and senior staff member, which we nonetheless fully support.
5. We would also ask Stonewall to recognise the difficulty that is presented by asking comparatively junior staff to take the lead on engagement with bi communities. Whilst we welcome the fact that the staff coming to BiCon 2015 to continue Stonewall’s conversation with bi communities are bi identifying, and the engagement of the same staff in liaising with bi organisations, it is problematic that they are not in a position to commit Stonewall in policy and resource terms.
6. Turning to what Stonewall proposes to do externally, we welcome the initiatives identified in the note, particularly by empowering bi role models and campaigning against biphobia within lesbian and gay communities. Our deputy chair, Edward Lord, has already offered to assist Stonewall in securing some funding for this work and our chair, Meg John Barker, has made some content suggestions for the anti-biphobia campaign.
7. In supporting this work, however, we expect to see Stonewall pay more than just lip service to bi people. We would hope that graduates from the bi specific role models programme would be used by Stonewall in its work in schools and workplaces to ensure that Stonewall role models are more fully reflective of the wider LGBT community.
8. In terms of the proposals to hear, listen, and engage more with bi people, we look forward to hearing much more about how Stonewall proposes to make this a reality as we are yet to see any significant evidence of active engagement with bi communities. BiUK, as the UK’s national organisation for bi research and activism through its expert academic trustees and associates wants to reiterate its comprehensive and open offer to partner with Stonewall to ensure that its publications, campaigns and programmes are fully reflective of the needs and experiences of bi people and in line with the most up to date research data available.
9. We were disappointed that Stonewall’s most recent research-based report, Unhealthy Attitudes, did not make use of this offer. BiUK would certainly have emphasised the need to tease apart the data from LG and B people given what we know about how bi people generally suffer more in these areas, and how amalgamating data erases this difference and means that resources rarely get to bi people. It would also have been nice to see some reference to‘The Bisexuality Report’ and to the recent Equality Network‘Complicated?‘ report which dealt with very similar issues in the bi community specifically.
10. Finally, whilst we accept entirely that this will take time to get right, we are disappointed that the next report from Stonewall is not planned until late 2016, potentially almost two years since the first consultation event. We would urge Stonewall to consider an interim report in early 2016 and also recommend that Stonewall establishes a small bi advisory group to assist it to remain focused on speedy and effective delivery. We would naturally be willing to participate in such a group.

Dr Meg John Barker

Chair, BiUK

August 2015

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withbiphobia,Stonewall

The Bisexuality Report in Metro

Today’sMetroincluded a greatarticle about biphobia which included numerous mentions of BiUK’s Bisexuality Report.

Many thanks to journalist Francesca Kentish, and to clinical psychologist Siri Harrison for some great insights throughout the article.

‘Just a phase’? This is why we need to talk about biphobia

Unless you’ve been in hiding for the past 40 years, chances are you know what homophobia means.

The same can’t be said for biphobia.

Simply put, biphobia is when people are prejudiced towards bisexuals.

It’s pretty similar to homophobia, except people often aren’t aware it’s happening.

Bisexuals often face added discrimination from people within the LGBT community as well as discrimination from heterosexual people.

Chances are you will have seen biphobia on TV or heard someone make a biphobic comment without even realising it.

Ever heard someone jokingly say bisexuals are greedy?

That’s biphobia.

Or that bisexuals should make up their minds?

Biphobia strikes again.Read more…

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withmedia,The Bisexuality Report

BiUK Celebrated in the Purple List

We were delighted today to see three members of BiUK celebrated in the first everPurple List:Biscuit magazine’s list of ‘people who make the world a little brighter for bi* people’. BiUK research associateCaroline Walters, and BiUK trusteesSurya MonroandMeg John Barker were all recognised on the list for their work, as were a number of other brilliant bi activists, writers, and celebrities.

The Purple List was conceived as a counter-balance to the high levels of invisibility around bisexuality, and the double discrimination experienced by bi people, meaning they are often not recognised in similar LG(BT) awards ceremonies and honours lists, despite bi people making uphalf of LGB people.

We look forward to seeing other people – including further BiUK members perhaps! – celebrated in future editions of the list, as we’re assured that it will be published every year from now on, recognising the work of different people each year. AsBiscuitsays, there are many‘awesome people who give their time, energy, cash and resources to make life a little bit better for bisexual people’. It’s great to see that acknowledged in this way. Thank youBiscuit.

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withactivism,purple list

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