This past Friday was Bisexual Visibility Day, as you might have known already. Or not, because maybe we weren't so visible that day on your Facebook feed. (Yes, I'm aware I used "we". If you haven't figured it out already, here it is.) And it may not seem important enough on the surface to warrant a dedicated day, but the shocking amount of stigma and lack of knowledge held against bisexuality more than justifies the day's inception.
Why?
Firstly, it's justified because we're not just hornier and we're not just "easier." We're not just opening up the dating pool more so that we can have an easier time finding a partner. Hormones get the better of us too, but bisexuals can be just as picky in choosing a mate as hetero- and homosexuals, and we all have our own preferences too. Bisexuality is definitely not a crutch to get laid more often, in spite of that representation in modern television and film (a representation we naturally despise with a burning passion).
It's justified because we're not just "experimenting." If you're like me and like labelling (unlike a mass of LGBTQ+ people), we see this experimentation as "bi-curious". Maybe those people will move on to accept themselves as bisexuals, maybe they are the stereotypical drunk girl in their twenties who makes out with her equally inebriated friends. Who knows? That, however, is not genuine bisexuality. Genuine bisexuality typically means an acceptance of attraction to all genders, not just casual, meaningless experimentation.
On that note, it's justified because bisexuals are not simply closeted homosexuals who are afraid to come out as completely gay. We aren't using bisexuality as a stepping stone towards full homosexuality. Bisexuality is just as stigmatized, if not more so, than homosexuality, and so if we were to come out, there isn't a point to come out as something more looked down upon if it isn't true.
It is because we don't want bisexuality to be looked down upon, to be viewed as more sinful than hetero- or homosexuality, that we celebrate ourselves. We were born the way that we were, so it is no more or less natural to be bisexual than any other orientation.
As a cisgender male, it is because meeting another bisexual male is a rarity. Too many of us are scared to be open because of a lack of community among bisexual men. We're stigmatized even further: seen as "too straight" by many gay men and "too gay" by many heterosexual girls, when in fact, we're neither. We're just bisexual, and that's the simple truth.
It is because we want to educate you about what bisexuality really is, and show you that it's alive and present in our world, more than ever before. It's something we want to be proud of, but that's hard to accomplish if we're constantly shamed by uneducated bigots. Bisexual Visibility Day serves all of these purposes and is, if anything, a small tool to open up conversation and defeat all these myths surrounding bi culture.
