Bisexuality: Stonewalled

 By Madeleine Sorić

On the 25th of September 2015 in the United States, a film called Stonewall was released. It’s based on the true events of the Stonewall riots that occurred in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn. They were in protest of the police raids happening in many LGBT+ safe zones. The Stonewall Inn, owned by the mafia, was one of these safe places and, on June 28th 1969, it too was raided. Marsha P. Johnson, a black bisexual sex worker and drag queen with a fluid gender identity, is known for having thrown the first brick in the riots. Her close friend, Sylvia Rivera (a half Puerto Rican / Venezuelan, bisexual, drag queen with a fluid gender identity), co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). These two women are key icons in LGBT+ history, and yet, a white man plays Marsha’s role in the film while Sylvia isn’t even paid tribute. This character is a gay cis white man, and the public was outraged about the white-washing and transphobia in this action. However, a smaller group of the angered public was even more disgusted about the fact that nobody mentioned the bi erasure.

Bi erasure is a form of biphobia where bisexuality and bi issues aren’t mentioned in mainstream media. Bi erasure is how Piper’s sexuality (Orange is the New Black) is always described as “she was a lesbian, then she was straight, and now she’s a lesbian again”, or in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Willow calls herself “kinda gay” and nobody even mentions the possibility of bisexuality, and amazingly in Glee, when Blaine is questioning his homosexual identity and Kurt claims that ‘bisexual is a term gay guys use in high school when they want to hold hands with girls and feel normal for a change.’ Blaine discovers himself to not be bisexual and rather gay at the conclusion of the episode because Ryan Murphy thought gay kids needed to feel he was ‘one of them’, as if bisexual kids don’t need role models! These shows are known for their LGBT+ friendly attitudes, however they seem to forget about the B. 

It must be obvious to you all now that bi erasure can be extremely frustrating for bisexuals, but that is only part of the problem. Bi erasure has dangerous consequences. Due to the lack of discussion of the issue, issues faced by bisexuals aren't solved. A study in 2010 on 16,507 people found that 1 in every 6 heterosexual women experienced stalking and/or victimisation in their lifetime, while 1 in 3 bisexual women did. 23% of heterosexual women had experienced severe acts of violence from a partner, while 30% of lesbians had and 50% of bisexual women had. Thanks to mainstream feminism, it’s becoming common knowledge that 1 in every 5 women will be raped within her lifetime, however what people don’t know is that 3 in every 4 bisexual women in this study reported to have experienced rape. 

Bisexuals are less likely to come out than both gay and lesbian individuals, gay men are 4.1 times more likely to consider suicide than straight men, while bisexual men are 6.3 times more likely, bisexual individuals have reported higher levels of substance abuse than homosexual and heterosexual individuals, and out of all the funds given to help queer individuals, 0.3% was given to help programs for bisexuals, even though bisexuals are the majority of the LGBT+ community. 

Because all of these statistics exist, the bi erasure in Stonewall is not just a mistake or preference, it stands for so much more; it stands to erase bisexuals from LGBT+ history. In 2016 so many people jump to call themselves an ally, they’ll invade our personal safe spaces and enforce stereotypes to be seen as accepting. People say things like “who cares if you’re gay or straight, we’re all people” however this does more harm than good. When it comes to bisexuals, we need our identities to be loud, and apart of us. Stop telling me how to act, stop telling me what I am, stop erasing my identity. In the words of Slavoj Zizek, “sometimes, doing nothing is the most violent thing to do”. So call out biphobia and bi erasure, and start talking about bisexuality today.