bi+ history month

Let's Make History!

[A square image in overlapping shades of the pink, purple, and blue of the bi flag, with a joyful Black woman centered on it, arms outstretched and face upraised. Text reads: Prepare your posts. Spread the word. May is Bi+ History Month.]

You'll find lots here to learn and share. Create your own posts about bi+ community, culture, and action over the years, and tag them with #BiHistoryMonth!

Why Bi+ History Month?

We're not just talking about history books here. "History" is everything.

Knowing our own history lets us take pride in our community's contributions to larger cultures. It gives us the option to tell our stories in TV and print media, including educational materials. Which really helps end the cycle of erasure, secrecy, and stigma.

Everyone on earth needs to see their experiences represented accurately. To see that they're a part of something bigger than themselves.

It lets us feel supported, discover new sides of ourselves, and find positive roles to play in the world.

It lets us begin to feel equal to the straight people whose stories we've been told all our lives. Like we, too, can have great lives and achieve great things.

When people can see that their identity connects them to the Ballad of Mulan, to the Civil Rights Movement, to Shakespeare, it gives them a deep sense of connection, joy, and pride.

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But people who are under that "bi umbrella", whether they use bi, pan, poly, omni, heteroflexible, homoflexible, fluid, no labels, or just plain queer? We struggle to find that representation anywhere.

When hundreds of articles describe a Supreme Court case as deciding whether employment discrimination laws cover "gay and transgender workers," they're erasing bi/pan workers from history in progress.

(And helping erase the fact that although gay/lesbian pay rates are now about equal to their straight peers, bi men make 88¢ to each of those dollars. Bi women? 72¢.)

When the bi+ representation on top-rated shows includes:

They're joining many other shows in a historical pattern of treating bisexuality as a joke, a myth, and a problem.

(And contributing to the fact that, although GLAAD's research shows that 56% of the community is bi/pan, on scripted TV the same demographic is 20% bi+ and shrinking. So is the queer representation on broadcast and cable TV overall. But even streaming services, which had a 13% increase in queer characters, included 8% fewer bi+ people this year.)

When there are no bi+ history books; when bi+ content is glossed over or, more often, left out of LGBT+ history books and documentaries....

When most of the community knows that Pride commemorates Stonewall, but not that the "Mother of Pride," Brenda Howard, was a Jewish bi woman....

When most of us can name Stonewall, Sylvia Rivera, and Marsha P. Johnson, but had no idea that Sylvia and Marsha were not only iconic trans women of color, but bi+ icons as well....

When none of the LGBT+ curriculum materials available have any bi+ content....

We struggle to feel safety, support, joy, or pride.

Against a pink-lavender-violet gradient, white text says: ALMOST 25% OF BI+ TEENS IN THE U.S., AND ONE IN SEVEN GAY TEENS, SURVIVED SUICIDE ATTEMPTS WITHIN JUST THE PAST YEAR. A bar graph below that illustrates this with the statistics: Straight (teens), 6%. Gay/lesbian, 15%. Bi+, 22.6%. Data is from the CDC's 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. white typewriter text against a lavendar wall says: When the people creating documentaries, articles, books, movies, even sitcomes, don't include people like you, they're showing you your stories are worth less than other people's. Your experiences are worth less. Your lives are worthless. Larger text over a purple TV screen says: IT'S A POWERFUL MESSAGE. a pink gradient with purple edges says: social anxiety. imposter syndrome. depression. suicidality. low self-esteem. these all grow from the belief that you don't belong. that you're not good enough. that your commmunity doesn't value who you are. that part of you is required to stay hidden, isolated. Image of a gravestone with ornate spirals carved around the edge, overlaid with fog and a bi flag gradient. Text over that, in typewriter lettering, says: Our community has fought that message, hard and well, for 40 years. So the message shifted. Now, many school boards and legislators are pretending our existence is actively harmful. They hope silencing it will keep future generations from recognizing and accepting themselves. They hope to drive us all underground. Metaphorically, or literally.

There are many ways to measure oppression and its effects.

Some of the most common ways include the rates of harassment, assault, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and more.

The scariest, and clearest, might be suicidality.

Every oppressed community can point to disproportionately high rates of assault and murder.

But the very highest numbers measure our desires and attempts to kill ourselves.

Lots of situations can contribute to suicidal feelings. But studies consistently show that what's at the root of those feelings is thwarted belongingness or social isolation.

In other words: the deep shame and hopelessness caused by your community rejecting you.

[Against a purple glitter background, typewriter text reads: As if we haven/'t learned that when they hate what you are, you double down on it. (and then, in much bigger bolder letters): our stories are poison to them. let's tell every. single. one.] [Be part of Bi+ History! None of it is common knowledge. We're all learning and sharing together. Check bihistorymonth.org for resources. Share your discoveries: A zine. A song. A person. An idea. A moment. A memory. If you like, add your own thoughts; make a video; create art. Tag it with #BiHistoryMonth. Share what others tag.]

RESOURCES



One of the members of the Bi History Group, Angélique Gravely, wrote this pay-what-you-want guide on "Finding The B In LGBTQ+ History." It's "a short guide with insights on how to uncover bi+ history, and pages of resources to help you get started!”

icon: the words Bi History against a purple gradient

The Bi+ History Project has a podcast, a list of bi+ magazines across the decades you can read online. Its Instagram, @bihistory, is full of stories and fun facts. It also created...

[icon: rainbow-colored book icons over the words the bi pan library]

...the Bi Pan Library, an independent archive listing bi, pan, and m-spec media.

icon of pansexuality org's twitter account, which happens to be deadpool intently writing in a notebook against a pan flag background.

PansexualityOrg, on Twitter, has collected a lot of information on pansexual characters, the use of the term “pansexual” over the years, and pansexual statistics.

icon showing verily bitchie's Bisexuality playlist on youtube

Verily Bitchie (aka Verity Ritchie) makes great videos exploring many aspects of nonbinary orientations and genders. She has many on bi+ history, including (but not limited to!) History of the Word "Bisexual"; The Invasion of Lesbianville, Massachussetts; The “Rampant Transphobia” Of Bisexual History, and even Bisexual Activism in the 70s: The San Francisco Bisexual Center.

icon of the internet archive's open library

OpenLibrary has a ton of ebooks you can read for free, including many vintage tomes on bisexuality. A few classics include Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, View From Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women, Closer To Home: Bisexuality & Feminism, The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writing by Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women, and the 1997 Bisexual Resource Guide.

icon with red text on black saying The Arquives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives

The ArQuives collects materials in any medium, by and about LGBTQ2+ people, primarily produced in or about Canada. It's had two specifically bi+ history exhibitions so far: on pansexual transgender activist Rupert Raj and bisexual activism in Toronto, 1980s-2000s. But there's plenty of bi+ content in the rest of its exhibitions and collections.

icon for facebook's bi history group

Not only does the Bi History Facebook Group contain over a decade's worth of posts about bi+ events, writing, performance, activism, and other history, but it's also chock-full of the very people who were there and did that. (Yes, it's a "private group," but that just means it's moderated; you are encouraged to join!)

icon for the Outwords Archive: Queer History Lives Here. Our Story. Forever.

The OutWords Archive is a great resource because not only have they made an active effort to include bi+ people in their oral history project, but they also have searchable transcripts of every single one. A few of their bi+ profiles: Marcus Arana, a Native, bi+, trans activist; Gigi Raven Wilbur, a bi+ intersex activist; ABilly S. Jones-Hennin a Black bi+ activist; and Lani Ka’ahumanu, a Japanese-Hawaiian-Jewish-Irish bi+ activist.

icon for digital transgender archive

The Digital Transgender Archive The vast majority of trans people have nonbinary orientations. In the 2015 US Trans Survey, 53% were bi+, and 10% were ace, for a total of 63%. In the 2018 UK LGBT Survey, 50% of trans people were bi+, 5.4% were ace, and another 12% chose Other, Don't Know, or Prefer Not To Say, for a total of 67.4%. So it's not surprising that the Digital Transgender Archive has a lot of good bi+ content. Among their interviews and other personal stories, there are bi+ trans people talking about being Black, Buddhist, autistic, intersex, musicians, Jewish, anarchist, communist, feminist, Indigenous, Korean, actors, athletes, sex workers, and of course, activists.

icon with polka-dotted cover of LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History

The National Park Service has a project called Telling All Americans' Stories, which includes LGBTQ America, a full book of LGBTQ+ history. They specifically "commissioned chapters providing broad historical contexts for two spirit, transgender, Latino/a, African American Pacific Islander, and bisexual communities," as well as one on intersectionality. Legendary bi+ activist Loraine Hutchins wrote the chapter called Making Bisexuals Visible. It's fantastic. That chapter is far and away the closest thing we have to a bi+ history book.



2020 BiCon included a presentation on "Local Bi+ Activism 1970s & Forward, with Lani Ka'ahumanu, in conversation with Jen Yee." Lani Ka'ahumanu has been called one of the mothers of the bisexual movement. She has a deep and fascinating knowledge of local bi+ history, because she was there for most of it. Come be a fly on that wall!

icon of part of one cover saying That Moves - The Magazine for the Resurgent Bisexual, featuring a greyscale fist surrounded by colorful paper, above a headline reading Touring Queer America.

Anything That Moves was a groundbreaking, influential bi+ magazine, published from 1991-2001 by the Bay Area Bisexual/Pansexual Network. Not only did it talk about bi+ history, but it serves as an excellent archive of what was happening in the movement locally, nationally, and sometimes globally - including its broad overlap with the trans community. And now, you can read every issue online!

icon of the youtube thumbnail for this youtube video: a bi flag with pictures from this bi history exhibit, and large white capital letters that say It's Bi+ History Time

Bi activists Lani Ka'ahumanu, Emily Drennen, Martin Rawlings-Fein, and Lindasusan Ulrich, curated this GLBT Historical Society exhibit on local bi+ history, "BiConic Flashpoints: Four Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics," which ran from May 2014 - April 2015. Martin made this short film about it for Bi+ History Month 2020, so you can "visit" the exhibit any time you want!

image of social media icons printed on wooden building blocks

And don't forget to explore and boost everyone's posts on tumblr, twitter, instagram, tiktok, and bluesky. (Image by Today Testing on Wikimedia Commons.)