Bisexual Awareness Week is observed throughout the UK from 16th-23rd September 2022 with the aim of promoting cultural acceptance of the bisexual community, improving visibility of bi+ people and creating a platform for advocating bisexual rights.
To celebrate 25 years of Bi Visibility Day, we spoke to Jen from BiPhoria, the UK's longest running bi group about the important work they're doing with the group and how you can get involved.
What is BiPhoria?
We’re the UK’s longest running bi group, based in Manchester and launched in 1994, so here for more than a quarter of a century now. Back in those days you developed catchy names rather than ones people would google, so the name is a blend of “bisexual” and “euphoria”, as we want to overturn experiences of biphobia and the shame it can bring into a sense of celebrating your bisexuality. We’re actually about both bisexual and biromantic experience, whichever label under the bi umbrella (pan, omni etc) people prefer. Attracted to more than one gender? You’re bi enough.
How long have you been part of BiPhoria?
Right back to almost the start – I was there at the fourth meeting in December 1994. I’d actually gone into the Gay Centre on Sydney Street to ask about setting up a bi group because I was fed up of enduring or challenging biphobia in “LG” spaces. As I was just starting to deal with being trans it also needed to be something that wasn’t a gender based group, which a lot of spaces were at that time. But there on the wall was a poster for a group that had just launched. Since then I’ve missed about four sessions, so with about fifteen to twenty people along at each meeting over the years I’ve met a lot of bis! And I’m still not tired of it: I should probably be on a TV show talking about being addicted to hearing people’s coming out stories.
What does BiPhoria do?
We started out as a social/support group for bi people ages 18 and up – just being in a room full of other bi people, where you don’t have to defend bisexuality being real or an equally valid experience of being queer, is powerful and rare. Over time that grew to include doing outreach work, providing speakers for events, and research and publications. But our core mission is still providing a safe, supportive space for bi folx.
We're celebrating 25 years of Bi Visibility Day this month, what does that mean to you, and how have things changed over the last 25 years?
Manchester has a long history of marking Bi Visibility Day, going right back to the start in 1999 when BiPhoria had a street stall on Canal Street that night.
In those days it was more focused on celebrating bi projects and events – things like our group or the Manchester based bi magazine Bi Community News, and things we have lost in the years since then, like the old bisexual telephone helpline.
The Day has evolved a lot in a quarter of a century, and become a much wider celebration of bi life than it was back then, visible not just in a niche of LGBTQ+ culture, but in the mainstream: trending on social media, talked about in newspapers and so on.
"My activism is motivated not by role model heroes but by frustration."
Why did you choose to use Manchester as a base for BiPhoria, and why do you think Manchester has had such a legacy of being at the forefront of LGBTQ+ activism?
It wasn’t so much a case of choosing Manchester as Manchester choosing us – the city was famously good on lesbian and gay rights in the 80s including the huge Stop Section 28 demo. However it was different for bi people – erased by council equality policies and often turned away from bars in the gay village. I think as a city we got lost in our own myth and stopped learning and evolving, so other places overtook us.
My activism is motivated not by role model heroes but by frustration. It was inspired by going to events and hearing bisexuality dismissed time and again as a phase or attention-seeking from councillors and community leaders who I thought would know better.
What advice would you give someone who is bi/questioning and struggling with stigma or finding community?
Grab a copy of Getting Bi In A Gay / Straight World or something similar, find space with other bi people as there’s nothing as powerful as meeting real bi people to break all the stigma you may have had wrapped up around the label. And remember that you know what’s going on in your head and your heart far better than the people around you!
The final thing though is the old Douglas Adams advice: don’t panic. If today is your driving test, or you have to wait six months more before you can live independently and be freer to express yourself – deal with what will drown you first. That first kiss with a boy or girl or enby can wait a little longer if it needs to.
Can you tell us about some of your activities?
In a typical month we have Bi+ Talky Space (structured discussion on zoom), socials (back to in-person pubs and cafes these days!) and other things our bimonthly bi book club. Then from time to time we do bigger or one-off events, like hosting our 25th birthday party at 70 Oxford Street as part of Manchester Pride in 2019. And in a typical summer we are there putting the “B” into half-a-dozen or more Prides around the region. People who have never been to our events may nonetheless have spotted our “this banner is on the fence, bisexuals aren’t” sign facing on to Canal Street each September as part of our regular Bi Visibility Day work.
We made a decision back in 1998 to add a message to our website making it clear we were a trans inclusive space, long before most LGB groups made such statements. We hosted an international bi conference in 2000 with 265 people from 20 countries. Our first BiFest in 2006, with about 130 people joining us for a day and night of bi talk, performance and socialising. And making something happen for Bi Visibility Day back in 1999, when it was first marked and no-one knew what a feature of the LGBT+ calendar it would grow to become.
How can people get involved with BiPhoria? What can they expect from their first visit?
Newcomers start off with our Talky Space meets which are at 7.30pm the first Wednesday of each month, which have a structured discussion space with the first half-hour just for newcomers because - even on Zoom - walking into a room full of strangers can be a challenge. Drop an email to bis@biphoria.org.uk and tell us this was where you found us!
Find out more about BiPhoria here: https://www.biphoria.org.uk
Follow BiPhoria here: https://twitter.com/BiPhoria
https://www.facebook.com/BiPhoria
https://www.instagram.com/biphoria/
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