Advocate Today | By The Numbers: Bi+ Health Awareness Month
There is a deadly mental health epidemic in the United States. And it is disproportionately targeting LGBTQ+ people. As a bi queer woman, I say enough is enough. It’s time for us to ensure our own quality care by building a network of queer-affirming therapists, starting here in Los Angeles.
As part of the PFLAG National’s podcast, we discuss the NY Times article “Harry Styles Walks a Fine Line,” with Raina Deerwater, Entertainment Research and Analysis Manager at GLAAD Media Institute; Mackenzie Harte, Learning and Inclusion Coordinator here at PFLAG National; and Nicole Kristal, President and Executive Director at Still Bisexual.
Bisexuals make up the largest share of LGBT Americans, but don’t tell Google. Or any venture capitalist, tech bro, or entrepreneur, for that matter. Until as late as 2014, “bisexual” was blocked from Google’s autocomplete service because of the word’s correlation to searches for pornography. A quick search for pansexual dating apps includes hits for listicle round-ups to help you find “whatever you’re after,” and the interface on BiCupid, which advertises itself as the world’s largest dating site for bisexual singles and couples, is a dead-ringer for the dating sites of the early 2000s.
Despite making up the largest portion of the LGBTQ community, bisexual people still face innumerable misconceptions about who they are — both from within the community and outside of it. The stereotypes and myths that continue to be perpetuated about them cast them in, well, a bad (and flat-out false) light. To help combat this, INTO enlisted 13 public-facing bisexuals to bask in the glow of bisexual lighting, and to tell us what being bi+ means to them. For most, it holds an important significance that is often overshadowed by outsiders’ perceptions.
