Pride Presence – The Bi Way
By Bryen Dunn
We’re at the height of summer here in North America, and for a great many in the GBLT community this means a time of Pride. Great progress has been made around the world to recognize gay and lesbian lifestyles, and acceptance has never been greater. The move is on to recognize gay marriages, and many places such as Canada are leading the way. Let’s not forget Denmark who had legalized gay marriages over 10 years ago.
So as you head out to celebrate as a bisexual, who do you identify with? Many bisexuals feel lost in the crowd, so to speak. Having a voice and presence at Pride is an important component of many bisexual activists and groups. Progress has been made in the gay and lesbian community over the past several years, but the bisexual community has lagged behind until recently.
September 23rd is now celebrated internationally as Celebrate Bisexuality Day. The goal of the day is to challenge the pervasive notion that people can be defined by the gender of their partners. It was implemented in 1999 by several activists, including Michael Page who is also responsible for creating the bisexual flag a year earlier. The Bi Pride Flag features horizontal bands of pink, purple and turquoise. The symbolism of the colors is an evolution of the pink and blue triangles first used by gays and lesbians, and it has been widely accepted by bi activists worldwide.
So why are we not seeing more bi presence at Pride festivities? It goes without saying that much can be accomplished through participation, visibility and activism. For years Pride festivities around the world have been referred to as “Gay Pride Day”. This in itself is very inclusive and can be intimidating to other groups who are part of the “queer” community, but might feel alienated at the same time. By dropping the “gay” reference it makes the celebrations more welcoming to the queer community as a whole.
Gays are straight -
And straights are weird
The bi's just call
Everybody 'dear'.
Marianne Faithful – A Thrills’ a Thrill
Pride Toronto (www.pridetoronto.com) has been attune to the needs of the bisexual community and over the years has worked hard to make their festival more inclusive, including electing bisexual coordinators and incorporating bisexual awareness into their volunteer training. In fact, the incorporated name is now The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transsexual, and Transgendered Pride Committee of Toronto. The proclamation was officially changed in 1999 with the efforts of local activists, including Margaret Robinson. As Pride Toronto celebrated 25 years, the 2005 festival was bigger than ever and there were many performers that encompassed all sexualities.
Toronto also has the distinction of having two gay village centers. The Queer West Village has quickly become an oasis for the more “artsy-avant-garde” queer set. This second “village” is home to many of the GLBT community, and offers an array of entertainment, cultural, and shopping experiences. The 6th annual Parkdale Pride, sponsored in part by the Gay West Community Network (http://gaywest.905host.net), generally happens two weeks prior to Toronto Pride. It’s quite a bit smaller in scope, attracting in the range of 200 individuals to their community BBQ.
This queer grassroots network is gaining recognition as an “alternative” to the traditional GLBT stereotypes. It is set up to allow individuals and groups to post queer and queer-positive events outside of the downtown “gay village”. There’s also a great support network that allows for individuals to organize their own events and sub-groups by providing a free web presence and database broadcasts. In celebration of Bisexual Day last year, the Toronto Bisexual Network presented a west-end event, “Anything That Grooves”, which provided a safe, fun environment for all. Entertainment included comics, performances and a kissing booth.
The organized bisexual community in Toronto (www.torontobinet.org) has a history going back to 1989, with a separate women’s group (www.biwot.org) existing since 1994 and a men’s group (www.bimot.org) since 2000. Again, in the scope of time this is all part of a very recent movement. Bi Net Canada (www.binetcanada.ca) is an organization that educates about bisexuality and sexual diversity. It’s a means for sexually diverse Canadians to organize at national, regional and local levels. While these various groups are helpful, recognition during Pride is still a daunting task for bisexuals wanting to make their presence known.
Since 1984, New York City’s Heritage of Pride (www.hopinc.org) has been the organizing body for the NYC Pride festivities. They are a volunteer driven non-profit organization governed by an executive committee with a mandate to include all members of the queer community equally. It’s also a founding member of InterPride (www.interpride.org), a non-profit organization that provides support to over 180 groups planning Pride celebrations worldwide. Russell Murphy, Co-President, InterPride Long Island, states “the organizations that have members from different factions tend to fare better.” BiRequest (www.birequest.org) has been meeting almost continuously for over a decade, and each year they march in the NYC Pride parade.
It’s great to see that the spirit of action and activism still exists within the queer community, given the recent “gay-vogue” corporate takeovers. The NYC Dyke March (www.nycdykemarch.org) hits the streets each year to “make some noise, be visible, be heard, demonstrate, agitate and liberate.” It’s made clear that this is a “protest march, not a parade”, as no permits are obtained. It’s a grassroots approach that goes back to the original Stonewall type marches that were held to protest against discrimination and harassment. The New York City area also has the added bonus of having at least six other regional festivals throughout the summer months, all of which include bisexual representation. Each organization positively encouraged participation from all groups and they were quite eager to make their event as diverse as possible. Refer to the following websites for more information on these individual festivals:
Jersey Pride Celebration, www.jerseypride.org
Queens Pride, www.queenspride.com
Gay Pride Rockland, www.gaypriderockland.org
Long Island Pride Rally, Parade and Festival, www.liprideparade.com
Jersey City LGBTI Pride Festival, August 27th, www.jclgo.org
“If you don’t swing both ways, you’re missing half the fun.” ~ Limp Fist
Bisexuals are well represented at San Francisco’s Pride (www.sfpride.org) celebrations, with it being the first Pride organization to include the “B” in LGBT. It goes without saying that the San Francisco area is noted for being one of the first widely recognized openly gay tourist destinations. However, this prestigious label was not warranted without struggles. Two local organizations that participate in Pride are the Bay Area Bisexual Network (www.babn.org) and the South Bay Bisexual Organizers and Activists (www.soboa.org). They each generally tend to have information booths and marching contingents in the parades as a means to increase bisexual visibility. Over the years, similar to other larger cities, Pride celebrations have expanded into the surrounding smaller communities. Two of the most significant in the Bay Area are San Jose Pride (www.sjgaypride.com) and Santa Cruz Pride (www.santacruzpride.org).
In the bi community there are a couple of individuals who were significant in bringing forth bisexual issues and concerns to ensure they were heard. Autumn Courtney was the first out bisexual co-chair on the San Francisco Pride Committee back in 1986. She was also instrumental in gaining bisexual visibility at the annual March on Washington. Lani Ka’ahumanu (www.lanikaahumanu.com) has been active at numerous levels for many years and considers herself an author, activist, poet, educator and organizer. Robyn Ochs (www.robynochs.com) has been playing the activist role since the 1960’s and still continues to push buttons today in order to bring attention to issues that are important to her. She just recently released her newest book, Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, and last year she legally wed her female partner of seven years.
When one thinks of celebrations in Sydney, the annual month-long Mardi Gras Festival (www.mardigras.org.au) immediately comes to mind. It should be noted that the Festival is now organized by the “New” Mardi Gras Organization that promotes an all-inclusive mandate. Although Mardi Gras celebrations occur throughout the world, the Sydney celebrations are a celebration of the GLBTQ community, and have included a bi presence for the past 12 years. Their slogan is Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual and Queer Culture. It’s interesting to note how the terminology “queer” has been gaining acceptance amongst the GLBT community, as it provides a common ground that each group can relate to with the idea that we are all working toward the same goal of acceptance and equality.
Sydney also has its own Pride (www.pridecentre.com.au) festivities that take place during the “traditional” June timelines. There’s quite an array of diverse activities, but no parade. The main event is an Awards Night that recognizes members from the community who have made a significant difference in the past year. This year the Pride committee specifically requested a member of Bi-NSW (www.bi-nsw.org.au) to be involved in the planning of the festival. This umbrella organization recently expanded beyond Sydney and now encompasses the entire New South Wales region. They are also organizers of the highly successful Biversity Dance Parties, one of which is held during Pride. Another great source of information for the Australian bisexual community is www.bi.org.au.
This year I attended the 25th anniversary of Pride Toronto and I noticed that the visual lines of sexuality are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish, as Pride continues to evolve into the most anticipated event of the year for many in the city. It’s virtually impossible to determine who is bi, gay, straight, or otherwise. There were stickers being sold to raise money for the Pride committee, with such monikers as “straight”, “single”, “bi” and “fag”. I personally bought a “dyke” one just to mix it up a bit, and actually got quite a bit of unexpected positive attention.
Let’s get out there and celebrate our Pride all year round!
Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way
Tom Robinson Band – Glad To Be Gay
(c) Copryight 2005 Bryen Dunn
Bryen Dunn is a freelance writer based out of Toronto, Canada. He can be contacted via his website, www.bryendunn.com.
Reply With Quote
cool
Re: Pride Presence – The Bi Way
Bookmarks