Celebrate Bisexuality Day

Le suilon.

This is a relatively new holiday - this will be the eleventh year it is celebrated. It was started in 1999, by three bisexual activists: "Wendy Curry of New Hampshire (but then of Maine), Michael Page of Florida and Gigi Raven Wilbur of Texas" (Sheela Lambert, Celebrate Bisexuality Day: events around the world in 2009).

Part of the reason for this celebration of bisexuality (and also pansexuality, mentions Wikipedia - take that how you will, of course) is due to the prejudice bisexuals receive on both sides - from heterosexuals and homosexuals.

Being bisexual, myself (though, I have also called myself 'genderblind,' on occasion), I've always been particularly irritated by the prejudice from the homosexual end of the spectrum. However, on both ends, I have been told bisexuality doesn't exist - straight people have told me, more than once, that I just "haven't decided, yet."

Other claims are that I'm (or any bisexual is) doing it to be cool, or because I'm (or any bisexual is) not brave enough to come out as homosexual.

The fact of the matter is, sexual attraction is more complicated than saying you're straight or gay. Kinsey is actually quite known for coming up with a sexual spectrum, at which the two extreme ends are monosexual orientations, and in between are varying degrees of bisexuality.

Now, there is criticism that his scale is too simple and restrictive, because there are more sexual orientation identifying labels than just straight, bi, and gay.

Asexuality, for example, or polysexual, or pansexual, are alternative sexual orientation labels that people identify as.

I identify as bisexual, despite the etymologic implication of a sexual binary, simply because that's the label I picked. Perhaps a better term would be polysexual (attracted to multiple genders without implying a gender binary). Or maybe, if I call myself gender blind, some people would say I'm pansexual (attracted to all genders without implying a gender binary). I must admit, learning of different labels does make me wonder if I've mislabeled myself. However, as I am not a label, I feel free to call myself as I desire without it changing who I desire.

The important thing is, these orientations exist, and people identify under these orientations - not because it's "cool," or "different," but because that is their part of their own self identities. No one can force a monosexual orientation on them just because they want to say "You have to pick one, no one is attracted to both, and there are only two genders to choose from."

Really, I'd like to do away with all labels and say I love the person and not the gender, but we live in a society that likes labels and a society that, in some way, needs labels to understand different aspects of people. It makes no more sense to say you can't be attracted to more than one gender any more than it makes sense to say you can't be attracted to the same or opposite gender.

I would like to end this by adding more non-monosexual pride flags, but I could only find one for pansexuality. So, here it is.

Namárië.