When: Annually, September 23.
Every year, 23 September is dedicated to bisexuality on the day known as Day of Bisexuality (Dutch), Celebrate Bisexuality Day, Bisexual Pride Day, Bi Visibility Day CBD Bisexual Pride or Bisexuality+ Day.
Source: Unsplash.
About this day
This day is there for a reason. The day is there to draw attention to the bisexual community as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. The day is also there to highlight that the letter B stands for bisexual persons.
Origin
The day was officially established at a congress of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (now International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) in Johannesburg in 1999, where Wendy Curry, Michael Page and Gigi Raven Wilbur (all from the United States) introduced a request for the day to come into being. The request was approved. The fact that September was chosen did not have a special reason. According to Curry, it played the role that Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury (September 5, 1946 – November 24, 1991) was born in September. That 23 September was eventually chosen simply because that was Wilbur’s birthday. Incidentally, they are intersex and identify as neither male nor female (third gender).
The US city of Berkeley (California) was the first city to officially recognise the day (2012). In 2013, the US government also recognised the day as an official day. In the same year, the UK government also recognised the day as an official day.
Less positive edge
There is a less positive edge to this day, though, and that is the involvement of the organisation BiNet in the day. The organisation claims to have invented the day. That was in the early 1990s. It was just about a different day, namely on June 23. BiNet long claimed to be the oldest North American organisation representing bisexual people on the continent. Its forerunner was the North American Bisexual Network. Later, this name would be changed to BiNet. Its origins date back to the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987. This makes it indeed one of the older organisations that represented bisexuals. There was also another organisation active around that time, namely BiPol. Together with this organisation, they thus proclaimed June 23, 1990 as Bisexual Pride Day. An event or day held only in the United States.
End of BiNet
BiNet was active until 2020, then things went wrong for the organisation and that was at the hands of founder Faith Cheltenham. In November 2020, she announced via a blog that she was distancing herself from what she described as the progressive movement (“progressive movement”). Not only that, she presented herself as a conservative Christian person from then on. She also claimed that BiNet was a non-profit organisation that might be there for African-Americans, as she began her argument by positioning herself as a “Black LGBT Conservative.” The full blog can be found here. What is striking is that apart from all the spam responses, there has only been one substantive response to this blog. Cheltenham is accused in this response of having fallen for QAnon’s conspiracy theory. This seems plausible as she states in her blog that she is a “federal whistleblower“. In short, whistleblowers are employed by the government. She would do her best to expose the community, including the abuse. What she meant by this she does not reveal in the blog.
Does this ‘ruin’ the day or make it less true? Actually no. The day as fixed on September 23 was the idea of the three people mentioned earlier. That BiNet previously fixed a day on 23 June may be considered a precursor or another day. Central to this day is not BiNet or Cheltenham. The focus is on the bisexual community and bisexual persons. There are sometimes still some misunderstandings about that and besides, they too face hatred.
Misunderstandings
Bisexuals are not confused people who are not sure whether they are lesbian or gay or not. Nor are they out for threesomes. Monogamy is not a challenge for these persons. Do not confuse this with something like polyamory. That is something different.
More importantly, it is not a phase. It can be a phase when a person sticks to it when they are afraid of reactions from the outside world to disclose what their true orientation is. Think, for example, of a woman who only falls for women or a man who only falls for men. This can occur, but it does not have to. Indeed, these are the exceptions. These are the misunderstandings.
Hate
It is almost starting to become ‘normal’ when it is not. The LGBT+ community faces hate. So bisexual people get this too. In one way or another. Hate and misunderstanding. Therefore, a day like this is desperately needed. For awareness and increasing respect.
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