[CHAT] #BIWEEK - Awareness, acceptance and visbility!
The day that this blog goes live, the 23rd of September, marks International
Bisexual Day. It’s also a part of Bisexual Awareness Week, which was
created with the aim of achieving wider acceptance of bisexuality.
I’ve identified as bisexual for a little over 6 years now and to say that it hasn’t
exactly been a straightforward journey would be a bit of an understatement. I
never questioned my sexuality as a kid, always assuming that I was straight by
default, until I suddenly ended up with a huge crush on a girl I was friends with
at the age of 15. Even as a child of a LGBT parent who had grown up with it as a
big part of my life, this realization brought on a lot of different feelings of
confusion, frustration and worry.
It took me a while, but eventually I reached a place where I accepted who I am.
Most of the people I’ve come out to have been cool about it, but that doesn’t
mean that I haven’t gotten the occasional strange/borderline biphobic question
or comment. For example, receiving a Facebook message from a school friend
out of the blue asking if I’m “still bi” when I got my first boyfriend was a moment
that I wouldn’t really want to relive. Curiosity about other people’s sexuality is
normal, but we need to remember to be respectful about how we talk about it.
No matter what your sexuality is, we all have our own process of coming to
terms with what it means to us. We’re the ones who get to choose what labels we
use, if any, as well as how we define those labels.
Want to know a bit more about coming to terms with your own sexuality, learn
about different sexualities and how we can treat all different sexualities with
respect?
Come and join @safari93 and I when we chat about it on Monday 28th,
8pm AEST!
@stonepixie rightly so! It astounds me sometimes the kind of research that gets published!
@KitKat definitely - there are words and descriptors now, so people can talk about these things, and that brings people out and into the conversation
Do you think people’s understanding of sexuality is changing?
I think for a lot of people in Australia our understanding has changed a lot already. However like most change it starts in a few small places and then spreads out over time like ripples in a pond.
Right now there's lots of small parts of our community that are aware and accepting and willing to learn what they don't know already.
I think (and hope!) that over time those smaller parts will become bigger. Right now there's a long way to go even if there's some positives out there 🙂
I don't know if I can speak for everyone's views, but people are certainly talking about sexuality, and not just in terms of straight and gay anymore. There are still some old trends though, like celebrities publicly coming out after a while, but it's also kind of refreshing to see famous people not discuss their sexuality with the media and resist attempts by the media at stereotyping and pigeon-holing. It seems to be telling people that sexuality is not something that a person who identifies as LGBT is mandated to talk about with others whenever they get asked
It seems like people are still stuck in the Stone Ages when it comes to sexuality! Is that actually the case, do you think?
Do you think people’s understanding of sexuality is changing?
Do you think people’s understanding of sexuality is changing?
Yes! There is a lot more awareness, it is no longer criminalised.
There was research published not too long ago saying that the younger you are, the more likely you are to identify as sexually fluid. Or something like that. Something like they don't confine their sexuality to a specific identity.
@stonepixie Ohhhhhh, I actually love that you brought up the topic of sexuality being criminalised! Decriminalisation is a massive, massive example of our changing attitudes to sexuality. It makes me so mad when I think about the places where it's still criminalised and the kind of punishments they take out on people 😞
Good to see so much positivity in these answers! Things might not be perfect, but they're getting better 🙂
Have you ever opened up about your sexuality to someone else? How did it go? Or has someone else ever opened up about their sexuality to you?
I am so sorry I forgot about this. I know I haven't been on much but got caught up with the Brownlow.
Or has someone else ever opened up about their sexuality to you?
This has been in a group situation and not specifically to me but yes and I though it was great that they decided to confide in the group
Dennis Armfield just won the Jim Stynes award for raising awareness and reducing stigma about drug and alcohol addiction just so you guys know.
Have you ever opened up about your sexuality to someone else? How did it go? Or has someone else ever opened up about their sexuality to you?
One of my jobs is in retail, and I was coisidently talking to my manager about Reachout. Somehow that lead to him saying it was at times tough during highe school, when people would call him 'gay' before he even knew it. But now that hes grown up, hes really comfortable with it, and he said that the kind of people that made it tough, just simpy arent in your life...because your not forced to be in a room with them like you are in school.
Do you think people’s understanding of sexuality is changing?
yes, and I find it very positive the way younger generations are coming to understand sexuality of all forms and facets. A long road ahead, but I find the world a very innovative place, each generation more than the last
@stonepixie it sucks that people use your past as a way of 'explaining' your sexuality, but in the end its you that decides how you identify!
@Jaide897 that could definitely be the case! People still have traditional views about sex
Something that puzzles me is why people are more comfortable believing things that are that out there and weird and yet struggle to accept something that's common and happens all the time. In fact most mammal species have different types of sexuality as a natural normal thing.
@Ben-RO especially considering different sexualities happen in a bunch of different species, but humans are the only ones who discriminate because of it
@stonepixie OMG thats nuts! There is so much bigotry in academia, it's really disheartening as a student
Do you think people’s understanding of sexuality is changing?
People are generally becoming a lot more aware of different sexualities than they used to be, as well as the fact that it's on a spectrum. I remember when I first came out the overall societal attitude towards bisexuality was a fair bit worse than it is now
