www.bisexualweek.com We are a proud co-sponsor of Bisexual Awareness Week! Themes and Hashtags For Bisexual Awareness Week
In addition to the usual hashtags (#bipride, #bisexual, #BiDay, and #BiVisibilityDay), the following hashtags will be used on given, corresponding days during #biweek: Sunday 9/21 #BiHistory Monday 9/22 #BiFacts Tuesday 9/23 My #bisexuality looks like… Wednesday 9/24 #BiMedia Thursday 9/25 #RecognizeBiMen Friday 9/26 #BiTrans Saturday 9/27 #BiAllies
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BABN Pride Events
BABN Bi Trans Brunch at the Crepevine on June 28th 2014
The next Bi Boys' Happy Hour is on July 7 (Monday). Mark your calendars! http://www.meetup.com/Bi-Boys-Happy-Hour/events/172519302/ |
Help Us Underwrite Our Events in the Coming Months
If you would like to help underwrite any number of events like the, SF Pride Contingent, ice cream socials, panel discussions, monthly peer-led support groups, bi-weekly social groups and hopefully even a small drop-in community space at the San Francisco LGBT Center, please click the link below for the Bisexual Resource Center Network for Good donation page. Martin Rawlings-Fein
Bay Area Bisexual Network
CONTACT
Don Romesburg
misterromesburg@gmail.com
415-850-8580
New GLBT History Museum Exhibit Commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the First Bisexual Political Rally with
Four Decades of “BiCONIC” Bay Area Bisexual Activism
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San Francisco – A new multimedia exhibit opening May 29 at the GLBT History Museum tells the story of San Francisco Bay Area’s bisexual activism that since the 1970s has been grounded in the politics of visibility, accountability, and vitality. A playful spirit has mixed with a seriousness of purpose at key moments across four decades, fueling today’s dynamic global bisexual movement.
Titled "BiCONIC FLASHPOINTS: 4 Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics,” the exhibit features never-before-displayed video, artifacts and photographs from the GLBT Historical Society’s archival bisexual collections as well as the personal holdings of bisexual leaders. The show’s Community Curators include Lani Ka'ahumanu, Emily Drennen, Martin Rawlings-Fein, and Lindasusan Ulrich.
“Bisexual politics are as simple and complex as love itself,” said Community Curator Lani Ka’ahumanu. “Bisexual history grounds and inspires us toward a more welcoming, inclusive, and engaged future. This exhibit challenges historic and ongoing erasure and compels everyone to reconsider the B in LGBT.”
The show tells this story in four flashpoints: Founded in 1976, the Bisexual Center in San Francisco was a beacon of visibility and support. In 1984, the recently formed BiPOL registered and ran a Vice Presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention, resulting in the first-ever public Bisexual Rights Rally. In 1990, BiPOL convened the first National Bisexual Conference to organize BiNET USA as well as producing groups for Jewish bisexuals and bisexuals of color. In 2008, bisexuals facing erasure in the “gay marriage” debate engaged in “unVEILing injustice,” which moved LGBT organizational and media language toward greater inclusivity and accuracy.
The show is part of an ongoing series in the GLBT History Museum's Community Gallery that partner community curators with exhibitions professionals to create new perspectives on Bay Area queer history. Sonoma State University Women’s and Gender Studies Professor Don Romesburg directs the Community Gallery.
"BiCONIC FLASHPOINTS: 4 Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics" runs May 29, 2014-August 15, 2014. An opening reception is set for Thursday, May 29, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Additionally, the GLBT History Museum on Thursday, July 17, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. will host a special program celebrating the groundbreaking anthology Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (1991). Contributors to the anthology will do readings of their works, including Kuwaza Imara, Carol Queen and Naomi Tucker. This will be a benefit for the GLBT History Museum and the Bay Area Bisexual Network.
Admission to the museum is $5.00 (general); $3.00 (California students); free for members of the GLBT Historical Society. For more information, visit www.glbthistorymuseum.org.
-- 30 --
EDITOR'S NOTE
See the end of this section for photographs offered for reproduction in conjunction with coverage of the exhibit.
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY CURATORS
Lani Ka'ahumanu is a BiPOL founding organizer, author, activist, poet, educator, performer and visionary grandmother.
Emily Drennen is an outspoken bisexual and sustainable transportation advocate who loves spending time with her wife, Lindasusan and their foster-adopt son.
Martin Rawlings-Fein is a published author, a bisexual and trans* activist, a filmmaker, and a Jewish educator studying to become a rabbi.
Lindasusan Ulrich is a writer, musician, activist, and future Unitarian Universalist minister dedicated to a vision of radical welcome.
ABOUT THE GLBT HISTORY MUSEUM
The GLBT History Museum is located at 4127 18th St. in San Francisco's Castro District. Open since January 2011, it is the first full-scale, stand-alone museum of its kind in the United States. Starting May 15, the new Main Gallery long-term exhibition is “Queer Past Becomes Present.” The Front Gallery and Community Gallery spaces present changing exhibitions.
The museum is a project of the GLBT Historical Society, a research center and archives that collects, preserves and interprets the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and the communities that support them. Founded in 1985, the society maintains one of the world's largest collections of GLBT historical materials. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org.
PHOTOGRAPHS FOR REPRODUCTION
These images may be reproduced in conjunction with coverage of the "BiCONIC FLASHPOINTS" exhibit at The GLBT History Museum. The indicated photo credit must be included.
Exterior of the GLBT History Museum; photo credit Daniel Nicoletta:
http://bit.ly/1uvBlm9
BiPOL founding organizer Lani Ka'ahumanu wields her "Bi-Phobia Shield" as she marches with her contingent in the 1984 Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade; photo credit Arlene Krantz:
http://bit.ly/1mySw59
Thursday, May 29 at 7:00pm - 9:00pm
The GLBT History Museum
4127 18th St., San Francisco, California 94114History Museum
(415) 621-1107
info@glbthistory.org
Get Directions
The curators include:
Lani Ka'ahumanu, a BiPOL founding organizer, co-editor of Bi Any Other Name, activist, poet, educator, performer and visionary grandmother.
Emily Drennen, an outspoken bisexual and sustainable transportation advocate who loves spending time with her wife, Lindasusan, and their foster-adopt son.
Martin Rawlings-Fein, a published author, bisexual and trans* activist, filmmaker, and Jewish educator studying to become a rabbi.
Lindasusan Ulrich is a writer, musician, activist, and future Unitarian Universalist minister dedicated to a vision of radical welcome.
A few weeks ago I was the recipient of an invitation from the White House, and like much of the email that clutters my inbox from various social causes, I was about to file it away, when another email showed up telling me that I should open the invitation and accept. I was one of many Bisexual activists called on by policy makers to join them at the White House and let them know what we as a group were experiencing. This "joke" email, was a real live invitation to be part of something very real and tangible. A way forward to help my community by telling those in powerful positions just how dismal the numbers were.
As many of you may remember, I worked on the Bisexual Invisibility Report with Lindasusan Ulrich, I organize the Bi/Trans Brunch and attempt to be a speakers Bureau of one for the Bay Area Bisexual Network. All of these tasks can sometimes lead to multiple levels of burnout. So when I was asked to speak before the White House in D.C., I was a little apprehensive of the seeming gag order, where we couldn't tell anyone we were going, or what was being said by anyone at the meeting itself, as this meeting was "off the record". But after I accepted the invite, I was introduced to many that I have known of in the community yet never met outside of email, an intergenerational, multi-faith, and culturally mixed group of people whom I would be working with to present our recommendations.
No longer a speakers bureau of one, I was suddenly recharged and ready to attack the issues. Issues like the fact that stigma is amazingly high, when people were part of a telephone survey about who they would like to live next door to, on a scale of 0-100, the lower the number the warmer the subject was to the group. Scoring the worst numbers were Bisexual men, Bisexual women and IV Drug users. Jewish people scored a little better on the scale right under African Americans, and Gay and Lesbian people scored a right in the middle under pro/anti-choice groups. Oftentimes the researchers who could help to illuminate the issues facing the Bisexual community are relegated to aggregating the data so that the numbers are counted towards Gay and Lesbian data. However, when they pull the Bisexual data out, the numbers are really dismal.
According to recent studies, we have a higher rate of tobacco use compared to all other communities, a higher rate of STI diagnosis compared to the Heterosexual community, a higher rate of heart disease compared to the Heterosexual community, and a higher rate of cancer risk factors and lower rate of screening. All of these issues lead to a poorer health outcome for Bisexuals than for the Gay and Lesbian community with Heterosexual communities having the best health outcomes. These issues are really important to me as a Bisexual activist who works at UCSF, and tries to connect people with community and knowing that they are not alone. Even the mental health outcomes are poorer for Bisexual women in urban settings, when their Lesbian counterparts receive a reprieve from the stress of the rural life, Bisexual women's mental health gets worse. Not to mention the amount of data that we have on Bisexual men is almost nonexistent.
What can we do about these seemingly insurmountable issues. I think we may have made some real steps toward making things better by heading to D.C. this week. Not only did the government acknowledge that we are a distinct group, by inviting us to speak, but there was an acknowledgement from the Mayor of Washington D.C. of Bisexual Pride Awareness Day itself. This was a truly amazing part, even before all the meetings beforehand, getting ready to speak, and creating PowerPoint presentations about what the needs were, there was this one single thing, acceptance. While we are still stigmatized, even though we are the largest segment of the LGBTIQQ community, those who have the potential to be attracted and or love more than one gender are unique and accepted by people in high places.
Another way forward that I see, is the creation of programming to help stem the tidal forces trying to hold us down as a community. As our Bay Area Bisexual Network mission states that we "seek to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area and to promote better understanding of bisexual lives and issues within the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTIQQ) community and the public." It does indeed get better, and I ask that you join me helping to build a group that can live up to this mission, a group that can step up, and step back, a group of humans who have bad days and pass on the work when needed.
What I learned after the meeting and the acknowledgement, is that we have to stick together as a community and work with our allies and sometimes people who are not allies quite yet, to get to our goal of overcoming stigma and becoming better understood by monosexual and cisgendered communities.
The Bay Area Bisexual Network celebrates 25 years of bringing bisexuals together with a reception and a reading by two bisexual authors, Jan Steckel (Mixing Tracks) and Betty Blue, who also writes as Jane Kindred (The Fallen Queen). Founded in 1987, BABN works to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the Bay Area and to promote understanding of bisexual lives and issues in the GLBT community and the wider public. — with Jan Steckel, Betty Blue and Jane Kindred at The GLBT History Museum.
I hope that you will join me and others in the bi and trans communities to remember our 265+ dead this year by going to the many Trans Day of Remembrance events across the globe. Last night I was honored to be part of the Trans Flag raising in the Castro, by blessing the marchers, the flag and the entire community I was overcome with a sense of our connectedness across gender and sexuality.
In the coming week their will be three more TDoR events in the Bay Area:
San Francisco, California
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event
on Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 5:00pm
Please join us for San Francisco’s Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012.
We will meet at SF City Hall at 5pm and march to the City of Refuge
(1025 Howard St.) in SOMA.
If you do not wish to join the march, you can also come directly to
the City of Refuge, where the main TDOR event will begin at 6pm.
https://www.facebook.com/events/374274065988154/
—–
San Francisco, California
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance Shabbat
on Friday, November 23, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
Led by Martin Rawlings-Fein
290 Dolores Street, San Francisco, California
website: https://www.facebook.com/events/522290277798588/
—–
San Jose, California
Will be holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance event
on Sunday, November 25, 2012 at 6:00 – 10:00pm
at the Billy DeFrank Ballroom
938 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126
Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center http://www.defrank.org
My reading for the raising of the trans flag:
Prayer for Transgender Day of Remembrance by Rabbi Reuben Zellman
"God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.
As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no Kaddish may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.
And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.
Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world.
Blessed is God, in Whom no light is extinguished."
Resources for Transgender Day of Remembrance:
Transgender Day of Remembrance, a guest post by Jane KindredSome resources for TDoR. A piece by Jane Kindred the author that BABN just honored at our 25th Anniversary Kickoff for her ability to write beyond gender and sexuality in her books.
http://www.transgenderdor.org/
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
http://www.transpeoplespeak.org/
Trans People SpeakI AM: Trans People Speak is a campaign created by the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC)
BABN Organizer
Martin Rawlings-Fein
BABPN
Our mission is to foster a sense of bisexual/Pan+ community and promote better understanding of bisexual+ lives and issues within the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) community and the public.
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