30 Years of BABN at San Francisco Pride Sunday June 25th, 2017
The Bay Area Bisexual Network is celebrating 30 years as an active partner in the fight for queer equality. Founded in 1987, our mission is to develop a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a growing social media presence and have hosted events like the Bi-Trans Brunch and other Bi+ (Bi Plus) meetups. At Pride we will be showing our colors as we march down Market - pink, purple and blue, the colors of the Bi Pride Flag, representing the fluidity of our sexuality. It's Not Just A Phase! Sunday June 25th, 2017 10:00am Contingent Placement: 111 Block: L1 Assembly Area: Spear between Howard and Folsom Assembly Start Times: Marchers arrive by: 10:15 AM Estimated Step-off: 11:00 AM
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by Martin Rawlings-Fein
When We Rise was difficult television for me to watch. I kept waiting for the next leader introduced to be Lani Ka'ahumanu who assisted in the founding of the San Francisco State Women Studies Department, she is also credited with the founding of BiPOL the first and oldest bisexual political organization. I kept watching hoping that perhaps Dr. Harriet Leve and Dr. Maggi Rubenstein might show up as the co-founder's of the San Francisco Bisexual Center on Hayes and Masonic, they could have been included as Maggi was also a co-founder of three major sex-education institutions in San Francisco: Glide Memorial Church's National Sex Forum, the San Francisco Sex Information Hotline, and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. Or Dr. David Lourea and Cynthia Slater who presented safer-sex education in bathhouses and BDSM clubs in San Francisco as well as David going on to push the DPH to recognize bisexual men in their official AIDS statistics which was a huge victory for data scientists everywhere. When that didn't happen and those leaders did not rate even a mention, I hoped that A. Billy S. Jones could have been thrown in as one of those organizers of the March On Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights and was sorely disappointed. In the end of the miniseries none of that happened, I was only watching Gay, Lesbian and Transgender stories depicted. While Cleve Jones, the author of the memoir that was the basis of the miniseries stated about the criticisms, "Honestly, if just a fraction of the energy spent complaining went into WRITING, all these stories could be known. The people who feel left out should take responsibility to do that hard work." That is when I realized that while When We Rise did not tell our stories, the truth is that we have been telling our stories separately for years and being told to "shut up" because nobody in the gay community wants to hear them. Our stories are not convenient, they do not fit into the boxes in which others try to place them. The idea of two women in a relationship that is not a lesbian one was too hard for marriage equality to handle, so Lindasusan Ulrich and Emily Drennen were not used in the case against Prop 8 despite their 3 marriages to each other. During the national spotlight on “gay marriage” the couple were outspoken and protested the use of “gay marriage” in discourse. They even went so far as to create a document "Words Matter" and went to a Town Hall event for the Equality for All campaign (the coalition fighting Prop 8 in California) to present an action called "unVEILing injustice" to highlight our struggle against erasure. Just one story that could have illustrated the fight for equality even within our own queer community. Despite Dustin Lance Black's assurances that there was bi+ representation in the miniseries, there were none that I was aware of either in reading his response or other tweets that he pointed me to on Twitter:
As I read the words I felt his exasperation as a filmmaker. He hadn't done the minimal legwork on Bi+ issues, like our representation in the media (a simple Tumblr search could have helped), I actually felt sorry for him as an artist and historian. If he had done the research he would have known that bi people already see ourselves as part of the struggle, we don't need to be told so on camera without mentioning bisexuality. We are not beards simply staying with our gay, or straight appearing, husbands to keep our housing. We are not objects of desire to be used as props to help the story line along. We are not allies of the LGBTIQA community, but full fledged members of the community.
Using those items especially as touch points to illustrate stories about us is demeaning and frankly ignorant. To use a slogan of the Bi+ movement, "Nothing About Us Without Us!" Next time, actually talk to a person of lived Bi+ experience to find out if something might be considered offensive. Like perhaps having 8 hours of LG( )T stories without mentioning the "B" word once. I feel that this kind of miniseries is so important, in the words of Lani Ka'ahumanu, "Yes this LGBT mini-series “WHEN WE RISE” is a big deal AND there is no bisexual representation. The B is missing from this epic LGBT docu-drama. When LGBT people rose in San Francisco [and everywhere else], we rose together. Bisexuals worked shoulder to shoulder with Cleve Jones, Ken Jones, Roma Guy and Cecilia Chung whose lives are featured. This is not to take away from their incredible contributions; this is to point out what might not be noticed in the excitement of watching “When We Rise”. Indeed, this is not a zero-sum game, we can honor those depicted in When We Rise, and mourn the poor Bi+ representation My hope is that we as a community can rise above the bi erasure to bring our stories out and really be a force for change in the larger queer community. To use a slogan from the fight against the Briggs Initiative, "Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!" If you see poor representation in film and media, send your thoughts to GLADD and report an incident. Something that I suggested to those reading Cleve's Facebook thread was The GLBT Historical Society's oral history program for those elders who would love to have their stories heard. Also if you don't have those stories yet, become an oral historian through their program and find those stories of our Bi+ elders and leaders to document our rising with the LGBTIQA community. Let's not let a wide brush of a historical miniseries deter us from telling our stories, let's bring them out into the sunshine and let the world know that we were there and we are here as vital members of the LGBTIQA community not allies like Black painted Lady Gaga during the series, a prime place to say the word bisexual when pitching her as a speaker at the National Equality March yet nobody said the word once during the entire show. I assume the big bisexual representation that we were all promised was her file footage speech to the National Equality March that almost never happened because according to Cynthia Connors from NYABN* ( "the March Committee which was steadfastly refusing to allow Bisexuals to "officially" participate finally gave in" and that BiNet had Penelope Williams, a Dominican American bisexual and immigration right activist introduce Gaga on stage for her now famous "ARE YOU LISTENING!!" speech. The week has passed, we are now in a post When We Rise world, where ratings are key in seeing anything like this spring up again. This is the time to bring our stories out and write them all down. If you have any remembrances that you would like to write for the Bay Area Bisexual Network blog, please do not hesitate to let me know through either [email protected] , Facebook or Twitter, or post your own remembrances of Bi+ history through the hashtag #BiHistory on twitter and add a mention of@BABN. --------- Martin Rawlings-Fein is a bisexual trans man, a devoted husband and father and volunteers as a co-director of the Bay Area Bisexual Network. *Update: "according to Cynthia Connors from BiNet USA" is incorrect as Cynthia is the technical admin from NYABN (the New York Area Bisexual Network) not BiNet USA. Giving Credit where credit is due. Official San Francisco Pride
Participation Info Bay Area Bisexual Network Reservation Type Parade Contingent Placement 132 (Assembly Section M1 Market @ Main) You are invited to the 8th Annual
Bi-BQ- B+ A Pride Event For the Rest of Us! When: Humpday, June 22nd from 3:30-6:30 Where: Dolores Park. They tried to shut us down, but we prevailed. We will be at the picnic tables closest to Dolores/20th. What: Everyone under the rainbow is welcome to the friendliest pride event ever. Bring a dish to share, a bottle of something, a blanket to sit on, or just yourself! No Actual Grill this year (at least not sanctioned by this official event) but we will get some BBQ food. Family Friendly event. No Glass Bottles, we will have plenty of cups! What to Wear: Bi Colors always appreciated, but this year were hoping for a heavy dose of purple to honor Prince and any Bowie-inspired duds/makeup as well. Also, Don't forget that after Bi-BQ we will be having a bi-shorts program at the Roxy at 7pm! Get Tickets Here! RSVP: on Facebook or to [email protected] All right, folks, there's gonna be a Pride parade contingent. My partner and I have committed ourselves to organizing, cat-herding, and even throwing some cash at these shenanigans. What we need from you:
* We need you to take monitor training. I'll post more detail later unless our humble moderator beats me to it, but the great news is that YOU CAN TAKE IT ONLINE. No more having to take a day off work or hauling yourself to somewhere in the East Bay at an awkward time! We need a BUNCH of monitors - vehicle and pedestrian monitors. * We need a theme. I would really like for us to have some cohesiveness this year in our contingent! I have an Emergency Backup Theme if you don't come up with something better. Since we have next to zero budget, theme's gotta be cheap. If you have suggestions, please sing out! Unless you come up with something better, it's "Save the 'B's" and lots of letter B on sticks and B-shaped balloons and everything, like a giant Sesame Street skit. You can do better than that, right? * We need you to round up all your bi friends and allies, and tell them to come and march this year. Marching means under your own power - we do not have space for riders unless something changes. What we do have: * A vehicle which can hold your backpack and some water, but no passengers * Spare signs and banners * A MEGAPHONE (those of you who are good at crowd-pleasing can take turns, maybe we'll come up with some chants when the theme is solid) * Some flags and banners * Lots of heart! I want to nail the theme down soon, so get me those ideas as soon as you can. Hope to see you there! In previous years SF Pride has done the training in-person. They will not be doing that this year. Instead they are offering a simple, two-step online training that will get more information to more people, meaning a better parade for everyone, and saving all participants time and money. Yours in Pride! Anne STEP 1: Watch the 10-minute video at the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDIzSFWYW-U This video contains pertinent information for ALL contingent members, so please take the time to watch it, even if you are not able to commit to being a monitor on the day of the parade. STEP 2: Complete the survey at the link below: https://survey.zohopublic.com/zs/MsituF This survey gets your name and contingent information, and asks you a few questions to verify that you did in fact watch the video. Every contingent needs to register two wheel monitors for every axle on all motorized vehicles in the contingent. In addition, we need to register contingent monitors based on the formula below. 2 - 25 Marchers - 2 CM's registered 26 - 50 Marchers - 4 CM's registered 51 - 75 Marchers - 6 CM's registered 76 - 100 Marchers - 8 CM's registered 101 - 200 Marchers - 10 CM's registered 201 - 300 Marchers - 12 CM's registered 301 - 400 Marchers - 14 CM's registered 401 - 500 Marchers - 16 CM's registered 501 - 600 Marchers - 18 CM's registered So a contingent with 75 marchers and a 4-wheeled vehicle would need to register 6 Contingent Monitors, and 4 wheel monitors for a minimum of 10 registrants. Once our contingent has registered at least this minimum number of monitors, our training requirement for the SF Pride parade 2016 is officially complete. Note that I say _officially_ complete. UNofficially, I am not personally going to be happy unless I know we have at least twice as many people registered as we need for the size of our contingent. (I have very serious reasons for being this stressed about it, which I'll share in another email.) The parade is in EIGHTEEN DAYS, folks! Let's get excited! Yours in Pride, Kirsten This will be an evening variety show, from 6 till 9pm, on El Rio's lovely back patio. Featuring live music from The Bi Half of The Buds, amazing moves by Three Sisters Bellydance, alluring burlesque by Isis Starr, award-winning poetry from Jan Steckel, inspiring words from Lani Ka'ahumanu, comedy from Nick Leonard, and more entertainment from other talented members of our community.
Raffle prizes and snacks, too! It's a fundraiser for BABN with a donation requested. No one turned away for lack of funds! Please spread the word, and join us! Lately there has been a 2013 PEW post taking over my social media feed, trumpeting their bisexual research, using problematic language and monosexist questioning techniques to get biased answers from the LGBT community. You may be saying, “Mono-what?” Well, Monosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction to members of one gender only. One can be gay, lesbian, and straight and be considered monosexual. Bisexuality is conversely a romantic or sexual attraction to more than one gender. Now that we have the Mono/Bi discussion out of the way, Monosexism, is the structural privileging of “monosexual identities and behaviors,” as Shiri Eisner and others have been talking about for many years both digitally, and in print.
What does monosexism have to do with the PEW study? Isn’t it great that PEW is even including bisexuals in their study? On the surface the study looks inclusive, and to some degree it is a great attempt at being bi positive. Where the PEW study goes to a monosexist place is in the crafting of their questions. Questions like “Q.12 - Do you strongly favor, favor, oppose, or strongly oppose allowing gays and lesbians to adopt children?” Not only does this question not include bisexuals, but completely ignores the transgender community as well. Another question caught my eye, “Q.6 - How much discrimination is there against each of these groups in our society today?, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Gays and lesbians, Women, and Muslim Americans are the only groups presented. It seems as if the PEW might need a visit from a bisexual community organization like BiNet USA, the Bisexual Resource Center, or Bisexual Organizing Project to find their way out of the Gay and Lesbian rut in which they have found themselves. By presenting an LGBT study, and primarily asking questions about gays and lesbians they are creating a monosexist space, where bisexuals are left out of the sexuality equation. Women are included in the above discrimination question, yet on page six of the report they state, “there is more perceived acceptance of bisexual women (33% a lot) than of bisexual men (8%).” Part of this answer is the continued sexualization of women in general, but bi women in particular are sexualized for just being their full selves. Bisexuality in women is encouraged, fetishized in fact, for the male gaze. It isn’t as if women should be surprised by these numbers, we see the sexualization of women everywhere from the billboards that hang above freeways and off of buildings, to the covers of magazines. Let’s face it, sex sells. What doesn’t sell is male sexuality that isn’t monosexual. At the White House Bisexual Roundtable in 2013 the one of the items that we used data from was a study where heterosexual people found ratings on 101‐point feeling thermometers were less favorable for bisexual men than any other group, save injecting drug users. Another place where the PEW study went horribly wrong, like a train wreck that you can not look away from, is the question the PEW group asked of the entire group, “Here are a few activities some people do and others do not. Please indicate whether or not you have done this each of the following: Been a member of an LGBT organization…, or [Attended] LGBT pride events,...” this is where language matters when discussing events or organizations. What came out of this particular question was, “When it comes to community engagement, gay men and lesbians are more involved than bisexuals in a variety of LGBT-specific activities, such as attending a gay pride event or being a member of an LGBT organization.” One of the reasons that this language is problematic is that bisexuals have been made unwelcome at gay pride events for a very long time, and bisexual leaders have even petitioned NYC Pride to include bisexual representation in their grand marshal pool. To be clear, if you were asked about joining a group, or event, where the organizers regularly forget that you are community members, calling you allies and such, or straight, because you are in a mixed gender couple, like Brenda Howard, the "Mother of Pride", who was edited out of the website from the 2014 NYC Pride, Heritage of Pride, you might be upset by even the question. It is no wonder that “gay men and lesbians are more involved than bisexuals” in pride events or LGbT organizations which routinely ignore, or are hostile to bisexual participants. According to the Supporting and Caring For Our Bisexual Youth report, authored by Amy Andre, bisexual youth "are less optimistic about their futures than their non-LGBT counterparts, less engaged in their communities and schools, and highly susceptible to sexual harassment." When PEW asked a question about the future of their communities acceptance 10 years from now, 58% of bisexuals, say society will be a lot more accepting in the coming years, as opposed to 71-76% of gay men and lesbians. This is one place that the PEW confirmed current research on bisexuality. If our identities are not important, our events not important, and our voices silenced, perhaps it is due to the false binary of sexuality that people place upon bisexuals, “Are you straight and gay?” The good news is however, that we have a voice, silenced or not, which has gotten a boost lately. Kate Brown, the governor of Oregon, is a an out and proud bisexual. The first known bisexual to become a governor in the United States. Currently there is no breadth or depth of bisexual civic leaders like Brown, whereas there are a plethora of people for gay men and lesbians to find inspirational. One can count the number of out bisexual leaders in government on one hand, Governor Kate Brown and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. It was no stretch for find that according to PEW “Gay men and lesbians are more likely than bisexuals to see a lot of value in people knowing someone who is LGBT and in the influence of public figures who are open about being LGBT.” It is obvious to me as someone in leadership of a bisexual specific organization, that PEW needs to become a more culturally competent organization for the bisexual community before crafting the questions to represent that community. Download the 2013 report here: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/06/SDT_LGBT-Americans_06-2013.pdf It is that time of year again when with your help and monetary donation, the Bay Area Bisexual Network (BABN) can continue to help educate the greater Bay Area community about bisexual invisibility. We hope that you, the greater Bay Area community, can help to make our dreams of a drop in space and peer led group at The Center, and more social events and extra programming happen in 2015.
BABN has a long history of providing outreach and social events for those in the bisexual community, their allies, friends and families. With your donation, our mission of developing a healthy, vibrant, multicultural bisexual community in the San Francisco Bay Area can be furthered. We will also be able to promote better understanding of bisexual lives and issues within the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual (LGBTIQA) community and the larger public. Supporting this broad array of services, your contribution of whatever you can afford makes a tangible difference in our struggle to live our lives in visible ways, as well as to support the education and betterment of the LGBTIQIA community. With your help, the Bay Area Bisexual Network will continue to provide essential services for bisexual people in need of social connection, education, and visibility. To those who have supported us with time or money in 2014: huge huge thanks for helping us remember where we have been and for the time and money that you spent in coming and/or planning events. This year we hosted the BiMonthly BABN Brunch for the Bi and Trans Communities, Co-Sponsored Bi Candy: Bisexual Short Cinema with the Frameline Film Festival, marched in SF Pride as the BiConic: BABN SF Pride Contingent, celebrated BiVisibility Day Happy Hour and Karaoke at The Mint as part of BiVisibility Week, continued the Bi Boys' Happy Hour in its second year, and welcomed almost 300 distinct new members to the facebook group, that added to the over 840 members on our mailing lists makes us an organization with over 1100 members. Help us prove that we can be a strong community. Time is running out for your donation to be counted in this years quarter, but with your help, we can make our financial goal of $1000 and enter the new year with real momentum. If everyone just gave $1 we could make our goal and set the tone for the New Year! Please visit GoFundMe to donate whatever amount feels comfortable and join us in January for the BiMonthly BABN Brunch for the Bi and Trans Communities. Sincerely, Martin Rawlings-Fein BABN Director We, the undersigned members of the bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, fluid, queer and unlabeled (bi+) community - representing an ethnically and racially diverse group - express our sadness and outrage at the lack of justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The racist motivations surrounding their deaths and the prejudiced failure to secure legal justice for them and their grieving families has had a profoundly debilitating effect on us all.
We understand that these recent deaths are not isolated incidents, but part of a long-standing, persistent pattern of systemic racism and anti-black violence. Black and Brown people of all genders, orientations, ages, abilities and backgrounds are being targeted for these injustices. These abuses must not continue.As individuals and as diverse organizations, we act in solidarity with people of color in our bi+ communities, our cities, and our nation to collectively address this human rights travesty. We call on our members to join us in our unified demand for racial equity and an end to police brutality. Let us work together for justice, alongside the protesters and organizations engaged in this struggle, and especially in support of groups led by Black and Brown people. This is a time to affirm that #BlackLivesMatter. Inaction and silence is not the solution. This is a time to join in the struggle to dismantle systemic racism. This is a time to elevate and amplify Black voices in our unified demand for justice. This is a time for action. The time for justice is now. PLEASE SIGN BELOW TO BE ADDED TO THIS #BlackLivesMatter SOLIDARITY STATEMENT. Public Link to List of Supporters of the Statement: http://bit.ly/161e2IX Sign Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15jmY5YyMcTR-keMI4autKXFhg8IMlfI9tWnaGXFIAdk/viewform?c=0&w=1 Pick up your tickets here:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tricks-treats-all-gender-queer-party-at-eros-tickets-12989428731 Tricks & Treats: All Gender Queer Party at EROS T-Wood/EROS/queerlysf Friday, October 31, 2014 at 8:00 PM - Saturday, November 1, 2014 at 2:00 AM (PDT) San Francisco, CA |
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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. Our Informational Blog Recently Made Number 38 on the Top 50 Bisexual Blogs!
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