Sunday, July 13, 2003
And while we're on the subject of gay biphobia... Natalie Davis reprints this article by Paul Varnell from March this year.
Most bisexuals aren't out, they socialize mostly with heterosexuals, and form longer relationships with opposite-sex partners. So are they gay?
A quick Google on Varnell seems to suggest that he's quite comfortable being biphobic, and I'd take more notice of what he writes here if he didn't include sentences like this:
The survey found that 55 percent of lesbians and 67 percent of gay men said they had come out to their physician. But only 23 percent of the self-described bisexuals said they had done so.
So, being lesbian or gay is something you are, being bisexual is purely a matter of self-definition? Oh piss off...
In other words, bisexuals face discrimination only because they sometimes behave like homosexuals.
Homophobia comes from a mistaken belief that 'proper' sexuality is purely hetero, based on the reproduction thing, and that all other forms of sexual expression are distorted offshoots of that. Gay biphobia seems to operate on the belief that there is 'proper' sexuality which is two places, like towns, hetero and homo, and that all other forms of sexual expression are distorted offshoots of those two. This is equally flawed.
In a way, I think the gay liberation movement of the second half of the last century was an incredibly bad thing for everyone involved. It chose to present itself as polarised to the hetero 'norm', allowing all manner of other sexualities to slip between the gap, as well as those people who were unfortunate enough to be non-middle-class, non-white etc. What was needed was rather than the setting up of camps, 'gays', 'lesbians', 'straights', 'bisexuals', instead a movement to encourage everyone to take pride in their sexuality, whatever it was, as we're seeing coming out of the transsexual community. We currently have an arse-above-tit situation where transgenderism is seen as part of the LesBiGay community when in fact it is the LesBiGay community that is part of the larger trans community. Let's not forget who it was at Stonewall that kicked off the action. Is the house part of the bricks, or are the bricks part of the house?
So, when Varnells asks:
Most bisexuals aren't out, they socialize mostly with heterosexuals, and form longer relationships with opposite-sex partners. So are they gay?
The answer should be: No, they aren't. But they are, like gays, like lesbians, part of the transsexual movement, which should give them the same rights of access to 'queer' spaces.
(A Livejournal users reply to the same article.)
Most bisexuals aren't out, they socialize mostly with heterosexuals, and form longer relationships with opposite-sex partners. So are they gay?
A quick Google on Varnell seems to suggest that he's quite comfortable being biphobic, and I'd take more notice of what he writes here if he didn't include sentences like this:
The survey found that 55 percent of lesbians and 67 percent of gay men said they had come out to their physician. But only 23 percent of the self-described bisexuals said they had done so.
So, being lesbian or gay is something you are, being bisexual is purely a matter of self-definition? Oh piss off...
In other words, bisexuals face discrimination only because they sometimes behave like homosexuals.
Homophobia comes from a mistaken belief that 'proper' sexuality is purely hetero, based on the reproduction thing, and that all other forms of sexual expression are distorted offshoots of that. Gay biphobia seems to operate on the belief that there is 'proper' sexuality which is two places, like towns, hetero and homo, and that all other forms of sexual expression are distorted offshoots of those two. This is equally flawed.
In a way, I think the gay liberation movement of the second half of the last century was an incredibly bad thing for everyone involved. It chose to present itself as polarised to the hetero 'norm', allowing all manner of other sexualities to slip between the gap, as well as those people who were unfortunate enough to be non-middle-class, non-white etc. What was needed was rather than the setting up of camps, 'gays', 'lesbians', 'straights', 'bisexuals', instead a movement to encourage everyone to take pride in their sexuality, whatever it was, as we're seeing coming out of the transsexual community. We currently have an arse-above-tit situation where transgenderism is seen as part of the LesBiGay community when in fact it is the LesBiGay community that is part of the larger trans community. Let's not forget who it was at Stonewall that kicked off the action. Is the house part of the bricks, or are the bricks part of the house?
So, when Varnells asks:
Most bisexuals aren't out, they socialize mostly with heterosexuals, and form longer relationships with opposite-sex partners. So are they gay?
The answer should be: No, they aren't. But they are, like gays, like lesbians, part of the transsexual movement, which should give them the same rights of access to 'queer' spaces.
(A Livejournal users reply to the same article.)
