Dear readers,
I'm sure that all of you have heard of homophobia-- dislike or prejudice of gay people. But what about biphobia? Biphobia is the dislike or prejudice of bisexual (people who are attracted to male and females) or pansexual people (people who are attracted to all genders, which, along with males and females, could include trans people or nonbinary people.)
Now for all the unfair bullshit targeted at bi people. Biphobics often like to claim that bisexuality isn't valid-- that bi people "can't make up their minds" about which gender to be attracted to. Or maybe they think that bisexual people are somehow greedy for liking more than one gender. Furthermore, there are tons of unfair stereotypes or predetirmined beliefs about bi people. For example, that they are 50% attracted to females, and 50% attracted to males. This can be the case, but it's not always so black and white. Some bi people find themselves more attracted to males than females, and vice versa, but that doesn't make them any less bisexual. Additionally, bisexual women in particular sometimes get slut-shamed, for wanting to sleep with two different genders. But what is truly despicable is that bi women also sometimes get asked for threesomes from idiotic straight men who think that bi women would be okay with having sex with a women and them, a man, for their personal enjoyment because they're bisexual. Some people even accuse bisexual women of only calling themselves bisexual to get attention and interest from straight men, who view their attraction to women as "sexy".
Bisexual men are also targeted unfairly. Some think that they are actually gay and they're too afraid to admit it so they come out as only "half-gay" to seem less gay. Yeah, that's some more bullshit. Bisexual men are just as valid as bisexual women.
And there's even more. People think that bisexuality is "just a phase" in which the bi person is simply questioning their sexuality for a brief moment before returning to being straight. It's completely okay to be questioning or bi-curious, but straight people assuming that it's not okay or normal to be completely bisexual all the time is wrong.
The problem with these thoughts are that they make it so that bi people aren't easily accepted anywhere. While gay people are often targeted by straight people, bisexual people have to take a bunch of crap from everyone. For example, lesbian women who won't date bisexual women simply because they're bisexual, or straight men who don't want to date women who are attracted to women even if they're also attracted to men. If the gay community views bi people as "too straight" and the straight community views bi people as "too gay", where do bisexuals fit in? Nowhere.
Let me just say that bisexuality is a valid sexuality. It exists, and it matters. Believe me, I know. I am bisexual. I like that I'm bi, and I don't see anything wrong with the fact that I like males and females alike. I'm not just a sex object, I'm not going through a phase or not able to choose a side, okay? I am simply attracted to women and men.
And let me finish this off by saying that in no way am I attempting to somehow undermine homophobia or say that bisexuals have it worse than other sexualities. It's unfair and idiotic that anyone would deny anyone the right to love how they want to love, no matter what gender or sexuality they are. I agree that bisexual people are often targeted by straight people as well as gay people, but there are tons of supportive and amazing gay and straight people who are accepting of bi people. Hope this helped you learn more about bisexuality and biphobia!
Also, I did look at this empowering article about another bisexual woman called "How I discovered, and then stopped caring about biphobia" and it really inspired me so make sure to take a look at it as well! Here it is:
https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/kissing-biphobia-goodbye
Cheers, Blue
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