Modern Bisexual

Laverne Cox "Ain’t I A Woman? My Journey to Womanhood" Wednesday, February 26, 2004 University of Georgia, Tate Theater @ 7:00PM

Laverne Cox explores how the intersections of race, class, and gender uniquely affect the lives of trans women of color. Laverne draws from her own personal story and how issues of race, class, and gender affect how she has been able to navigate the world. From growing up in Mobile, Alabama, raised by a single mother in a Christian family, to attending college in New York City to pursue a career as an actress, to finally finding the courage to step into the womanhood she always knew at heart was her destiny, Cox tells the story of the unique challenges along her journey to womanhood, professional achievement, self-acceptance, and love.

Today is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. 

Due to factors like the immense disparity in healthcare access between black Americans and other groups, the rate of HIV infection for African Americans is approximately eight times higher than for white Americans. 

This disparity was present even at the very beginning of the AIDS pandemic, and is very likely part of the reason why the US government’s response to the burgeoning public health crisis was so slow- Ronald Reagan’s administration perceived AIDS as killing primarily three groups: black Haitian immigrants, gay men, and drug users. The racism and homophobia of those involved in delaying official acknowledgement of HIV/AIDS is, in large part, why the disease grew into a global scourge. 

Struggling Alone: Women who have sex with women in Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Ghana

This report is a result of a five-month social context analysis conducted by a young, lesbian-led organization, The Queer African Youth Networking Center (QAYN) to call attentions to the lived realities of lesbians, bisexual, transgendered, queer and women who have sex with women (LBTQWSW) in three West African countries. A group of passionate and resourceful volunteers engaged in cross-country interviews and focus group discussions to uncover the challenges faced and strategies used by LBTQWSW in living their lives as same-gender loving

The Controversy Around ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’: A Case Study in Bi Erasure and Public Hysteria

Blue Is the Warmest Colour is an unfortunate title for a great film… The story is deceptively simple: Adèle a high-school student, meets Emma an advanced Fine Art student with blue hair at a lesbian bar, they fall in love, have incredibly hot sex, live together, and eventually break up … In the deafening cacophony of OMG, there are naked women having sex here are some absurd and reactionary comments —-

Almost every review and headline has characterized this film as a “lesbian love story”. Emma may be lesbian. We learn that she has had relationships only with women. But the film deliberately avoids labeling Adèle’s identity.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz, sexologist and Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington, made this emphatic claim in an article for CNN: “The chilling part of this film is that it’s basically the story of an adult woman poaching on a high-schooler”. Like countless critics, Dr. Schwartz reduces the film to porn that she would not recommend to teenagers … Dr. Schwartz seems unconcerned by the fact that Adèle chain-smokes but warns that Adèle’s lovemaking with a woman who is her partner is too damaging for us to watch …

Then there are those saying the sex is unreal, too clinical, filmed through a male gaze, blah, blah, blah. Why aren’t we celebrating the fact that these scenes even exist? There are three explicit sex scenes adding up to nearly 10 full minutes of nude, girl-on-girl action in an award winning film …

And finally, the ugly truth that no one wants to admit. The film beautifully explores how the sexual barometer can grow cold and change the nature of a relationship. For those who have not seen the film, minor spoiler alert for what follows. In a harrowing scene, Emma breaks up with Adèle for reasons that would be devastating to any relationship but pose a particular challenge to same-sex relationships: class difference and biphobia …

Few films have accurately captured the quotidian life of the French middle class … The more successful and profitable that Emma becomes as an artist the more she shuts down emotionally. She also begins to feel shame about Adèle’s modest ambition to become a schoolteacher … Is Emma furious that Adèle cheated on her? Or that Adèle had sex with a man? Or is Emma simply jealous that Adèle hasn’t reached emotional frigidity like she has?

The film offers no easy answers. It simply documents the devastation on Adèle and, in the end, only hints at a brighter future for her.

Click HERE to read the full article

Straight passing privilege gives radfeminism the excuse to ignore that bisexuals statistically face more rape than heterosexuals and gay/lesbian groups.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals face more domestic violence than heterosexuals and gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals face more suicide attempts than heterosexuals and gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals face more depression than heterosexuals and gay/lesbian groups.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals are the majority of the lgbt, but our needs are never focused on as a separate group in the way that gay and lesbian needs have.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals (in the UK) face higher amounts of discrimination in the work place than heterosexuals and gay/lesbian groups.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals are less at ease with their sexuality than heterosexuals and gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals are less likely to be “out the closet” with family and friends, colleagues and healthcare workers.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals have more negative experiences with healthcare workers than heterosexuals and gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals are sought out to be converted to heterosexuality by therapists more than gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals turn to substance and alcohol abuse more than heterosexuals and gay/lesbians.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that statistically bisexuals commit more self harm than heterosexuals and gay/lesbian groups.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that bisexuals are blamed greatly for spreading HIV/AIDS through heterosexual and gay/lesbian spaces, even by lgbt groups.

Gives them the excuse to ignore that bisexuals face greater health problems in the US than the general population.

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The only people who get straight privilege are heterosexuals.

If you are not heterosexual you can not access heterosexual privilege.

Being with someone of a different gender to yourself is not a straight relationship - the only straight relationships are ones that solely involve straight people.

You Might Be A Bisexual (with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)

Tiggy Upland

is the always ladylike Advice Columnist for Boston’s own

Bisexual Resource Center