Thursday, April 29, 2010
For those of you familiar with the first episode of Showtime’s hit drama “The L Word,” you probably recall the quote, “God, Alice, when are you going to make up your mind between dick and pussy? And spare us the gory bisexual details?”
This came from the lesbian character, Dana, as she ribbed her bisexual best friend, Alice, who was talking about the sexual stylings of a man she had bedded.
Dana’s comment shows the stigma often associated with the “B,” or Bisexuals, of the LGBT community.
This is a mindset that both the homosexual and heterosexual communities share when it comes to bisexuality.
Bisexuals are greedy. They’re promiscuous. They’re twice as likely to cheat on someone because both sexes are there for the taking. Bisexuals aren’t gay enough nor are they straight enough. . .
Wait, what? Even though bisexuals are considered a part of the gay community, they suffer constant judgment from the outside as well as within.
On April 20, The Seattle Times published an article about three bisexual men suing the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance claiming they were discriminated against during the 2008 Gay World Softball series. This came after a competing team accused the men’s team of violating the alliance rule stating, “each World Series team can have no more than two heterosexual players.”
The three players were called into a conference room of more than 25 people and asked “personal and intrusive questions” about their sexual attractions and desires to determine their sexual orientation. Ultimately, the three men were ruled “non-gay,” and their team was stripped of its second-place finish. With it also came a recommendation that the three men be suspended for a year.
There is still a lot of discrimination toward the LGBT community, and we have a long way yet to go. What saddens me about the incident involving the bisexual men is that the discrimination came from within the gay community. When we target our own people, saying they are “not gay enough” to belong to a gay organization, when we limit the number of people who can participate in an event because they are too gay, too in the middle, or too straight, we only hinder ourselves from achieving further equality.
I understand that any private organization can make up its membership terms, but why is it only after people are successful that they suddenly find themselves under attack for who they are?
A rival team accuses another team of not being gay enough after that team nearly wins the Gay Softball World Series, as if sexual orientation determines a person’s athleticism. Yeah, and skin color determines intelligence. And an Ivy League degree makes for the best presidents. And height determines personality. Because we know how correct those statements are.
We have to stop hating each other. Gay rights don’t mean solely gays and lesbians. They include everyone in between. They include gender identity and transsexuality. Without the B and T in LGBT, our community becomes a lot smaller, and we lose a lot of strength. We can’t afford to lose each other. Our strength is in our ability to let in and love everyone for who they are. So please, stop the hating against bisexuals. Let’s stop the hating and increase the loving.
After all, how can we ever get respect from outside the LGBT community if we can’t even respect our own?
— Bornstein is a senior from Lawrence in women's studies.
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