The Task Force Responds to Lisa Diamond’s Work

What a busy couple of weeks it’s been! The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force issued this statement responding to Lisa Diamond’s study on the lives of bisexual women, and it got picked up by The Miami Herald here. The statement was co-written by Julie Ebin, Marshall Miller, and me; we’re the co-authors of Bisexual Health, which is a publication of the Task Force’s Policy Institute. Here is an excerpt:

“For all women who identify as bisexual (whether consistently, as most do, or temporarily, as some do) biphobia impacts their lives in many ways. While co-authoring Bisexual Health, I read study after study proving that bi women bear the brunt of biphobia every single day. In fact, bisexuals experience more stigma than people of other orientations, gay and straight.”

“Research shows that there are numerous harmful stereotypes about bisexuality, proving that biphobia is unfortunately alive and well. What I appreciate about Professor Diamond is that her work has the potential to draw attention to the realities of bi women’s lives, and therefore undo some of the harm that biphobia has caused.”

Then, in the meantime, The Advocate published this article by bisexual feminist Jennifer Baumgardner (have you read her book, Look Both Ways, yet? If not, you need to get a copy!), about bisexual women’s lives. And not a moment too soon. Bi women need some light shed on the issues they face. I hear from bi women all the time; they share their stories and experiences with me, and I have to tell you: there is a lot of biphobia out there, and it is cruel and debilitating and completely unacceptable. We have to fix this.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 12:36 am and is filed under Bisexuals/ Bi Activism, Community Organizations, Health, Uncategorized, Women . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.