From: woodhous@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Joe P Woodhouse)
Newsgroups: soc.bi
Subject: Re: Bi Quotes and Red Heads
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:06:42 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia

Graham Toal writes:
>Joe P Woodhouse writes:
>:   I think I'm a bit extra sensitive at the moment, because the recent push
>:by my SO & I to get LaTrobe's GL Society to embrace Bi issues has generated
>:the most amazingly heated and nasty statements. I don't think I've ever had
>:so many people all yelling at me at once. It's wierd, one meeting everyone
>:seems happy to include Bi's, the next, Bi supporters are almost a minority.
>:I've never liked not being liked, and this is "not being liked" in spades.
>
>Can you tell us more about this, with some examples?  Is there a reason
>for this apparent volte-face or is it a case of 'talk is cheap' but
>they backed off when it came to actions?  Whatever, it's unsettling.

   Part of this fluctuation is purely statistical - some meetings, the
really nasty folk stay away, and everything goes quite well. For example,
at one meeting the group decided that the Society should *explicitly*
mention bisexuals *everywhere* it mentions gay men/lesbians. We also had
lovely statements being made like "...I don't want Joe and Karina [my SO]
to have to go somewhere else because they didn't feel included here", and
"...I think bisexuals must be *doubly* oppressed, because they get all the
harassment from straight society that we get, *plus* a whole lot from the
GL community too".

   Then the next meeting, the nasty folk show up again, get all horrified
at how much has been done for Bi visibility in their absence, and stir
everything up again. "...bisexuals are only *half* as oppressed as us,
because their oppression is only based on their gay and lesbian sides",
"...we don't want to lose a GL focus, bisexuals are welcome here if
they're prepared to work for the GL cause", and "...bisexuals obviously
aren't very committed to anything, I mean, where's the Bisexual Movement?".

   Arrg.

   What seems to be happening is that a large minority of the group is
being a bit lazy and fickle. They hear Karina and I speak - they agree.
They hear the nasties speak - they agree.

   (Still, one lesbian admitted that part of the problem was that many
of her lesbian friends wouldn't come along if they thought bisexuals
would be at the meeting too. The bi men might crack onto them, and the
bi women were "sleeping with the enemy". And that's word for word.)

   If anyone's interested, or contemplating initiating a similar battle
themselves, I'm happy to email the full details of the fight so far.
Know what to expect, and learn from our mistakes, that sort of thing.

   <deep breath> Whew. Glad I got all that out. The last meeting, I was
shaking like I never have before. To be fair though, some of the people
there have been *lovely*, really going out of their way to help us. At
least I've made some good friends.

>Meanwhile have a nice warm reassuring MOTSS *HuG* :-)

   I *never* say no to hugs of any sort. Or much else. (Karina tied me
up for the first time recently. I think we both enjoyed it more than we
expected to...)(Ok, fairly vanilla, but we gotta start somewhere! We're
still young! Give us time! <other protests fade out...>)

--
  / Joe Woodhouse        / I'm just a sweet bisexual...   / Hello, there.
 / Latrobe University   /    (think - Rocky Horror)      / Threesomes are fun.
/ Melbourne, Australia / Music. Magic. Mathematics. Me. / I like cats & ropes.