page_title: Bisexuality in the United States
section_title: 1970s
hierarchical_section_title: Bisexuality in the United States / 1966 to present / 1970s
caption_attribution_description: Photo of Lou Reed.
context_page_description: It covers this history beginning in 1892, the first English-language use of the word "bisexual" to refer to sexual orientation.
context_section_description: Bisexuals became more prominent in the media in the 1970s. In 1972 bisexual activist Don Fass founded the National Bisexual Liberation group in New York City, which issued The Bisexual Expression, most likely the earliest bisexual newsletter. In 1973 bisexual activist Woody Glenn was interviewed by a radio show of the National Organization for Women on WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1974, both Newsweek and Time Magazine ran stories on "bisexual chic," bringing bisexuality to mainstream attention as never before. In 1976 the landmark book View from Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women, by Janet Mode, was published. 
  Bisexuals were also important contributors to the larger LGBT rights movement. In 1972, Bill Beasley, a bisexual activist in the civil rights movement as well as the LGBT movement, was the core organizer of the first Los Angeles Gay Pride March. He was also active with the Gay Liberation Front. In 1975, activist Carol Queen came out as bisexual and organized GAYouth in Eugene, Ore. In 1977 Alan Rockway, a psychologist and bisexual activist, co-authored America's first successful gay rights ordinance put to public vote, in Dade County, Florida. Anita Bryant campaigned against the ordinance, and Rockway began a boycott of Florida orange juice, which she advertised, in response. The San Francisco Bisexual Center also helped sponsor a press conference with lesbian activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, and pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock, in opposition to Bryant. Bisexual activist Alexei Guren founded the Gay Teen Task Force in Miami, Fla., in response to Bryant's campaign. The Florida Citrus Commission canceled her contract as a direct response to this pressure. In 1979, Dr. Marvin Colter and John Soroczak co-founded Arete, The Bisexual Center of Southern California, in Whittier, CA, a support and social group for bisexuals, which marched in the 1982 Los Angeles Gay pride. John Soroczak, a psychotherapist, facilitated the first bisexual rap group at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center in 1994. Also in 1979 A. Billy S. Jones, a bisexual founding member of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays, helped organize the first black gay delegation to meet with President Jimmy Carter's White House staff. Jones was also a core organizer of the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, and “Third world conference: When will the ignorance end?,” the first national conference for gay and lesbian people of color.
  The bisexual movement had its own successes as well. Most notably, in 1972 a Quaker group, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, issued the “Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality” supporting bisexuals. The Statement, which may have been "the first public declaration of the bisexual movement" and "was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly," appeared in the Quaker Friends Journal and The Advocate in 1972.
  In 1976 Harriet Levi and Maggi Rubenstein founded the San Francisco Bisexual Center. It was the longest surviving bisexual community center, offering counseling and support services to Bay Area bisexuals, as well as publishing a newsletter, The Bi Monthly, from 1976 to 1984. In 1978, bisexual activist Dr. Fritz Klein introduced the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid in his book The bisexual option: A concept of one-hundred percent intimacy, in which he examined the incidence and nature of bisexuality, the attitudes of bisexual persons, and the rewards of bisexuality. Bisexual activism also began to spread beyond the coasts, as from 1978 until 1979, several Midwestern bisexual groups were created, such as One To Five (founded by Scott Bartell and Gary Lingen for Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minn), BI Women Welcome in Minneapolis, The BI Married Men's Group in the Detroit suburbs, and BI Ways in Chicago.
caption: Bisexual[22] 1970s icon Lou Reed
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