A Year In Review — 2020. Articles outside of Medium
By: Vaneet Mehta
Tags: Bisexual, 2020, Articles, LGBTQ, Indian

A Year In Review — 2020

If you thought my blog was quiet last year, it has been even quieter this year. I had a few plans for blogs this year which I, unfortunately, never got round to writing. 2020 has been a strange old year and I’ve found my energy to keep up with everything at once a lot more difficult than I used to.

Unfortunately, this has meant this blog has taken a backseat. But for those who are interested in reading my work, you’ll find my writing made it to even more places this year! Below are some of the pieces I have written this year outside of this blog! Enjoy!

Queer People Of Colour panel

This year, I had the pleasure of being part of a number of panels. One of them took place at the University of Bristol during LGBT+ history month, prior to lockdown. I was put forward for this panel by the London Bi Pandas, a now defunct bisexual, queer and multi-gender attracted community activist space. I wrote an article on this panel, which you can read below.

Unicorn Magazine

Unicorn Magazine was founded by Bi Pride UK and features work from bisexual, pansexual and other multi-gender attracted people. A great online publication that has published 5 issues this year! I was featured in Issue 2, ‘Dreams’, with my piece called ‘Dream’ and Issue 3, ‘Well’, with my piece ‘5 ways I learnt to love myself’.

I tried to mix up my writing style with these pieces, going a little more lyrical with the prose. I hope you enjoy them both!

Gaysi Family

Gaysi Family is a blog that provides a platform and voice to LGBTQ+ Desis from around the world. I wrote a 3 part blog for them around identity and finding a space to call home. The first piece, on conflicting identities, is one of my favourite pieces I’ve written. I learnt a lot writing these pieces (they were actually written in 2019) and have learnt a lot since writing them. Have a read below!

Metro UK

This year I had an opportunity to write an opinion piece for a major publication, Metro UK, which is something I never expected to happen. The first discussed the ‘Love Is Blind’ drama that happened at the beginning of this year. Whilst the latter is on a statement from Joss Whedon about how he would make Willow bisexual if he made the show today. Links below!

My PrEP Story

Prepster is a fantastic grassroots organisation that helped lead the successful campaign for PrEP on the NHS in England as well as working to educate people on safer sex. They have been working heavily to help educate more marginalised communities with their requisite project, #PrEP4QueerMenOfColour. With plenty of assistance from the wonderful Phil Samba, I wrote my first PrEP story for them around HIV treatment.

Stonewall

In what is probably one of my biggest achievements to date, I wrote an article for Stonewall that was published on Bi Visibility Day. I discuss my own experiences of being bisexual as well as the grander issues that bisexual people face. It got a ton of engagement, so I hope a lot of people took something away from the piece.

Men’s Health

Whilst not written by me, Zachary Zane did an incredible job of taking my words from out interview and turning it into this wonderful piece. I felt that this was worth posting because I am still completely astounded by the fact that I am on Men’s Health website. This magazine and website always felt like the pinnacle of man, representing absolutely everything I felt that I was not. So to be on this site feels like a grand achievement.

Being a Bisexual Man

I wrote a couple of pieces this year for websites on being a bisexual man and my identity in general along with the hashtag, #BisexualMenExist, that I created that trended this year.

The first is for Knight Errant Press, their online blog. Knight Errant Press is a great indie press that focuses on queer publishing and plugging the gap that mainstream publishing has created. The second is Queermunity, a magazine for and by the LGBTQ+ community that works to uplift marginalised voices.

The last is for Rainbow & Co. Rainbow & Co is a queer owned small merchandise business. I worked with Rainbow & Co to start a merchandise campaign for bisexual people based on hashtags created on twitter, where £5 from each sale goes to support the bisexual community.

Links below for all of these!

What’s next

Whilst this blog will still be around, the chances of me having content to put up next year specifically for this blog is quite slim unfortunately. This is mainly because I have a book deal!!!

If you follow me on other platforms, you will already be aware of this. But I am currently writing a book on bisexual men and their experiences. I will be looking at topics around representation, coming out, dating, health and community. I’ll be breaking down the issues, imparting my own experiences as well as those of others and ending each section off with some advice that people have imparted.

Follow me on Twitter to keep up to date with the info. I don’t have a release date for you yet, but my deadline is mid/late next year and will be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers so watch this space! And here’s to 2021!