Bi-Lesbian

A **Bi-Lesbian** is someone who identifies as both bisexual, biromantic, or otherwise bi- and a lesbian.

Some bi-lesbians use the Split Attraction Model. They may feel one form of attraction to two or more genders, and another form of attraction to women or non-men, for example, sexual attraction to two or more genders, and romantic attraction to only non-men. The term is also used often by those who are bi but focus wholly or primarily on their attraction to women or non-men, and sometimes those who view their attraction to non-men as more than one gender attraction.

Others may use lesbian in a historical context, the term lesbian used to apply to any woman who was in a relationship with another woman, and many bi women, non-binary, and woman-aligned folks still use the word for this reason. A similar interpretation views lesbian as an umbrella term for any exclusive, near-exclusive, or more prominent queer attraction to women or non-men, which would include m-spec folks who have a more prominent or near-exclusive woman/non-men attraction.

The bi-lesbian label is also used by some individuals with fluid attraction, duosexuality, or abrosexuality between bi and lesbian, folks who feel within the grey area between bi and lesbian, those within a usually small system that contains primarily bi and lesbian members, those who are attracted to multigender individuals, and many more.

The term falls under the lunian or m-spec lesbian umbrella and its counterparts consist of omni-lesbian, poly-lesbian, and pan-lesbian.

## History & Coining

The term bi-lesbian has existed since the 1970s due to the separation of lesbians and lesbian separatism, though the concept it describes had existed decades prior within some of the earliest lesbian history.

Lesbian separatism is a belief held by some members of radical feminist communities that involved the separation of women from men to achieve women's liberation. Within the LGBTQ+ community, this involved the forced separation of women who were involved with men from women who weren't, many targets of this behaviour were bisexual women, especially those welcomed and heavily involved in the lesbian community. This caused the gap between bisexual women who were once welcome in the lesbian community, and those who fit the definition of lesbian that was considered correct from the perspectives of lesbian separatists ('a homosexual woman', 'a woman not attracted to men' and similar interpretations).

The effects of lesbian separatism were also likely to be one of the reasons that the label bisexual increased in popularity during the 1970s as the term lesbian lost its original inclusivity of any woman who was attracted to other women, and became a term to describe a woman's exclusive attraction to other women that did not include attraction to men in any way.

## Flag

What is possibly the first bi-lesbian flag was designed by Mod Hermy of pride-color-schemes on Tumblr on June 27th, 2017. It is not commonly referred to due to it containing clear aspects of the transphobic and plagiarised lipstick lesbian flag that was still the most popular to use at the time.

A bi-lesbian flag and symbol were created by Tumblr user bi-lesbian. The symbol was first introduced on August 12th, 2020, and the flag on January 19th, 2020.

Another bi-lesbian flag was created by Tumblr user kenochoric on October 28th, 2020.

## Resources

* https://bi-lesbian.carrd.co/#sources - this carrd links plenty of sources regarding bi-lesbianism and lesbian separatism, as well as tumblr posts explaining and linking further sources
* https://lgbt.wikia.org/wiki/Lesbian\_separatism - further fandom information on lesbian separatism with further sources
* https://bi-lesbian.tumblr.com - a tumblr blog answering questions on bi-lesbianism and its history
* https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:54127339$12i - the self-identification of bi-lesbian in 1983, and lots more