PRONOUNCING THE SILENT ‘B’ (IN GLBTTIQ)

The available evidence suggests that both self-identifying bisexuals and people with bisexual desire or experience are more numerous than many researchers and service providers have assumed. However, the assumption that bisexuals can pass as heterosexual and exercise heterosexual privilege has produced profound silence about the violence, discrimination and illness people who identify as bisexual experience. This paper brings together evidence which suggests self-identified bisexuals experience violence, discrimination and illness at similar or greater rates to self-identified lesbians and gay men. It goes on to argue that declining to pronounce the silent ‘B’ in ‘GLBTTIQ’ has costs which extend well beyond further marginalising bisexual people. The continuing silencing and exclusion of bisexuality also risks producing poor research and limiting the richness of the wider queer community.