ACLGBTI considers San Fran report on bisexuals

The Chicago Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on LGBT Issues may consider endorsing a report on bisexual "invisibility" issued by its counterpart in San Francisco, ACLGBTI members told bi activists March 16, but asked for a more formal request from the agency that issued the report before it proceeds.

The report, "Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations," was approved earlier this year by the LGBT Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. Brother Michael Oboza, of the Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago, and two other bi activists brought it before ACLGBTI and urged the Council to endorse the report.

"If you approve this report you are making history and herstory," Oboza said. "I ask you to approve this report as San Francisco approved it to show that Chicago cares."

Available online in PDF format (go to sf-hrc.org, click on "reports," scroll down to "LGBT Advisory Committee"), the 41-page report said "bi-invisibility refers to a lack of acknowledgment and ignoring of the clear evidence that bisexuals exist."

"Bisexuals experience high rates of being ignored, discriminated against, demonized or rendered invisible by both the heterosexual world and the lesbian and gay communities," the report stated. "Often, the entire sexual orientation is branded as invalid, immoral, or irrelevant. Despite years of activism and the largest population within the LGBT community, the needs of bisexuals still go un-addressed and their very existence is still called into question."

A 2010 study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found that 3.1 percent of U.S. adults identified as bisexual, compared to 2.5 percent who identified as gay or lesbian.

"Despite the overwhelming data that bisexuals exist, other people's assumptions often render bisexuals invisible," the report stated. "Two women holding hands are read as 'lesbian,' two men as 'gay,' and a man and a woman as 'straight.' In reality, any of these people might be bi - perhaps all of them."

History is written to ignore bisexuality, too, the report found. Notable bisexuals who had same-sex partners are labeled gay or lesbian, the report said, ignoring their longterm relationships with opposite-gender partners.

"Words matter," the report stated. "Invisibility matters."

The report found that biphobia and bi invisibility contribute to wide disparities in health care and economic opportunity between bisexuals and the general population. And funding to address the issues is rarely available.

"In 2008, while total foundation giving to LGBT issues increased compared to the previous year (from $77 million in 2007 to $107 million in 2008) and the percentage of dollars increased ... funding for bi organizations or programs went down; it was the lowest of all two dozen demographic groups," the report stated. "In fact, during all of 2008, not a single grant in the entire country explicitly addressed bisexual issues."

The report makes a number of recommendations, including that San Francisco city departments and officials use more inclusive language, review health department materials and practices to ensure that bisexuals' needs are met, work with non-profit agencies on creating more programming for bisexuals, include bisexuality in diversity trainings and include bisexuals in panels, discussions and forums.

ACLGBTI members told the bi activists that the report appears to be in line with ACLGBTI's aims but asked them to work for a formal request from SFHRC's LGBT Advisory Committee that ACLGBTI endorse the report.

"My suggestion would be that we take the opportunity to read this carefully and come to our own understandings," said ACLGBTI Chair Beth Kelly. "What would be helpful to us would be to have a letter or an email asking us to endorse it from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission that we could then enthusiastically respond to and say, yes, we endorse this."

The activists said they would work to get that request from San Francisco.

In other action, ACLGBTI Director Bill Greaves said he's working to address some omissions in the City's two hate crime ordinances. While looking at the ordinances, Greaves said he found that one includes language specifically addressing sexual orientation but not gender identity, and the other addresses neither. Both are actually covered by the City's ordinances. Greaves said he's working with the CCHR to address the omissions.

"Laws not only protect; they send a message," Greaves said. "They educate."