Bi Focus
News, views, and a little bit of dish! Tune in each month as Michael
Szymanski looks at what's going on in the big bi world.
|
So you went to the Millennium March on Washington and didn't see any
bisexuals? That's because virtually all of the national bisexual
organizations and all of the high-profile bi leaders boycotted the
March. Some of them even sacrificed a chance to be up there on the main
podium.
Or perhaps you didn't notice.
It was only after a great deal of soul-searching and debate that the
bisexual community stepped away from supporting the MMOW. I was there
two
years ago at the national BiNet USA meeting when the decision was made,
rather overwhelmingly, to boycott the March because organizers were not
being
very inclusive from the outset.
I personally understood that, but fought a lone battle, insisting that
we
should at least be part of the process and try to help change it from
within.
I felt that most marchers wouldn't know and wouldn't care about the
political
infighting, and that our larger message was more important.
I was sad that the world would miss dynamic bi speakers such
as Lani Ka'ahumanu, Elias Faraje-Jones, Roland Coloma, and Loraine
Hutchins -- feminists, activists, people of color, motivators, and my
personal heroes, all of whom would have been on the short list of March
speakers were it not for their early vocal
concerns about the organizing process.
Another major bi activist, Boston educator Robyn Ochs, was also asked to
speak at the March. "I was very conflicted and talked to a lot of
people: activists,
students, friends, my lesbian neighbors across the street, and I came up
with
no consensus whatsoever," says Ochs, who in her early 30s is known as
the grandmother of the bi movement. "What I came up with was that there
is no right answer. It was a lose-lose
situation."
For months before the March, Robyn discouraged
people from going to Washington. But one day a bi activist student piped
up
at one of her lectures: "It's not fair. I was in junior high when you
marched in 1993, and
now this is my chance to experience it. I want to go this time!" That
hit Robyn hard, and memories of her elation during past marches
(back to 1987) flooded over her. She agreed with the principled position
that
the bi movement was taking, but she felt it was tragic that today's
marchers
would have no visible bi support.
Most bisexuals objected to the focus on the family message that the
March
took on -- with its emphasis on monogamy, conformity, and religion --
even if many
bis are monogamous, parents, and spiritual. (See Debra
Kolodny's new book, Blessed Bi Spirit : Bisexual People of
Faith.)
To focus the bi community's disgruntlement about the March, Robyn,
Debra,
Loraine, and New Jersey bi activist Tom Limoncelli spoke to bi activists
at a
day-long conference, "Bi2K Bisexual Community Activism," run by a
year-old
Washington political activist group called Bisexual Insurgence. It was
held
the day before the March, and according to Rochelle Myers, 50 new
activists showed up.
"They taught us how to start up a group, suggested what to do when
people
burn out, and offered great advice," Rochelle says. One workshop even
showed
budding activists how to use a bullhorn and lead chants. "The people in
the
neighboring apartments must have thought we were demonstrating or
something,"
she laughs.
Then Rochelle's partner Erin Reid helped lead a group of 50
anti-marchers down Constitution Avenue with a purple banner reading
"Freaks Are Family" in response to the "hetero-normity" of the
congregation gathered for the MMOW. "It's the freaky people who started
this movement," Erin says. "Who says
if you have too many piercings you can't go on TV? We are polyamorous,
Jewish, fetishists, pagans. We are not the American mainstream."
Erin insists it was only by the grace of the Goddess that their
mini-demonstration was escorted by police right in front of the big
March. There they were standing in front of American Gothic gay poster
couple Anne
Heche and Ellen DeGeneres just when the media were clicking pictures.
The
anti-marchers protested against large corporate sponsors (like United
Airlines and PlanetOut), the $375 ticket prices to the concert, and the
heavy
Christian overtones of the march. They were soon escorted away.
They got media coverage, though: CNN, C-SPAN, ABC, the Washington
Times,
and a photo in the Washington Post, but the gay media ignored
them and their
bi-inspired message of diversity. "I think they got a lot more coverage
than they deserved given their small numbers relative to the larger march," Robyn points
out about the relatively small demonstration, "but it was great for
them."
Robyn ended up not speaking at the main podium, persuaded by fellow bi
leaders to turn the offer down. She did march at the MMOW, though not
with the Freaks Are Family group.
"I ended up with my mom. We marched with PFLAG [Parents and Friends of
Gays and Lesbians]. I had a hidden agenda to introduce my mom to other
affiliates," says Robyn, whose mother is an informal one-person PFLAG branch in a
small
town.
Robyn felt a bit hypocritical being there, knowing about the bi
protest. But, she says, there were lots of other bi people seen blending
in
among the crowd. She spotted bi friends, bi students, and bi couples,
and noticed that
many of the speakers were bi-inclusive in their speeches. There were no
bi
banners, though.
"We sacrificed our voice at the march," Robyn sighs. "I don't think
overall that it helped or hurt us, but one thing that got pointed out
during
this march is that there is not one bi movement anymore. There is not
one
bi position anymore. We have a variety of voices. I'm still not clear we
did
the right thing." For Robyn, the longtime activist, marching with her
mom, her girlfriend,
and her ex-girlfriend was a new, exciting experience among the estimated
750,000 marchers.
Rochelle, the budding activist, who staked out a maypole on the Mall
where the few dozen anti-marchers would gather, regretted that her
demonstration wasn't taken very seriously, but she hopes people learn
from their protest. "When I was a young bi girl from North Carolina at
the march in 1993 I
didn't know anyone else like me," recalls Rochelle. "Now I feel I've
arrived
as an activist. And although it may have seemed to have been negative,
it was
the best experience of my life."
And maybe that's what it's all about anyway.
|
|
|
Community Centers
Message Boards
