Dear Community, In this issue, we turn to a theme we had planned before the pandemic disrupted our lives: Finding Sex/Finding Love. The prompt was: “How do you seek and find romantic and/or sexual connections? Do you use technology such as dating apps; why or why not? Have you intentionally sought these connections, or stumbled…
Eighth Annual Bisexual Book Award Winners: Books of 2019
Non-Fiction: Psychoanalytic Bisexuality to BisexualPsychoanalysis: Desiring in the Real by Esther Rapoport,Routledge Memoir/Biography: In the Dream House by CarmenMaria Machado, Graywolf Press Fiction: Naamah by Sarah Blake, Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House Romance: Tie: Out of the Shade by S.A. McAuley, Independently Published; and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, St. Martin’s Griffin /…
Not-Not Out
By Maddie McGuire I live and work in a western suburb of Chicago. I never cameout at work and it’s hard to say if my co-workers are aware thatI’m bisexual. Though I do have a feeling most of them knowI’m not straight. I work in a library in the Youth Departmentwhere I mostly serve grades…
Thoughts from the Closet
By Lila Hartelius As an English language teacher who also happens to be bisexual,I’m not currently out at work; yet my understandings of biphobic and monosexist1 oppression have helped me put words toelements that feel oppressive to me in my experience not onlyof not being out at work but also of being an English teacher….
Out through Advocacy: Showing Pride by Serving My Community
By Ally Muterspaw My coming out story doesn’t fit the coming out arc that manyfilms, novels, and other media portray to their audiences. Inever had that “oh!” moment, nor do I have specific childhoodmemories where I recognized my queerness. I never made anannouncement to friends or loved ones about my identity. Thisisn’t from shame or…
Volunteering with Queer Elders
By Emma Not all work is paid. In May 2020, months into the COVID-19shutdown in the Northeast of the United States, I volunteeredto do check-in telephone calls for LGBTQ+ elders in the Bostonarea through the LGBT Aging Project at Fenway Health. I hadread an interview with the assistant director of the LGBT AgingProject saying the…
Being Out vs. Being Bi+
By Tami Gorodetzer I joined the corporate workforce in 2014, fresh out of college. Iheld my identities in full view throughout the four years I wasactive on campus and didn’t spend a ton of time thinking aboutwhat I needed to adjust prior to starting my first “real” job. Notlong after my first day, I put…
Finally
By Robyn Ochs It took me an eternity—three and a half years, to be precise—to come out at work. I moved to Boston at age 23 and afew months later found work at a university (there are lotsof universities in Boston!), where I ended up working for 26years. In my first position, I didn’t mention…
Untitled
By Alison Miller I watch a sail-shaped shadow on your neck and imagineit curving towards me. Your eyes are peacock feathersshimmering gold. I want toask you if we’ll touch again. I slid my hands into your hairso easily once, my fingersdolphins frolicking in your curls. You are your laugh, melodicand bold. You are yourlips when…
Banana Split
By Alison Miller I want to sit in a comic book dinerwith you and share a banana split ormaybe a milkshake with two straws.We’ll get whipped cream on our facesand wipe it off without flirtation as wetalk about politics and deep-down seacreatures, as we teach each other languages.I’ll say (something) Did you know thatmeans “ferry”…