By KimtheBwordpoet
Bi Pride Season 2022 allowed me to experience one of the greatest highlights of moving through the world as a bi+ community organizer. In October, Los Angeles Bi+ Task Force hosted “Listen to Your Bi+ Elders,” a panel of OG bi+ activists. Robyn Ochs, Lani Ka’ahumanu, ABilly Jones-Hennin, Lorraine Hutchins, and the panel was led by Mike Szymanski. Wendy Curry and Dr. Mimi Hoang were special guest attendees as well.
If one is not a bi+ activist or bi+ community organizer, then most likely only Robyn Ochs’ name will stand out to you due to the well-known definition of bisexuality that bi+ individuals and organizations repost a lot. But for those of us that have actively worked to create spaces for the bi+ community in our respective corners of the country, all the panel members as well as the panel leader Mike Szymanski should stand out. It was truly extraordinary to be in the presence of people I have been inspired by for so long. I felt like Dorothy: she was there, and she was there, and he was there! It was amazing that they all knew one another, like KNEW one another! They were all great friends! I guess it should not have surprised me that great minds that think alike should travel together in life too.
When I embraced my bi identity in 2001, and became a baby bi+ organizer in 2004, the national bi+ scene was booming. Bisexuality was already on the minds of the queer community masses thanks to panel member Lani Ka’ahumanu’s speech at the 1993 LGB March on Washington. Panel special guest Wendy Curry and Michael Page had co-founded National Bisexuality Day in 1999 (along with Gigi Raven Wilbur), Michael Page had also designed the bi flag and created BiCafe—a social media site just for bisexuals. Not only had panel members Lani Ka’ ahumanu and Lorraine Hutchins co-edited the Bi Any Other Name anthology, but they had co-founded the first national bi organization called BiNet USA in 1990; Karla Rossi had been running Anything That Moves magazine since 1990, and Cheryl Dobinson started The Fence magazine in 2002. Lauren Beach’s amazing work in Minneapolis with the Bisexual Organizing Project and the BECAUSE conference greatly inspired me as a Midwest organizer.
Of course, panel member Robyn Ochs was well-known in the national bi scene because of helping found the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network in 1983, and the Bisexual Resource Center in 1985. She was also the editor of The Bisexual Resource Guide from 1990 to 2002, a VERY good resource that I wish was still around. I was personally inspired by Robyn because she was married to a lesbian, which was the future I always wanted but did not know I could have because of my biness. Panelist ABilly Jones-Hennin launched the first national gay and lesbian black advocacy group in 1978: the National Coalition of Black Gays. Who knew Black bi people could make such a mark on queer history in general?? I did not till I learned about him. Then there’s the panel host Michael Szymanski who I learned about through his writings in the National Bisexuality Examiner and BiMagazine.org. He also co-authored The Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe in 2006; the first book to win in the Bisexual Category at the Lambda Literary Awards.
It was hard to not be bitten by the bi+ organizing bug once I learned of all these amazing people that had blazed the trail before me. I did not know what impact I could make in the bi+ world, I just knew I wanted to be like them one day and make my own unique mark on the movement. As the 2000s flew by, I learned of even more bi+ history makers such as panel special guest Dr. Mimi Hoang who founded and runs the Los Angeles Bi+ Task Force plus two other bi+ non-profits, and went to the 2013 White House Bisexual Community Roundtable to present on bi+ mental health; and Sheela Lambert who started Bi Writers Association in 2006 plus the Bisexual Book Awards since 2013.
As the evolution of the bi+ movement takes the queer community in new exciting directions, I hope to be one of the ones who advance to the honor of being a bi elder in the future. Being remembered for my many contributions to Bi Women Quarterly, Gay People’s Chronicle, The Letter Online, and The Fence magazine; my organization Bisexual+ Initiative of Ohio; and the Bi+ themed poetry and short stories I am working towards publishing one day.
It will also be great to be on a similar panel with other bi+ activists who I currently have the honor to live in the same era as. Nicole Kristal who co-authored Bisexual’s Guide to the Universe and who I know from her work running Still Bisexual; Bren Frederick who I know from running the Bi/Pan Library; R.J. Aguiar who I know from the TheNotAdam YouTube channel and his many pieces in Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Out magazine, and The Advocate; Shiri Eisner who I know from her book Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution and her Twitter activism; and Jayne B Shea who I know from the amazing Bi Pride gear she creates. We also cannot forget to include newly established historic bi+ organizations such as the Bisexual Queer Alliance Chicago (BQAC) and the Visibility Impact Fund. Hopefully everyone who attended that event researches more of those who came before, and listens to the stories of their history-creating projects.
KimtheBwordpoet is a bi poet and writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She runs Bisexual+ Initiative of Ohio, an up-and-coming organization for Bisexual and Pansexual Ohioans; a member of Alpha Zeta Gamma Sorority, a Bisexual Women’s Non-Collegiate Sorority; and the former Storytelling Coordinator for Still Bisexual, an organization dedicated to sharing the stories of Bisexual people everywhere.