Brave students share their experiences of biphobia in Liverpool

This week the LGBT+ Society have been campaigning in the Guild to raise awareness of biphobia.

Committee members have been conducting a week long silent campaign, as well as encouraging students to share their experiences on whiteboards.

Biphobia is a form of discrimination which distinctly affects bisexual people, and is fuelled by stereotypes and misconceptions of the sexuality.
Pippa Davies, Co-President of LGBT+ Soc, told The Tab: “Bi-awareness is a campaign that we in the LGBT+ society are running this year to tackle the problems of bi-phobia and bi-erasure.

“Bi-phobia is the fear or hatred of those who identify as bisexual (being attracted to more than one gender), which is common not only within heterosexual people but also within the LGBT+ community itself.

“It often either goes unnoticed or is considered unimportant, so we wanted to bring awareness and education about this issue.”

Biphobia, as well as being felt among straight people, is also commonly experienced in the LGBT+ community.

They often get excluded or silenced as some gay people feel bisexuals have a privilege of the ability to have straight relationships.

However, many bisexuals feel that their identity is still just as valid and needs to be protected, as they can still experience homophobia and share the same concerns for LGBT+ rights.

Pippa went on to say: “As someone who identifies as bisexual, I have encountered biphobia from both straight and LGBT+ people.

“And as such I was thrilled when we decided to run this campaign – bringing awareness to the silence and invisibility we often feel as individuals and as a group, and bringing attention to the things that l personally, as well as many others who identify as bisexual, have had said to me.”

Third year Politics and Philosophy student, Jennifer Shaw, was also involved in the campaign. She told The Tab: “The #EndBiphobiaNow campaign was started by the LGBT+ society in an attempt to educate people on what bisexuality is, and to break negative stereotypes that bisexuality is often viewed with.

“The poster campaign is meant to bring to light some of these stereotypes that people have either had thrown at them, have heard said about them or someone else.”

Giuseppe Campisi, the second Co-President of LGBT+ Soc and a third year Zoology student said: “One of the biggest problems with biphobia is that it doesn’t only manifest in straight culture, but can also be observed in gay culture too.

“Targeting this discrimination amongst the LGBT+ community towards bisexuals is one of the main aims of this campaign, because they are going through what we have had to go through ourselves – something we should not wish on anyone else.”

Bi representative of LGBT+ soc, Jasmine Brown reflected on some of the stereotypes associated with bisexuality, she said: “Some of the most common stereotypes were ‘greedy’, ‘actually gay’ or ‘actually straight’, ‘doing it for the attention’ and ‘always up for a threesome’.

“The sad fact is a lot of these stereotypes exist within the LGBTQ+ community, so whilst not everyone is discriminatory, that prejudice still exists in many areas that should be safe for someone of any sexuality.