Groundbreaking Report on Bisexuality and Bi Health
My former employer, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, has issued a report on bisexuality and bisexual health together with BiNet USA and the Fenway Institute in Boston. It is long overdue, but, based on my initial reading, extremely well done.
The following is the foreword of the report, which can be downloaded for free in its entirety from the NGLTF website.
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FOREWORD
BY LUIGI FERRER, M.S.
Former president, BiNet USA
Board Member, Bisexual Resource Center
It is with great pleasure and a deep sense of appreciation for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, The Fenway Institute at Fenway Community Health and all those involved in this project that I sit down to write this foreword. The document you are about to read was born out of the grassroots efforts of countless bisexual activists, organizers, nurses, doctors, patients/clients, researchers, health educators and HIV-prevention workers, who for more than 35 years have struggled to bring about greater visibility, understanding and inclusion of bisexuality. The bisexual point of view has been and is still sorely missing from the public health discourse in our country and throughout the world.
The fact that bisexual people and people who have sex with more than one gender exist is undeniable. However, there is still considerable controversy as to the size of these segments of the population, how to define them, and what the public health implications of bisexual identity or of having sex with more than one gender (with or without a bisexual identity) really are. Most public health officials appear to be at a loss to understand these issues and dismiss them as unimportant because “they affect such a small number of people.” Sadly, more often than not, they honestly believe that there are more pressing priorities.
I was 21 in 1979 when I was infected with HIV as I began to explore my sexual desires for men for the first time. This was before any of us had heard of GRID (1981), AIDS (1982) or HIV (1983), and long before there was an HIV test available to the general public (1985) or any sort of treatment (i.e. AZT monotherapy in 1987). I lived through the dark ages of the early days of the AIDS pandemic, lost too many dear friends, and survived.
In the 21 years since my HIV-positive diagnosis in 1985, I helped build a thriving bisexual community in Miami, served as executive director of an AIDS services organization, worked on a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community building and political organizing projects and have served on numerous local, state and national health care advisory boards and health services policy, planning and evaluation groups. I came to this work reluctantly and at times feeling unprepared, but I was drawn to it by my personal need for support.
BISEXUAL HEALTH
and information and by the needs and encouragement of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, HIV-positive and Latino/a brothers and sisters. Antiretroviral medications keep me alive, but it’s the strength and support of community that allows me to thrive in the face of adversity. Today, as part of a team of peer facilitators for a coming-out support group for bisexuals, I find it troubling to not have answers to simple questions, like: What is the prevalence of HIV among sexually active bisexuals? Are bisexuals (or people who have sex with more that one gender) at greater risk for HIV or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than the average person on the street? Are bisexual women at greater risk than bisexual men?
The list of questions goes on and on. Given that the way most public health data are collected and analyzed in this country does not allow us to answer these basic questions, I am also troubled when I hear public health officials assert that “the needs of bisexuals are already addressed by prevention efforts for men who have sex with men,” that “bi women, for example, are probably at low risk” or that “bi women are not a priority population.”
There is a great deal of work to be done in the emerging field of bisexual health. Throughout the past 20 years I have been the only out bisexual voice at far too many meetings. I appreciate the progress we have made, but I also know how far we still need to go and how critical it is that out bisexuals are at the table and part of the discourse.
I came on the scene just as BiNet USA was formed and was honored to serve as one of its six initial national coordinators. By then, BiNet USA and bisexual movement leaders had made presentations to the board and staff of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and were a visible presence at the annual Creating Change conference. In 1995 BiNet activists worked with the Task Force to create a professional press packet which produced a cover story on bisexuality in Newsweek magazine that was the first balanced portrayal of bisexuals in the mainstream media.
In the pages that follow, celebrated author and sex educator Amy André provides an introduction to the topic of bisexuality, which is followed by a brief review of some of the available academic literature on issues affecting the health of bisexuals, with a focus on HIV and STI prevention. The second half of this publication outlines the work of Marshal Miller and Julie Ebin at the BiHealth Program at Fenway Community Health in Boston, Mass., with the goal of providing model policies and practices that healthcare providers and activists can replicate around the country. In order to increase the visibility of and acknowledge the accomplishments of bisexual activists and leaders, the bottom margins of the pages of this publication also include a brief timeline of the bisexual health movement’s history. I hope this publication will inspire a new cohort of bi-health activists here in the US and throughout the world.
Enjoy!
The entire report can be downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/BisexualHealth.pdf
The following is the foreword of the report, which can be downloaded for free in its entirety from the NGLTF website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOREWORD
BY LUIGI FERRER, M.S.
Former president, BiNet USA
Board Member, Bisexual Resource Center
It is with great pleasure and a deep sense of appreciation for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, The Fenway Institute at Fenway Community Health and all those involved in this project that I sit down to write this foreword. The document you are about to read was born out of the grassroots efforts of countless bisexual activists, organizers, nurses, doctors, patients/clients, researchers, health educators and HIV-prevention workers, who for more than 35 years have struggled to bring about greater visibility, understanding and inclusion of bisexuality. The bisexual point of view has been and is still sorely missing from the public health discourse in our country and throughout the world.
The fact that bisexual people and people who have sex with more than one gender exist is undeniable. However, there is still considerable controversy as to the size of these segments of the population, how to define them, and what the public health implications of bisexual identity or of having sex with more than one gender (with or without a bisexual identity) really are. Most public health officials appear to be at a loss to understand these issues and dismiss them as unimportant because “they affect such a small number of people.” Sadly, more often than not, they honestly believe that there are more pressing priorities.
I was 21 in 1979 when I was infected with HIV as I began to explore my sexual desires for men for the first time. This was before any of us had heard of GRID (1981), AIDS (1982) or HIV (1983), and long before there was an HIV test available to the general public (1985) or any sort of treatment (i.e. AZT monotherapy in 1987). I lived through the dark ages of the early days of the AIDS pandemic, lost too many dear friends, and survived.
In the 21 years since my HIV-positive diagnosis in 1985, I helped build a thriving bisexual community in Miami, served as executive director of an AIDS services organization, worked on a number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community building and political organizing projects and have served on numerous local, state and national health care advisory boards and health services policy, planning and evaluation groups. I came to this work reluctantly and at times feeling unprepared, but I was drawn to it by my personal need for support.
BISEXUAL HEALTH
and information and by the needs and encouragement of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, HIV-positive and Latino/a brothers and sisters. Antiretroviral medications keep me alive, but it’s the strength and support of community that allows me to thrive in the face of adversity. Today, as part of a team of peer facilitators for a coming-out support group for bisexuals, I find it troubling to not have answers to simple questions, like: What is the prevalence of HIV among sexually active bisexuals? Are bisexuals (or people who have sex with more that one gender) at greater risk for HIV or sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than the average person on the street? Are bisexual women at greater risk than bisexual men?
The list of questions goes on and on. Given that the way most public health data are collected and analyzed in this country does not allow us to answer these basic questions, I am also troubled when I hear public health officials assert that “the needs of bisexuals are already addressed by prevention efforts for men who have sex with men,” that “bi women, for example, are probably at low risk” or that “bi women are not a priority population.”
There is a great deal of work to be done in the emerging field of bisexual health. Throughout the past 20 years I have been the only out bisexual voice at far too many meetings. I appreciate the progress we have made, but I also know how far we still need to go and how critical it is that out bisexuals are at the table and part of the discourse.
I came on the scene just as BiNet USA was formed and was honored to serve as one of its six initial national coordinators. By then, BiNet USA and bisexual movement leaders had made presentations to the board and staff of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and were a visible presence at the annual Creating Change conference. In 1995 BiNet activists worked with the Task Force to create a professional press packet which produced a cover story on bisexuality in Newsweek magazine that was the first balanced portrayal of bisexuals in the mainstream media.
In the pages that follow, celebrated author and sex educator Amy André provides an introduction to the topic of bisexuality, which is followed by a brief review of some of the available academic literature on issues affecting the health of bisexuals, with a focus on HIV and STI prevention. The second half of this publication outlines the work of Marshal Miller and Julie Ebin at the BiHealth Program at Fenway Community Health in Boston, Mass., with the goal of providing model policies and practices that healthcare providers and activists can replicate around the country. In order to increase the visibility of and acknowledge the accomplishments of bisexual activists and leaders, the bottom margins of the pages of this publication also include a brief timeline of the bisexual health movement’s history. I hope this publication will inspire a new cohort of bi-health activists here in the US and throughout the world.
Enjoy!
The entire report can be downloaded free of charge at:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/BisexualHealth.pdf