Actively Bi

[menthe_reglisse]

This evening I am tired but very happy. I've just been at the Bi Activists weekend in London and I feel all enthused and empowered and really privileged to know and work with such a great bunch of people.

Comments

[haggis]

Fantastic! I didn't make this one but the blatant, unashamed biphobia we heard at the presentation we did for one of the union's LGBT conferences really surprised me and made me much more appreciative of the work that people have been doing to challenge biphobia and make sure bi-positive spaces exist, online and offline.

It's also been encouraging because I think I'm good at this form of activism, whereas I've tried to organise events and crapped out badly (dropping it all onto the shoulders of someone else who was already overloaded).

[thekumquat]

It was great - one thing that came out was a request for anecdotes of actual biphobia-that-isn't-the-same-as-homophobia, for explaining to government/funding bodies/the world and its dog what bis actually need.

So if you could share your stories of that presentation that would be really useful.

[haggis]

What's the best way to make those stories available to people? Minnesattva and I plan to write a BCN article about the presentation we did and the responses. I've written about it on LJ and FB (which I'm ok with being shared without identifying details.)

[menthe_reglisse]

Yes, finding the stuff you're both good at and enjoy is really important. I realised that while I'm good at writing things, and I often feel I ought to offer to write things because I'd make a (reasonably) good job of it, I don't actually enjoy writing things that much because it feels too much like my work. I'm not going to stop writing things for the bi community because so many things do need to be written, but I'm going to try and make sure that I also do things that are more fun for me.

Like running workshops, which is not something I get to do much at work and I really enjoy. So I committed to doing a workshop at BiCon this year, having been dithering a bit (but a strictly non-academic one, since I was far too much in work head last year. This year is all about the other bits of my identity).

[menthe_reglisse]

Those contributed, but I think your coffee-cup banging and cat-enticing skills played the larger role.

[menthe_reglisse]

I was thinking maybe of a catnip mouse with a bell attached, to combine cat-herding with attention grabbing.

[barakta]

It was lovely to see you and make a bit of the academicy bit as well as the other bits - I enjoyed both a lot.

[menthe_reglisse]

Great. I meant to say, but forgot, that I very much heard your comment about people thinking of the BiCon survey 'but what's happened to all the old data?'. Just before you arrived I had been fretting about that, which is one reason we're going for a shorter version this year. It was very helpful to hear that my worry is justified! (I'd rather know than not know things like that).

[barakta]

*nods* I didn't know how to say that tactfully but I thought it was useful to say to you guys that "the perception isn't fantastic" so you had a chance to think about your PR or how things are presented. I definitely agreeing cutting it down is a great idea.

I found hearing what you guys were doing really helpful, just useful to know how much work does go into words used and so on. Always hard to know what rationale goes behind decisions and so on.

And yes to rather knowing!