Humanity has been obsessed with creating labels for everything in order to categorize it in a way that makes it comfortable. In its obsession humanity has managed to alienate and persecute those who have been labelled as “wrong” or “unnatural”. People often claim to be open-minded individuals, but if they see something that goes against the norm in which they believe in, then it’s automatically considered blasphemous. As much as society would like to argue against this, it’s very hard to be open-minded towards everything (at times with good reason). But, in this frenzy to determine what each person is, some things are completely erased in order to fashion it into something we’re most comfortable in. This is what led us to create bisexual erasure.

Now, some here might be wondering what the term bisexual erasure means, it is defined as:

“A pervasive problem in which the existence or legitimacy of bisexuality (either in general or in regard to an individual) is questioned or denied outright”.

This is so pervasive, that cracked.com recently published an article in which 2 bisexual individuals (one male another female) described how absolutely persistent this problem is. It is incredible to believe that as much progress as we’ve made towards equality, we’re still quick to judge those who don’t fit a certain mold. But, it’s not as if human sexuality is something that we fully understand. As my psychology professor always said “human sexuality is fluid”, and as many testimonies can attest to bisexuality is no different.

What does this mean? It means that there is a spectrum for almost everything, a person could define themselves as bisexuals and be with a male or a female without having to be categorized as gay or lesbian (it also could mean that nobody is truly 100% monosexual). If we go according to all of the testimonies that have been given online, we find out that this is terrifyingly common. the concept of people having fit a certain mold is so excruciatingly common that (as the cracked article above said) time magazine published an article titled Straight, Gay Or Lying? For the sake of brevity I’ll post some examples of this below:

Woman being accused of being straight by a female she was attracted to.

Male speaking to another of gay rights helping bisexuals only to be rebutted “that bisexuals shouldn’t be part of the movement”

Actors misidentified as heterosexuals/homosexuals simply for being in a relationship despite of their bisexuality

Bisexual erasure in literature.

This becomes worse when you take a look at the list of stereotypes that bisexuals are constantly dealing with:

Bisexuals don’t exists

It’s just a phase

They are greedy and want everyone for themselves

They are cheaters

They are terrified of being committed to a single individual

They want to screw everything that moves

Bisexuals are the ones that spread HIV

Bisexual erasure is false (here is a 50 page paper on why this myth is alive and well)

If they are real, then there must be extremely few real bisexuals

They are all polyamorous

GLAAD also had to step in to debunk some/most of these myths:

http://www.glaad.org/blog/celebrate-bisexuality-glaad-dispels-common-myths-and-stereotypes

Here is also a video showing fellow Puerto Rican Eliel Cruz explaining how dating a bisexual is no different than dating anyone else:

Now, while some of these might be commonly believed from the LGBT community as a whole (all false because we understand that stereotypes are just negative reinforcement of behaviors in order to marginalize others). But, the worse part begins when you try to understand, why it is that we stereotype them as such. I can’t say for certain why that is, but if someone was to ask me it’s simply because we might be jealous. Often times the reasons given for why bisexuals don’t exist is because they can “hide amongst whatever sexuality they choose to pursue at the time”. This jealousy could create resentment in those who identify as monosexuals. It stands to good reason that jealousy can be the cause of many tragedies, and while no studies could back up what I’m saying; it’s simply a hypothesis that has yet to be debunked or verified. I believe that everyone should be given a fair shot at enjoying life without fear of persecution. It is because of this, that we must strive to eliminate those negative reinforcements of behaviors, and stop alienating those who are different than us. If they aren’t hurting anyone or themselves; I say we let them enjoy their sexual freedom.

Isn’t that part of what feminism stood for at one point? Equality after all, if we were to take a look at history we’re constantly striving to give more rights to those who are persecuted for unjust reasons. Who are treated as invisible for simply breaking out of the mold? Why can’t we simply let bisexual people decide what they want in life without rejecting, or labeling them as we see fit? We must seek to eliminate bisexual erasure from our prejudices, and instead embrace our brothers and sisters who identify as such without them having any fear of repercussion. It stands to be that we can all learn a lot from each other. But, we must first seek to listen with our hearts.

There are some good news thought, Cara Delevingne has appeared as a spokesperson whose sexuality is not as concretely defined as society would like it, and she stands as a model for those who break the mold. Read about it in here: http://www.glaad.org/blog/cara-delevingne-new-york-times-my-sexuality-not-phase

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