Los Angeles is set to host the first ever city-wide Bisexual Pride celebration in the US.
The event will be held in West Hollywood on 22 September ahead of Bisexual Visibility Day. It will also coincide with Bisexual Awareness Month.
Bi Pride is being organised by the City of West Hollywood, the group amBi LA and Human Rights Campaign LA.
Ian Lawrence-Tourinho, President of the amBi network, told Pink News the organisers want to signal to the bi community that they are welcome.
“While West Hollywood is ostensibly an LGBT Mecca, it has been historically far from clear that bi people are welcome there. Even during LA LGBT Pride (which takes place in West Hollywood) in June – what you might expect to be a time of great acceptance and openness – bi people are frequently met with hostility and aggression at the celebrations, whether at the official event or afterwards at the bars and restaurants in the neighbourhood,” he said.
“Whether we are wearing a bi T-shirt, or our bisexuality comes up in conversation, the reaction is generally quite negative.”
Lawrence-Tourinho added the date was chosen to coincide with Bi Visibility Day to help tackle bi erasure.
“Bi Erasure (the opposite of bi visibility) is one of our community’s biggest challenges – people erasing us from dialog, news stories, history, films/TV, and everywhere else,” he said.
“Part of this is because people cannot immediately see or read our sexuality based on the gender of our partner. People see a woman with another woman, and think of us as lesbians. People see a woman with a man, they think of us as straight.”
Although Bi Visibility Day has been celebrated more and more by communities around the world, Lawrence-Tourinho said it was important to “make a big splash” to promote visibility.
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