慶祝第25個雙性戀可見日：挑戰刻板印象並提高意識

This week marks the 25th annual Bisexuality Day of Recognition, which was originally called "Celebrate Bisexuality Day". For over a quarter of a century, the day's purpose has been to "raise awareness and challenge the elimination of bisexuality". While one week may seem like an ample amount of time to raise awareness of an issue, a recent study showed that 37% people still view bisexuality as a choice, as opposed to homosexuality, a finding that underscores why we still need to work on raising awareness of bisexuality.

這項由約會應用程式PURE進行的調查，對2000名美國人的雙性戀觀點進行了了解。結果顯示，許多人仍然抱持著對雙性戀的陳舊觀念，20%的人認為雙性戀是成為同性戀的“跳板”，26%的人認為人們聲稱自己是雙性戀是因為某些“好處”（“什麼好處？！”每個雙性戀者都想問）。調查還發現，有3%的受訪者甚至不相信雙性戀的真實存在。

讓我們澄清一些事情：雙性戀是真實存在的。實際上，大多數酷兒人群都是雙性戀。2021年英國人口普查——第一次包含性別問題的人口普查——發現，1.3%的英國人口認為自己是雙性戀。

對於想要更深入了解雙性戀的人來說，有許多書籍可以提供幫助。例如，《貪婪：一個想要太多的雙性戀者的筆記》就是一本探索雙性戀體驗的書籍。

While some people may be openly bisexual first before they are openly gay, that doesn't mean that bisexuality is a stopover on the way to gay town. In a society that would rather you not be cool at all, figuring out your coolness can be challenging, and for many people, it can take a while for the many layers of internalized homophobia to dissipate. In addition, identities can change over time.

So why does the understanding of bisexuality lag behind other cool kid identities? Meg-John Barker, a theorist and author of several books on cool kids, suggests that it's because of our cultural obsession with duality. Bisexuality challenges two key dichotomies: "attracted to the opposite sex vs. attracted to the same sex" and "nature vs. choice".

In the dominant culture, things that are "natural" are often seen as more real and fixed than things that are "chosen". In reality, however, these things are not binary. Most aspects of being human, including sexual behavior, are biopsychosocial. This means that they are a complex combination of aspects of our innate orientation, aspects that we have developed over time - both in response to the choices we make, and as a result of the culture around us and the choices available to us.

The homosexual/heterosexual binary is forced upon all of us, and anything other than that is seen as a choice. This has become another way of refuting bisexuality. Because of this, people have been trying to prove that bisexuality isn't real for a long time, including a 2005 study that led the New York Times to claim that all men are either "gay, straight, or liars".

Bisexuals are perceived as untrustworthy, and this affects our entire identity; we don't tell enough about our own existence. Bisexual phobia stereotypes tell us that bisexuals are unreliable narrators of our own lives-because if you can't trust someone to know who they're really attracted to, you can't trust them to understand any of their sexual experiences-and that unisexual (attracted to one gender) people understand our sexuality better than we do.

These stereotypes continue to negatively impact bisexuals. Statistics and first-person accounts tell us that bisexuals are more likely to be in poorer physical and mental health, in part because bisexuality is eliminated from healthcare settings. London journalist Katie Boyden is one of the many bisexuals who lack understanding when trying to get support and healthcare. A previous therapist told her that her bisexuality was "[her] choice."

The "nature vs. choice" dichotomy has harmed the bisexual community in other ways as well. While Born this Way's narrative is a huge victory for LGBTQIA+ rights (and spawned an incredibly catchy song - thanks Gaga), it also subtly demonstrates that the cool community deserves rights and protections only because of the things that happen to us, and that we will choose those things if we can.

Bisexuality is not a choice. No one is going to sit down and make some list of pros and cons of the sexual orientation they want to be. Like gay, straight or asexual, bisexuality is a natural, beautiful, wonderful part of people's complex, multifaceted, fabulous selves, but it's not up to us. Through my own bisexuality, I have found a wonderful community, made lifelong friends, fallen in and out of love, and I have become an activist. If that 37% respondent is right, bisexuality is a choice I would make any day.