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May 9, 1992
copyright 1992 by Loraine Hutchins
* NOTE: Folks, you should know that this speech was commissioned at a historic movement. It followed several years of strife during which the Northampton queer community, like many others around the country, fought over whether to include "bisexual" in its Pride March title. (They even went through adding it one year and taking it back out the next. You can read more about this in "Closer to Home: Bisexuality and Feminism," by Beth Reba Weise.) I was invited near the end of this process, the year they finally decided to put "bisexual" back in to the title, even though there was a "Lesbians for Lesbians" counter-march happening down the street. I was the first out bisexual ever asked to speak at Northampton Pride!
Four years ago in Washington, DC there was no bisexual contingent in our gay pride parade, as usual. But I was tired of being anonymous after being out as a bisexual in DC for over 15 years. So I dressed up in my WonderWoman with a Hard-On outfit, painted a bi Byke (B-Y-K-E) License plate for my BI-cycle, and made a sign saying "Peace To All Closet Bisexuals And To Those Already Out Too." I marched alone in that 1988 Washington, DC Pride Parade, to cheers - AND jeers - because I was tired of being silent. If I had to be alone, (I figured) at least I didn't have to be invisible.
Tremendous change has happened since then - A national bi movement has been born. This bi movement flourishes in books, magazines, dances, directories, over e-mail, and at local, national and international gatherings. Bisexuals now appear on CNN talk shows, NOT to be ridiculed, but to talk seriously about our politics. We appear at art performances, on academic panels, and even on gay magazine covers, like the recent OUT/LOOK magazine's provocative cover feature: "What Do Bisexuals Want?"
What do bisexuals want? What do you think we want? We want it ALL! Or, to lighten it up,
"I know what bis want, I know what bis want,
I know what girls want, I know what boys want!"
Bi social groups and political action/education groups are meeting in
Seattle and Albany, in Chicago and NY, from LA to Boulder, Boston, Philadelphia,
Columbia and Miami, to New Zealand, London, Amsterdam and Berlin. In Wash.,
DC we've just celebrated our first successful conference on multiculturalism
and sexual diversity, convened by AMBi/AMBUSH - the Alliance of Multicultural
Bisexuals United to Stop Heterosexism, Homophobia, Harassment, HIV, and
Helms.
Monday morning I stood with my queer AND straight, young and old, of color and white fellow demonstrators at the United States IN- Justice Department to register our rage at the federal government's lack of investigation into the Rodney King police brutality case. It was a "tense coalition moment" (in some ways similar to some of the moments you all have had here recently). We stood there, blacks and whites eying each other warily, wondering who'd leave if the going got tough, queer organizers wondering if straights were going to give in to homophobia any moment and ask us to leave; afraid they wouldn't see how our issues connect with theirs, how ALL hate crimes must be condemned. But the alliance held, at least for that moment, this Monday, one special point in time, AND it holds fragilely, still.
There is a way in which we glorify conflict
are exhilerated by it,
a way in which it becomes a drug that fuels us
rather than the respectful exchange it could be.
This happens when we yield to fear
to hatred
to the lowest common denominator
of what we all can be.
It remains for those of us (of all orientations, abilities, races and
classes), willing to hold the contradictions dynamically in tension,
to apply our creativity, strength and trust to keep communication
open and moving forward, day by day; one, difficult painful, rich, vital
step at a time, -- so that the vision of ending ALL inter-related oppressions
becomes clear.
It takes great courage to be OUT anywhere in this country, today. I want to take a moment to praise us all, to recognize the fierce beauty and defiant, resilent, strength of all queer people, through all times, throughout our lives; queer people who have made this march possible for the last ten years, made the way we live our lives possible, who give us hope to carry on.
Most of all I praise and thank women-loving-women, dykes, lesbians -- sisters you help me keep on fighting, you teach me the importance of standing on my own two feet, the importance of sisterhood, the importance of woman space.
Gay men I praise you - my radical faery brothers in the struggle against
sexism, I love you all -- from the quiet, studious ones to the mariposas,
you muscle builders, leather daddies and queens - you show me bravery, humor
and flair in the face of death and great suffering.
I praise transgenderal people -- you two-spirited ones, you shamans
who dare straddle the spaces between what we're told exists, you who cross
the forbidden lines, -- you give me courage to shake off my shame and fear,
to trust my own sanity, to insist on complexity, honesty, to insist on being
me, however I wanna be!
Heterosexual people who are our allies, I praise you too, those of you who understand your stake in society's acceptance of us, you who work alongside us to increase diversity and options for everyone. Thank you.
Beautiful bisexuals - well, what can I say? Thanks for being my safe
harbor, my home, my heartspace. Or, as Betsy Rose sings, "...women are the
center of my song, AND,
the hand stretched to my brothers, has been burnt, but still is strong!"
Why are we so afraid of talking to one another, really talking? And listening too?
We've got to walk through our fears. We don't HAVE a choice any longer, the price of avoidance is TOO HIGH.
The increasing dialogues between bisexual women and lesbians in various cities this year and last, -- these encourage me. Because, until we women get it together with each other, it doesn't matter one bit what the men do or don't do. As long as we women are divided by internalized and/or institutionalized sexism, homophobia, and biphobia, by divisions of race and class, we cannot defend ourselves.
Don't let internalized woman-hatred divide us sisters,
we need each other too much!
There are many, many reasons why we urgently need this unity in the
months and years ahead. Today I'll mention just ONE reason, one reason out
of many. That reason: APRIL 25th 1993
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL EQUAL RIGHTS AND LIBERATION.
A year from now y'all come to my hometown, Washington, DC!
You know, it's wonderful living in Washington when the marches come.
You can feel the air change, become charged with passion, ideals, hope. Anyone
who was there in 87 knows what I mean, how the streets, parks and subways
became completely QUEER for a day. It's a wonderful feeling, that surge of
solidarity, that feeling of belonging to something BIG, the exhileration
of being part of a larger movement, many larger, related movements that all
express our dreams.
Right now, this weekend, 69 regional representatives, from Massachusetts and every other state, are meeting in Dallas Texas to hammer out the platform for next April's march. Twelve years ago at the first national march for gay rights there was no "lesbian" in the title. Five years ago, when we marched again on Washington, the title included lesbians. But, even one year ago it would have been unthinkable to include BISEXUAL. Our bi movement has come this far, so far in just a year!
The decision to include bisexuals was made this January at a national
March on Washington meeting. It was pushed through with a coalition of students,
leather people, transgenderal people, lesbians and gay men. The April 25
1993 March on Washington will be the
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR LESBIAN GAY BI
EQUAL RIGHTS AND LIBERATION.
It was a close vote. And we won.
Now we all share the karma of living with that title.
What the new March title means is that ALL OF US - lesbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, differently abled people, transgenderal people, leather people, monogamous couples, celibate singles, polyfidelitous types, our straight allies; we ALL have to learn to talk about BIPHOBIA, as well as everything else we talk about, too.
We all must interrupt biphobia, challenge the ignorant stereotypes about bisexuals -- that we're confused, promiscuous, closeted, unreliable -- stereotypes that have been MORE visible up to this point than bi people ourselves. A lot of negative attitudes about bisexuals are based on people projecting their own sexual fantasies and fears upon us, but they're ALSO based on the fact that WE don't come out and show people who we really are. We're got to do that, we've got to surrender our straight AND our gay closets, too!
A point about heterosexual privilege here: -- it's like male privilege or white privilege -- there's nothing wrong with being born into privilege. It's what we DO with it, what we put it in the service of, that's what's important.
What happens when the "small, safe 10% of the population" that straight America thinks exists "over there" (in their minds) seems to TRIPLE in size, at least potentially? Are we jointly 30-40% of the country, the world? Well, it's probably not going to happen in our lifetimes that such a big percentage of the population will be politicized to be in alliance with the lesbian/gay/bisexual movement -- but we CAN talk about how we'd all feel and how it might happen.
This weekend the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce meets in St. Louis. They're considering how the gay/lesbian movement and the bi movement can work together, on both a grassroots and national level, to make sure the national March on Washington is a hugh success.
These are tremendous victories, but still, I worry. None of this is gonna be easy.
I worry about continued lesbian invisibility and misogyny within our
movement. I'm commited to working with and for lesbians to make sure that
doesn't happen. I love calling myself queer.
I belong to Queer Planet.
AND I don't want to see any of our individual or group identities or needs eclipsed by any one word.
I worry about the class and racial divisions increasing at a frightening pace right now in this country. (You KNOW its a lot worse than we know, if George Bush is going on tv saying "we can't return to the status quo"!) I know that as a woman with the privilege of being white bi, and middle class I need to continually put my power where my mouth is, in the service of people of color, gay people and poor people, so that we can open up things, turn them around, make them work for more than just a few.
So as we go forward into the next year, - let's remember these five points:
ONE. The civil rights, gay, and feminist movements MADE Bi Power possible. Always remember that. We build upon these roots. We owe allegiance to them. Never forget it!
TWO. Biphobia is ROOTED in heterosexism and homophobia - whether outward and institutionalized or internal and personal. Biphobia is not a thing alone. Fighting it means fighting heterosexism and homophobia first, and interconnectedly.
THREE. BOTH coalitions and separate space are necessary. Both
strengthen us. We CAN have both...and respect both.
Both make us strong!
FOUR. There's a REASON why this sexually diverse, multi-cultural
consciousness is blossoming now. It's bigger than any of us.
It's a cultural change - integrally related to the growing
power and equality-claiming by women and people of color
around the globe. Queer and bisexual people, transgenderal people,
mixed race people, all who aren't straight abled white men, --
defy the categories patriarchy would divide us by. We can
link with each other, serve as the shamans, the bodhisattvas, the
healers who visualize wholeness, and help midwife its
birth.
But only when we each claim our own power.
FIVE. We claim power by talking with people who don't understand
or agree. We must take these risks. We cannot stay stuck in
this present polarized painful time.
Dialogue with people about the April 1993 March.
Discuss its demands.
Discuss ALL the diversity issues it implies.
And, as they say in San Francisco,
"Dancing Is The First Step To Marching" -- so let's keep dancing,
dancing til we disappear all fear!
Thank you for inviting me here.