By RIGEL TURNER – Broadcast Staff
Telling people that I am bisexual is, at best, an ordeal.
I am always met with questions. “Which do you like more?” “What do you think of me?” “Does your girlfriend know?” Less commonly, “Why?”
Having you, the core of you, questioned is degrading. As bisexual, I am subjected to the same hateful ignorance that most of the LGBT community deals with, but also a different prejudice. I am questioned.
I am questioned from every angle, and by everyone.
By everyone, I mean everyone. Fellow members of the queer community question me. Liberals question me. Homophobes and allies alike call me fake, undecided and confused.
“Just figure it out.” “You’re obviously gay.” “Pick a side.”
It is, in a literal way, a questioning of my existence. A crescendo of “You do not, cannot, exist.”
According to the Collins English Dictionary, biphobia is “the aversion towards bisexuals or bisexuality, which may include negative stereotyping or denial of the existence of bisexuals.”
Identity denial.
I, and other bisexual people, fight for our rights beside the rest of the LGBT community. I am literally part of LGBTQ, and am still called “fake gay.”
Clarke Central High School is, in my experience, no better than the rest of the south.
“There’s almost an unspoken air of denial where people who are aware and are supposedly accepting of your identity are always still questioning what isn’t their business,” A fellow bisexual student at CCHS told me.
In a conversation with a few boys in my advisement I brought up my sexuality.
They paused, and one of them said: “You do you, just don’t walk behind me.”
I’m relatively used to this quiet bigotry, a side effect of living in Georgia. However, I was shocked by his immediate assumption that I was sexually “out to get him.” He knew enough about me to assume that I was attracted to men. Nothing more.
A girl, coincidentally during another advisement, overheard me talking about my sexuality to a friend and said:
“But, like, guys can’t be bi.”
“Why?” I responded.
“I don’t know, It’s just weird. Are you sure you aren’t just gay?”
Writing this editorial forced me to come out to my parents. Why hadn’t I told them? Because I didn’t have the energy to explain myself to another pair of curious people.
I just want our identities to be respected. I am not gay. I am not confused.
I am bisexual, and telling people shouldn’t be an exhausting experience. I’m begging you, show me, and the the bisexual community, the respect afforded to everyone else.
Let me define who I am.
