Bisexual Awareness Month

Wasn’t bisexuality covered by the month long gay pride rainbow fest that happened recently? If every one of the alphabet gets given a celebratory month we might have to change the entire way of organising the year, with shorter months and more of them……

You are aware that your "large organisation" isn't the only one....and others might do things differently?

I work for the civil service which celebrates every day/week going and it's all completely optional.

The only thing OP has actually specified as having taken place is a blog....how can it be "mandatory" to engage with a blog? How is that evidenced? Do your entire staff have to reflect on and dicuss it?

This is my point above....if it was mandatory and OP could specify that it took up a significant proportion of their working day that would be better spent doing something else, then their annoyance might be justifed....if it"s literally a few posters on the walls and a blog post on the home page you can choose not to click on then getting so worked up and annoyed on the way many people on this thread have, seems a bit pathetic.

Unless they also get as irate about every other random crap workplaces do that isn't directly linked to the actual job being done then it is a bit weird to find bisexuality the thing that pushes you to create a post and not "national friendship day" or "new wellbeing initiative" "free yoga trial" "Tom's blog on how x sport changed his life" "sponsor Amy's marathon" and all the other random office stuff.

I think the awareness month at work is absurd, but I also don't agree with people who are saying "keep it in the bedroom" or "it's no one's business who you have sex with". I mean, ok, but being bisexual isn't just about who you have sex with. It's about who you want to have wider romantic relationships with, possibly including marriage and family. It's shitty to reduce bisexuality to sex, just as it would be shitty to reduce any form of romantic love to just sex.

When your female colleague tells you they have a first date with a guy they like that night, or your male colleagues mentions a weekend break with his wife, we don't think "ewww keep it to yourself". Real bisexual acceptance would be for someone to be able to mention dating both men and women at work, when relevant and appropriate, without it being a big deal.

But yeah, I absolutely do not think that the way to do that is a company wide month where you all read blogs about bisexuality.

I think it's really important. Trans rights have completely taken over pride & LGBTQ+++ awareness & events.

LGB people were still fighting for equality within living memory - gay sex & marriage were only recently made legal.

LGB awareness has never been more relevant IMO as increasingly lumped together with trans +++ & 'woke' whereas LGB is very different.

Bisexual people face discrimination from all directions - heterosexual, lesbian & gay, the 'anti woke' etc

I'm bisexual but as a woman, married to a man, no-one would know unless I told them. I don't plan to ever be with a woman again as I plan to stay married to my DH - neither do I plan to ever be with another man.

I definitely don't want my bisexuality to be visible at work because all there really is to my bisexuality now is my sexual history and my inner thoughts/feelings about who I find attractive, none of which is I would feel remotely comfortable sharing in a professional context.

However, that's me, and if other people have different circumstances and want their bisexuality to be visible in the workplace as it makes them feel more comfortable, go right ahead.

We are accepting to the point we don't care! Which is how it should be! What you choose to do with your minge has nothing to do with work ffs!

Why does bisexuality need a month? I thought Bi was included in Pride month??

I guess I'd be classed as bisexual, I've never really thought about it. Although I'm in a relationship with a woman now and wouldn't touch another man with a barge pole.

People are getting over this shit though, surely it's running out of steam.

Seems like tokenism to me by the workplace. Possibly one where simple measures to ensure that private lives are respected such as finishing on time are absent.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not - if it is, I love it 😂😂

YANB

Its got nothing to do with work who I do or don’t sleep with and what sex those people might or might not be.

It’s cringe.

I totally agree? They should ban all talk about partners, especially the endless drivel when they decide to get married. The worst ones are the ones with kids, they never stop mentioning them. How dare they shove their sexuality down our throats on a daily basis, constantly reminding us what they do in bed, nobody cares. What's worse are the inconsiderate people who have pictures of their kids in public view, it's just pure woke virtue signalling advertising to the world what they get up to in bed. Why keep advertising it every day of the year.

This week is Happiness at Work week, surely that is more relevant? We got cupcakes on Monday, I can get behind with that.

We also celebrate Pride month by raising money for local LGB charities which again is reasonable. Plus 101 other things that generally seem to be about getting us into the office by offering us free food or fun activities to raise money for charity.

Haha, wish you'd been around to tell my (unknowingly to me) bi DH that you can be bi and faithful and not always be thinking about missing sex with the gender of partner they aren't currently with. I would have had a lot less doggy style sex with him then. After I found out I read research that found that bi men were the most likely to admit to cheating in a relationship out of any group. So I'm really happy for you to date bi men but I wouldn't be taking my chances again.

I'm really happy to read that a few posters on this thread have made it through life without encountering any negativity due to their sexuality. I am genuinely pleased for them.

However, it's dangerous and ignorant to assume that, just because a few Mumsnet posters say that they've not experienced something, it doesn't happen. I personally have very recently lost a whole friendship group (their choice) when they found out I was bisexual, as they had so many horrible ideas about it. (That it's just attention seeking, that it's an excuse to be promiscuous, that bisexual people can't commit or be trusted). I've had awkward experiences where people made really unkind comments about bisexual people (as they didn't know and thought I'd laugh along).

My partner says that they've never experienced racism. That doesn't mean that I'm ignorant enough to assume that racism doesn't exist. We all have different experiences. We can be grateful that we haven't experienced something hateful, without denying the experience of others who have.

The majority of us don’t care what anyone’s sexuality is. We are more interested in whether they are a decent person and can do a good job in the workplace. We don’t need ‘days’ or ‘months’ of awareness.

I have similar feelings about pride, but I’ll keep those to myself for fear of being verbally beaten to death!

Are tou listening to the bisexual people on this thread that say it doesn't happen?

25 years of being out as bi and not a single negative incidence?

Why do people at work needing to be made aware of bisexuality? Do grown adults not know that some people swing both ways? What more is there to say after that?

Why is it the work places responsibility to 'educate' grown people about sexuality???

Same. No work colleagues have ever known about my sex life. I'd cringe forever.

Bisexual people really can't win here. In the last 40 years we have gone from pariahs who are probably spreading AIDS, all the way to being exhibitionists who think we are special if we mention our sexuality, or misleading and deceptive if we don't mention it.
In terms of prejudice, being bisexual in the North East in the 80"s meant I saw a lot if it. Not to mention Thatcher telling us that nobody had the right to be gay.
This is why Bisexual Awareness month is a bad idea -it just paints a target on our backs.

I was under the impression it was an 'awareness' month, not a 'celebration' month. Raising awareness means sharing our experiences and attempting to build mutual respect and understanding. I would 100% be interested in, and enthusiastic about, listening to anyone who wanted to raise awareness about an aspect of their life or personality that they felt people misunderstood or discriminated against them about, yes.

And what exactly is it that you are forced to do that you don't like?

I never experienced any of that and I've been out as bi since 14 years old.

I agree, people making silly comments isn't phobic. I've had more silly comments about my autistic kids or flat faced dog than my sexuality. Doesn't mean people are diasabilst or puggist 🤣 It just means they have their own thoughts and opinions

It's like if bloody illegal today to say anything that wouldn't get a round of applause on twitter.

People don't have to be supportive of gay people. Why should they? I don't understand it at all, as a woman who's had one straight marriage and half a dozen lesbian relationships I think the rainbow tribe have pushed it too far.

We wanted acceptance. In the 90s/2000s we got it.

Then they pushed it too far and wanted everyone to bow down to the gays and trans and people started to push back.

Not because they're 'phobic' or hateful but because people do t like being forced into anything. They don't like being thought controlled, they don't like being told how to speak

THAT is the issue. Anybody I've ever talked to that's been labelled as 'phobic' don't ever have a problem with individual gay people, they don't like the LGBTQ++++ movement and it's agenda.

And neither do I.

And you’ve encountered all these things personally have you? Or you’ve just read people pushing this narrative on Twitter?

I’ve heard a couple of these things personally, but not in a hateful way, it’s just people who don’t get it, and that’s fine, they don’t have to. That’s very different from someone attacking you or harassing you because you’re bi, which just doesn’t happen.

Also, it is NOT ‘biphobic’ for someone not to want to date a bi person, respect other peoples preferences.

Jeez, even though the whole "awareness month" thing is a little overblown is it really necessary to compare an event themed around bisexuality to a hypothetical event celebrating zoophilia? Surely you realise how homophobic that comes across?

(And a bisexuality recruitment drive! That one reads more obviously as a joke, but on the off-chance it wasn't, the recycling of 1980s homophobia and "the gay agenda" to recruit the straights reads really badly. As I say, probably a joke, but still. Are we really so far from that history that people fail to think before they speak?)

This kind of comment is just nonsense. It's not like picking a football team!

You're not being unreasonable to not care because what difference does it make to anyone.

Although perhaps considering some of the comments, some of you need some more awareness. It isn't some louche lifestyle choice.