Bisexual Awareness Month

Because it's nice to make small talk about your life?

Why does anyonr need to know their colleagues’ sexuality?

Again, no one has said anything like that, it is pure assumption of peoples motives on your part.

You read between lines and find novels that are pure fiction.

Please don't put words in my mouth that are not and never were there.

One can be bisexual and asexual. Also heterosexual/homosexual and asexual. Wait and see until you hit perimenopause:)

I didn't pass any comment about whether there was a need for bisexual month, I don't care either way and have made several posts to that effect already on this thread. I just said your post had echoes of the old homophobic 'what about meeeeee....' which it does. You saying 'why isn't there a tired mums month' is exactly the same ridiculous argument as 'why isn't there a straight pride.'

Not sure about your workplace but mine (which as I've said is the type to celebrate any and every thing going) does have absolutely loads of the same sort of stuff (blogs, awareness posts, training sessions) on peri/menopause. The types of workplaces that go hard on this sort of non-work related awareness stuff tend to go in a wide variety of topics which is why I find it so odd that it's just the sexuality one that's getting people's knickers in a twist.

Also if you're bisexual then you aren't asexual, are you? So that's also bullshit.

Have you ever been discriminated against for only liking straight men?

Sorry to hear you've been discriminated against and hate crimed for decades for your preference for straight men with broad shoulders @Blondiebeachbabe, although I admit I'm surprised.

Honestly, all those sorts of posts just smack of "white lives matter too!"

I only like straight men with broad shoulders. When is my month?

I couldnt care less if they continue to do remembrance day or not. But its not something that's ever been aggressively forced on me, I've not been forced to listen to people droning and whinging on about it in the workplace. So they are not comparable.
Anyway you can argue all you want about it, the tide has turned and people just roll their eyes behind your back about this kind of rubbish now. We can see it for the drivel that it is.
Treat all colleagues with respect and professionalism in the work place, that is all that is required. All the tedious, navel-gazing and how to be an ally waffle has had its day. Especially with how bad things have become with the cost of living crisis etc, everyone has their own problems and it's tone deaf to be trying to flog this stuff still.

There’s a big difference between secrecy because something’s seen as ‘shameful’, and a normal desire for privacy as regards personal, private matters.

I think this is an excellent point that I’d not thought of before. I bet a lot of the posters saying that events to appreciate and support minority groups are unacceptable and pointless, are passionate about events like remembrance day. It’s so odd.

Ha! This is so funny. So, it’s okay to host an annual even to remember a war that finished almost 80 years ago, but it’s absolutely unacceptable to host an event that aims to make living people’s lives better.

Where is the parralel??
WW1&2 were global events that affected virtually everyone at the time and we honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us on one day a year by those who want to having a two min silence, wearing a poppy badge or going to a church service on Sunday. 85 million people died in ww2 alone.

I cannot fathom how you are relating that to work places putting out bunting for black history month and M&S doing a special LGBTQ rainbow sandwich of the month, special rainbow lanyards, having to attend powerpoint presentations about how to be less Islamaphobic, and all these other nonsensical notions that are patronising to those who they are supposed to be about and has pissed everybody else right off as, after being throughly patient about it all for the past decade, we have realised it is never ending and only gets worse.

I notice Islamophobia and Black History have been raised a few times.

Should we stop being told about the First and Second World War? Stop Rememberance Day, Holocaust Rememberance Day etc as we already know about these things so don’t need to be regularly told?

you get it from everyone homophonic too
Hear here

This! No one needs to know. I felt like 10 years ago people were far more accepting than they are now. Having pride flags and pointless tokenistic awareness weeks has backfired spectacularly.

Wow a lot of posts here coming very close to saying its okay to be racist at work??

That's the best comment I've seen in a very long time.

Especially liked the bit, "it's like it is bloody illegal today to say anything that wouldn't get a round of applause on twitter".

That is so true and the best way to describe what goes on around discussing a wide variety of topics.

Only Groupthink allowed and even sticking to it won't necessarily stop the pile on. You've only got to suspected of Wrongthink. You have to choose your words so carefully.

I also find it laughable when it's a case of being offended on behalf of others over things not relevant to themself, when the relevant parties don't give a single shit. Very common, that one.

Gosh, this post is really sad. It’s oozing biphobia on so many levels and shows a real lack of understanding. Worse still, I don’t think you wrote this maliciously or can see the problem with it at all. It’s the epitome of a lack of awareness. Posts like this that prove just how necessary awareness events really are.

Posters before me have written really good replies - if you can’t see what is wrong with your post then you can read the thread and explanations from other posters in response to comments like yours should make it clear. I don’t think I have the energy to repeat the same thing that’s been said again and again by myself and others.

But thank you for your message as it’s really reinforced, for me, the importance of awareness events.

I don't think you will find a single person in the discussion who thinks an employer should stand by if one employee behaves inappropriately to another. They should be told what is acceptable and if necessary be disciplined.

But it's not really up to other employees to make people feel warm fuzzies "welcomed and safe". They need to have a professional atmosphere in the workplace. We aren't actually obliged to like other people we work with. And we aren't required to approve of them either.

What people who love this stuff don't seem to realize is that if you begin to push on one side, you are alienating the other. If you are telling your employees who are traditional Muslims, or Orthodox Jews, or Catholics, that they need to approve and accept everyone elses lifestyle, or make them feel they need to be seen at particular kinds of work events, etc, you are then making the space uncomfortable for those people. They do not feel welcomed or safe or accepted.

A big company can have hundreds or thousands of employees. Many will have very different belief systems. Some of those actually have very different values that oppose each other. There are belief systems that believe anyone who eats meat is morally culpable. That people who use birth control are making a big, ethical mistake. That it is ok to be part of a thrupple, or use prostitutes. That sex is only ok for procreative purposes. That whiteness should be banned. And many many other things.

The only way for all of these people to get on in a workplace is to keep a certain kind f professionalism, and not expect that others should approve of any of the things you believe or do in your life outside of work.

This type of environment can actually be surprisingly effective at building relationships between people who have vastly different belief systems. But as soon as you have some of those people allowed to start telling other people that their beliefs are bigoted or wrong and they should be reeducated, that all goes tits up. It doesn't even matter which group, no one likes being the target of propaganda at work.

Again, the purpose of the event is not to provide entertainment to heterosexual people. It doesn’t matter whether people care about it or not. If you don’t care, great! It won’t bother you. If you do care and are angry about the existence of bisexual people, and feel they should have to hide this aspect of their life, or view it as a shameful, dirty secret, then you are exactly the reason why the event is needed.

Most of all, though, the event if for bisexual people, to make them feel safe and welcome in the environment where they spend most of their lives.

I’ll say it again - if it doesn’t interest you, it’s probably not for you. AND THAT’S OK! Not everything is for you about you!

(Religion, sexuality, race … anything. The fact is, it’s important to ensure people feel safe and accepted, especially those groups of people who, quite often, don’t feel like this.)

I don’t think everyone needs to actively care about everything. But it’s important to make everyone feel safe, included, welcome and accepted, regardless of religion or sexuality.

The people who have a problem with this seem to be mistakenly assuming that the day is for the benefit of heterosexual people.

Absolutely it matters. Nobody is trying to police anyone’s thoughts - but employers have every right and indeed a responsibility to ensure that people aren’t discriminated against and that hate crimes don’t take place. People spend most of their lives in their workplaces - of course they need to be safe places.