Biphobia – Prejudice against Bisexuals

I am so tired of prejudice against bisexuals. Granted, there are a handful of experimental girls who briefly dabble in lesbianism and then disappear back to men leaving a fulltime lesbian to nurse a broken heart, however, it is unfair to tar us all with the same brush.

When I'm with somebody, I want to be with that person irrespective of gender. Yes, I could leave a girlfriend for a man but I could leave anybody for somebody else, sexuality doesn't come into it.

One prominent example of biphobia was when a girl tried to chat me up on behalf of her friend at "Flirt," a gay night that used to take place at an Oxford nightspot called The OFS. When she beckoned me over I was quite excited because she was fit but it turned out that she was the straight friend of a really sour-looking lesbian. The lesbian who apparently fancied me, stood rooted to the spot gawping, which made her look ugly and the fact that she couldn't even chat me up herself was a definite turn off. Eventually, after a long, awkward pause, the straight friend asked me
"Are you gay?"
"I'm bisexual" I told her. To which she replied
"Well that's no good, she's a lesbian." And with that they walked off looking disgusted.

Added to which, when one of my best friends ran for the LGBsoc Bisexual Representative a few years ago, a former president told her "Just make something up" because she simply couldn't comprehend that a woman could actually be attracted to both genders.

You'd have thought that if anybody could understand that you can't control who you're attracted to, it would be another queer person but no, bisexuals are often considered to be either straight girls pretending to be gay or lesbians who can't come to terms with their true sexuality.

What really wound me up was the response from a girl I contacted through Gumtree. I'll refer to her as Miss Urgent because she marks all of her emails as "Urgent" even though they are essentially just the tiresome ramblings of a prejudiced, arrogant and bitter woman who is so close minded that she's limiting her horizons by making snap judgement about people, based on either crude stereotypes or hard luck stories from her past.

Miss Urgent was listed as femme seeking femme and advertising specifically for lesbians. This is rather uncommon so I jumped at the chance to email her. I explained to her that whilst "bisexual" was an apt description of my past, I now feel that I'm at a place in my life where I'm not at all interested in men and if I was forced to define one way or another, I would say I am a lesbian. I am not so arrogant that I presume I can predict the future, therefore I refuse to take on any label that describes what is the come.

Her response included the following

"Bisexual no thanks - whether you are 50% Bisexual or 50% lesbian today as the present situation stands with you. I have no right to judge you.

What my ad stated - is 100% gay female and that you are not!

Sorry. I am not interested in dating or being friends with bisexual women.

Whether 100% or 50% or whether that percentage changes daily, weekly or monthly. Am a realistic!"

How dare somebody start with an opener about not judging me and then proceed to be exceptionally judgemental! I get to decide who I'm interested in and how I behave in a relationship, not her. Besides of which, giving your sexuality a statistical value is absolute nonsense.