Kathmandu (Pahichan) June 25 – Being bisexual comes loaded with a host of stereotypes and myths, from being promiscuous and jumping between beds, to being unsure about their sexual orientation.<\/p>\n
These stereotypes are not harmless labels; they can have serious consequences for bisexual people, who often feel that they don\u2019t belong in either heteronormative society or within the LGBTQIA+ society.<\/p>\n
Despite society\u2019s gradual enlightenment toward the LGBTQIA+ community, bisexual people are more likely to stay in the closet than their gay and lesbian peers, out of fear of stigma and stereotypes, much of which comes from the LGBTI community itself.<\/p>\n
According to US-based think tank, Pew Research Centre<\/a>, just 28 per cent of bisexual people have \u2018come out\u2019 to all their friends and family, compared 71 per cent of lesbians and 77 per cent of gay men.<\/p>\n The research project – which involved almost 1,200 people – revealed that many bisexual people often have an unfair reputation for being promiscuous, \u2018double dipping\u2019 in the dating pool, or simply being indecisive about their sexuality. Some people don\u2019t even believe that bisexuality exists, that it\u2019s simply a \u201cpit stop\u201d on the way to being gay or a lesbian.<\/p>\n Far from having the best of both worlds, many bisexual people feel that it\u2019s easier, and for some, safer, to keep their sexual orientation to themselves.<\/p>\n Julia Taylor, a PhD candidate researching at La Trobe University\u2019s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, says that the \u201csignificant\u201d problem of biphobia started to develop in the 1980s, and is rooted in fear and misunderstanding.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the HIV\/AIDS epidemic became a serious problem for the gay community 30 years ago, a lot of ideas came up about bisexual people that were pretty damning and pretty unfair; that they\u2019re promiscuous and can easily move between men and women,\u201d Ms Taylor explains.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of understanding and acceptance of bi people in the LGBTI community is planted in heterosexual privilege, because bisexual people can blend into heterosexual society if they want to and live quietly and that can be viewed as a \u2018us and them\u2019 issue,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n Wanted or not, access to that privilege comes at a heavy cost.<\/p>\n LATimes <\/em>writer\u00a0Emily Alpert<\/a> articulated the discrimination bisexual people face when she wrote the following in 2013: “Bisexual women complain they are leered at by straight men and rejected by some lesbians as sexual ‘tourists’ who will abandon them for men.<\/p>\n “Bisexual men, in turn, struggle to persuade men and women alike that they aren’t just gay men with one foot in the closet. Both are stereotyped as oversexed swingers who cannot be trusted.”<\/p>\n In Canada, postdoctoral research fellow Corey Flanders, from The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health<\/a>, says that biphobia committed by LGBTI persons can make bisexual people feel alone and isolated.<\/p>\n \u201cWith gay and lesbian individuals, [social support] can be accessed in queer community spaces if not in predominantly heterosexual spaces,\u201d she tells The Daily Beast. \u201cWith bisexual individuals, this is not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n When bisexual people are rejected, questioned and ridiculed – not just by society but by the LGBTI community \u2013 it creates a \u2018double stigma\u2019, often resulting in extremely poor health outcomes, both physical and mental.<\/p>\n