By Giovanni M. Ravalli
LGBTQ+ Correspondent
In honor of Bisexual Visibility Day, the LGBTA Club held a mixer on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Bisexuality Visibility Day is celebrated every Sept. 23 and is part of Bisexuality Awareness Week, according to LGBT Great. The mixer took place in the Amersfort Lounge of the Student Center and included pizza and refreshments for participants. Those in attendance got the chance to meet and mingle with one another while learning about the importance of the day.
“We felt it would be a great way to open up the center for ourselves,” Fia Sanchez, a junior sociology major and president of the LGBTA Club, said. “We thought it would be a good way to start off the semester with our first event.”
For some, the LGBTA Club is a safe place to be seen and recognized. Their space is warm and inviting, and a community where bisexual people, as well as other LGBTQ+ people, can connect with their community.
“It’s a home away from home,” said Tyler Birch, a junior biology major.
Bisexuality is used to refer to people who are attracted to more than one gender. An estimated 4.4% of US adults identify as bisexual. This accounts for 57.3% of the LGBTQ+ community overall, according to a Gallup poll.
Most bisexual men and women find it hard to be open about their sexuality with others. Bisexuals can experience “bi erasure,” which is when they are discriminated against for not being completely homosexual or heterosexual. Bisexuals are often not open to their families, friends, and even within the queer community as a result.
“Ever since the Stonewall rebellion, the gay and lesbian community has grown in strength and visibility,” Gigi Raven Wilbur, one of the founders of Bisexual Visibility Day, said in the Pink News. “The bisexual community also has grown in strength but in many ways, we are still invisible.”
Some researchers have coined the term “invisible majority” in reference to the fact that bisexuals make up a majority of the queer community, yet experience discrimination within it, according to The Hill. Days like the Bisexual Day of Visibility aim to provide the appropriate recognition of a robust subgroup that is not normally acknowledged within the community, making sure that they are no longer invisible.
For more information and ways to get involved, visit the LGBTQ+ Resource Center’s website https://www.brooklyn.edu/lgbtq-center/ or their Instagram @lgbtqcenter_bc