A pocket-sized guide to coming out and staying out, as distributed to venues across Greater Manchester and beyond including many Pride stalls. Based on our experiences - the collective wisdom of hundreds of hours of BiPhoria!
Now in Spanish!
LGBTQ* Resources and Religious Sites
Graphic Above From:
You Know You’re A Queer Muslim When’s Tumblr
Following Text and Information from StarJack’s LGBTQ* Muslim Informational Site
(note from StarJack: This is a list of Internet / Online resources for Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, those questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, and their partners, family, and friends. The point is to make these resources available, so please feel free to make links to this page. To help keep this list as complete and current as possible, please send an e-mail to report updates, defunct links, or new resources!
Disclaimer: I’ve looked at these sites and assume their bona fides, but really don’t have the means to check them out thoroughly. In some cases caution may be advisable.)Nation-specific Organizations and Websites:
This is a general list including GLBT Muslim groups in countries where Muslims are a minority and GLBT organizations in countries that are predominantly Muslim or have large Muslim minorities.
AlgeriaAbu Nawas
Alouen — in French and Arabic
Gay Algerie — in FrenchBosnia &Hercegovina
Bedayaa Organization for LGBTQI of the Nile Valley Area (Egypt & Sudan)Europe
Confederation of Associations LGBTQI European and Muslim
HM2F Homosexuels Musulmans de France
Cheraq Iranian Queer online magazine in Persian
Helem
Meem — for LBTQ Lebanese Women
Barra magazine Print and online magazine issued in LebanonRainbow Maldives a Facebook group
Kif-Kif Communauté des LGBT du Maroc
www.gaymaroc.net Gay Morocco — in FrenchThe Initiative for Equal Rights
Youths 2gether NetworkPalestineAswat — Palestinian Gay Women
Al Qaws (a project of the Jerusalem Open House)
Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, and SanctionsSGC Somali Gay Community, aUK-based website for GLBT Somalis everywhere
Freedom Sudan, the Sudanese LGBT Association
Bedayaa Organization for LGBTQI of the Nile Valley Area (Egypt & Sudan)
Syrian Same-Sex Society Network
GayDay Magazine The first gay magazine from Tunisia
Istanbul LGBTT
KAOS GL
AYILAR: Bears of Turkey
Pembe HayatUnited KingdomImaan
Go sign the petition!
A little more than 7 percent of straight youth reported thinking about suicide during the prior 30 days, versus 33 percent of LGBTQ students. Bisexual youth were at especially high risk (44 percent), as were questioning youth (32 percent). Bisexual youth also were at elevated risk of suicide attempts, with more than 21 percent reporting that they had made at least one attempt during the prior year.
Nearly twice as many LGBTQ students as straight students — 39 percent vs. 20 percent — reported having been bullied, threatened or harassed over the Internet. Again, bisexual youth reported the highest levels of victimization — 49 percent — among sexual minority youth.
For the next time someone tells you about “heterosexual privilege” or that bisexuals aren’t oppressed.
Also, for the next time you want to SMASH BIPHOBIA AND MONOSEXISM.
Canada: Fighting Biphobia
The Advocate reports:
The “B” for our bisexual segment is often left out of the LGBT conversation. But one public health organization in Toronto is looking to change that with a new campaign to stop biphobia by raising awareness of bisexual people.
The organization, Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health, started with a survey of 55 bisexual people. It’s not much of a surprise, but bisexual men and women of different races, ethnicities, religious affiliations, and cultures tend to feel excluded from everyone else.
Thus comes the organization’s colorful antibiphobia poster campaign. The posters aim to dispel myths about bisexual people — mainly that yes, they do exist, and that people on Team B care just as much about homophobia as gay people.Some of the highlights of the study are the groups that Bisexuals could identify as, like:
Bisexual mothers: Due to stereotypes, many people think that onlystraight women have children. As a result, the authenticity of pregnant or mothering women’s bisexuality is often questioned. People may assume a pregnant woman is straight, for example, or may ask a visibly queer woman how she became pregnant.
Bisexual mothers describe feeling invisible within the LGBTQ community, or report that others stop seeing them as queer (8, 12). Yet pregnancy is not uncommon among lesbian and bisexual women. Studies show that over 25% of queer women have been pregnant at some point in their lives (13-14). Statistics Canada found that 16% of female couples in Canada were parenting, and 24.5% of married female couples had children (15-16). A US study found that almost 40% of black lesbians and bisexual women, 15% black gay and bisexual men, and black transgender people have children (17).
Our poster is designed to remind health care providers and LGBTQ community members that bisexual mothers belong in our LGBTQ community. Our bisexual model, Danielle, is 9 months pregnant.
Trans bisexuals:Bisexual-identified trans people have often been doubly stereotyped as confused about their sexuality and their gender identity. As a result, some trans people have been denied access to trans health services if they identified as bisexual. A number of bisexual trans people have had to pretend to be straight or gay/lesbian in order to be approved for needed treatments. Bi trans people were often judged by straight trans people as being either “not really trans” or as “kinky.”
Our poster aims to remind both health care providers and LGBTQ community members that bisexual trans people belong in our LGBTQ community. Our bisexual trans model, Rupert Raj, is a well-known trans activist and a senior. Currently 59, he makes no apology for his gender, sexuality identity, or age. He is a therapist, both in private practice and at the Sherbourne Health Centre, who provides counselling to LGBTQ people and their loved ones.
- While biphobia among some health service providers has diminished, the stigma associated with being both trans and bi has remained. Bisexual trans people report difficulty getting appropriate and useful health care (9, 18-19).
Racialized bisexuals & two-spirited people:Bisexuals who belong to racialized groups experience stress from multiple oppressions, including racism, ethnocentrism homophobia, biphobia, monosexism, heterosexism and the cultural impact of colonialism and religious evangelism (20-21).
Despite evidence that they are at high risk for certain health problems, racialized bisexual people face multiple barriers to getting adequate medical care (22-23). Health care providers are often dismissive of their health concerns, or make unfounded assumptions about their sexuality and lifestyle.
- In addition, racialized bisexuals and two-spirited people face racism and colonialism within their own LGBTQ communities (21, 24-26). People often assume racialized communities are homophobic, and issues of racism and colonialism are often treated as if they are not legitimate LGBTQ issues. Our poster aims to challenge the racism and white supremacy within the health care system and our LGBTQ communities. Our model, Blu, is a two-spirited Cree activist and traditional counsellor who runs a two-spirited group for LGBT people of the First Nations.
Bisexual youth:Bisexual youth experience high rates of sexual harassment, bullying and physical abuse –often higher than their gay
and lesbian peers (27-28). Despite these stressors, bisexual youth are active in the LGBTQ community and in LGBTQ activism across the country, fighting for all of our rights. Due to stereotypes about youth as uninvolved or apolitical, this work often goes unnoticed or unappreciated. Within Canada and the US, bisexual youth have organized support groups and gay-straight alliances to combat homophobia in schools and across the country. They have worked helplines, given workshops, done safer sex outreach, and volunteered with LGBTQ organizations, even when those organizations failed to recognize youth contributions or support youth issues. Our poster featuring Aintony, an African-Canadian youth, recognizes the hard work that bisexual youth have done for the LGBTQ community.
Our model, Aintony, is 18-years old, and volunteers with the Connect-Us-Mentoring Program and Malvern Action For Neighborhood Change. He is starting his own business and aspires to run a youth group.
The poster campaign is making me happy.
Hello new followers, this is your hostess speaking - it’s nice to meet you! I hope you continue to enjoy what I post, which, in case you didn’t realise, is a mixture of fat/body acceptance, crafts and art I love (sometimes made by me by me but mostly other peoples) , LGBTQ stuff and whatever else takes my fancy.
I’m aware that some people follow me expecting this to be a craft blog and some follow me expecting this to be social activism blog and are confused at it being both, but sometimes it’s good to have your expectations confounded. I am never offended when people stop following me, but if you are un-following me because of a particular thing I’ve posted, I’d be interested to hear why.
BTW, the photo is because several people have asked/mentioned they are burning with curiosity about what this particular fat, middle aged, disabled, bisexual woman, looks like. So now you know!
Ban on gay blood donations not lifted
“Ban on gay blood donation lifted”, claims the headline. Not quite.
For more than twenty years, the UK Blood transfusion service has imposed a lifetime ban on any man who admits to have ever having sexual relations with another man from donating blood. This is on the assumption that gay men are likely to be infected with the AIDS virus, and that even though blood is thoroughly screened before being used in patients, even though the chance of infected blood making it through the screening process is around one in four million, one can never be too careful.
Many campaigners (Peter Tatchell, for example) have always seen this as being hurtful and discriminatory, as well as medically unnecessary. Its effectiveness was also open to question, since research has suggested that, ban or no ban, gay men form a higher proportion of blood donors than the population average. The Sunday Telegraph reported earlier this year that around seven per cent of sexually active gay men are thought to give blood despite the ban. This compares with around 5% of the eligible population.
But no-one ever talks about that. The polite fiction is maintained that because gay men (or, to be strictly accurate, men who have had more than zero same-sex contacts in the course of a lifetime) obey the rules and don’t try to donate blood. It’s important to note this, however, since it points to more than the widespread flouting of the ban. It also provides independent confirmation that the ban is not needed. (Where are the cases of contaminated blood being passed onto patients as a result of breaches of the rule?)
So, will today’s news be a cause for celebration among gay men, who are now allowed to donate blood? I rather doubt it.
Instead of the lifetime ban, it will in future only apply for twelve months. Thus a gay man, or a bisexual man, or a normally heterosexual man who got drunk and curious once upon a time, will be able to give blood provided he hasn’t had sex with any other man for over a year.
Heresy Corner.
really interesting article that really blurs the lines on the labels. really worth a read!
The article is interesting, but the really good stuff is in the comments. Definitely worth a click through to read.
And it’s not “retaining straight privilege”, you bigoted fuck, it just means that I’m subject to prejudice from people like you, as well.
This ^^. I am so, so sick of this, really. Can it just stop now please ?
Manchester Pride - 4 by bscott2007 on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Manchester’s 21st Pride Parade - 27th Aug 2011
![Celebration and protests [1] by dkscully on Flickr.Manchester Pride Parade 2011](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqli1iUqSa1qgshzxo1_500.jpg)
Celebration and protests [1] by dkscully on Flickr.
Manchester Pride Parade 2011
Rights and Wrongs by dkscully on Flickr.
Photo from Manchester Pride Parade 2011
I swear to god some lesbians’ reasons for not dating bi women just boils down to “EW THEY HAVE BOY COOTIES ON THEM.”
Yup.
