2024 in bisexual

Each year I do a roundup of the year for Bi Community News magazine. Here's 2024's.

Past years: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017

 

2024 was a fabulous year for bis on TV with shows like the Emmy winner Baby Reindeer, Twilight of the Gods, I Kissed A Girl, Float, Only Murders In The Building, Agatha All Along, Funny Woman, Kaos, terrible but hypnotising dating show Couple To Throuple, Heartstopper, Hazbin Hotel, Interview With The Vampire, The Boys and The Legend of Vox Machina and final seasons of Our Flag Means Death, Sort Of and  Star Trek Discovery . Films included a new telling of the life of Alexander the Great, My Old Ass and Love Lies Bleeding,

We said goodbye too soon to Chance Permodo (once a bi warlock in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina).

The year also marked the tenth anniversary of same-sex marriage being legal and the hundredth anniversary of a bisexual poem being read at the Eisteddfod in Wales.

Month by month:

January

Drew Barrymore took to her own insta account to share a story about being catfished on dating apps, a tale relatable to too many of us. The proportion of young Americans who are LGBT passed one in four while Canadian bisexuals found they were more likely to be stopped by the police than their peers. In Parliament two attempts to outlaw ‘conversion therapy’ began, though they would both fail when Rishi Sunak called his rainy election. London’s LGBT Switchboard got a makeover to celebrate fifty years of helping LGBT people find themselves and one another. On TV we were loving Hazbin Hotel and Our Flag Means Death. And we wondered if there would be a BiCon in 2024.

February

A British military veteran protested that medals are no substitute for a pension. Research showed that what blunted mpox in the UK was behaviour change.  Sadly a new strain would arrive later in the year. On its way out of power the Conservative government cancelled funding for the NHS’s rainbow badge scheme, putting ideology over health outcomes. Greece decided to back same-sex marriage. And in the House of Lords, one of the Bishops dipped into delusional stereotype as he railed about bisexuality.

March

The Oscars saw some bi winners. In St Helens we saw a case of biphobic hate prosecuted. An Australian state outlawed so-called conversion therapy. American embassies were barred from flying the rainbow flag while the country’s only openly bisexual Senator, having alienated much of her support base, stepped down ahead of the November elections. And people with some colour blindness thought the new England football kit included the bi flag.

April

The NHS across the UK reduced its support and safety for LGBT young people following government pressure. The Scottish government collapsed, leaving plans to outlaw conversion therapy in jeapoardy. Canada saw a challenge to its new rules on sperm donation. New research from the USA suggested bi women die younger, and we learned what books people who want to drag the US back to the 1950s are most afraid of. An asylum seeker‘s case in Australia caught our eye. And the Lambda Literary Awards celebrated bi writing in 2023.

May

The Eurovision trophy fell out of bi hands. We’ll get you back next time! The Methodist church in America decided to admit bi (and other LGBT people) as clergy. On TV, last year’s I Kissed A Boy was followed by I Kissed A Girl, with a fistful of bi contestants. A new documentary looked at sexuality across the animal kingdom – in short, bisexuality is normal. Parents said they wanted kids to be protected from harm more than protected from knowledge. And Rishi Sunak, the multi millionaire who can’t afford an umbrella, called a general election.

June

President Biden celebrated America’s “Pride Month”, which we expect will be the last such Presidential statement for four years. The Irish government consulted on future directions for LGBT policy and legislation. Stats showed one in twentyfive Americans are bi. More same-sex couples married in the UK than ever before, while doubts grew over the security of same-sex marriage laws in the US with a politicised Supreme Court.

July

Labour won the General Election, and we wondered about their plans. Rather like the 1997 Labour landslide it seems like there will be little to celebrate on LGBT rights from the new government. Unison had its annual bi members’ meeting. And a break-in at BCN Towers caused us no end of chaos.

August

There were a host of shows with bi themes (like, say, being a bisexual pirate) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A fistful of volunteers came forward at last and so BiCon was back on – for later in the year than usual. A new strain of mpox appeared in Africa. In Canada a bisexual asylum seeker was allowed to stay, and a survey suggested many librarians in the UK have been pressured to remove books with bi and other LGBT content from display. The month wrapped up in the UK with London’s Bi Pride festival.

September

Bi Visibility Day marked twentyfive years since it was first observed, and BiPhoria its thirtieth birthday as the longest-running bi group in the UK and one of the oldest in the world. Events marking Bi Visibility Day included conferences in Belgium and Australia, welcomed by the German deputy PM, and formally recognised in Boston and at the UK Foreign Office.

Thailand legalised same-sex marriage. And a dating app asked its users and found folks still think bis are greedy.

October

Bis talked bi stuff with other bis as in America the month kicked off with a shorter version of bi conference BECAUSE, and also that month saw an online bi research conference. The UK BiCon announced its venue and the European Court ruled that Facebook couldn’t scrape data about your sexuality from other websites to sell to advertisers. A UK government report on the effectiveness of programmes addressing biphobic and other LGBTphobic bullying in schools was finally published – five years late.

November

America decided to go back to having President Trump for another term, and legendary London LGBT club Heaven was closed down. It reopened in December. Advertising professionals said they think viewers now expect bi and other LGBT representation.

December

BiCon celebrated its fortieth year, close to where it started in London back in 1984. Norwich, the UK’s bi-est town according to the last census, attracted headlines over sexually transmitted infections. Australian statisticians crunched numbers on bisexuals. And American health officials marked pan pride day, for likely the last time before 2029.

2023 in bisexual

 Each year I do a roundup of the year for Bi Community News magazine. Here's 2023's.

Past years: 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017

 

The 2020s have been a tough time for many people and while a lot of “normal” life has returned in 2023 first a thought for many people for whom it’s still harder than usual thanks to COVID, war and a sadly growing tide of hate speech and hate action.

January

After fourteen years, bi actor Alan Cumming handed his OBE back to Buckingham Palace, saying it had seemed symbolically important at the time but the world had moved on and someone getting an award while being publicly queer no longer held such meaning.

Researchers showed bis are more likely to use cannabis. The researchers found that surprising, but could not clarify whether our health issues lead to use, or use leads to our health issues.

On telly, Our Flag Means Death arrived on the BBC to much acclaim, and Carnival Row came back for a second and as it turned out final season.

And while Scotland’s Holyrood parliament voted overwhelmingly and across most parties to move forward on LGBT equality, the Westminster government overruled them. After a year-long battle, Scotland would back down.

February

Good news in Andorra as the country’s same-sex marriage law came into effect. It was the 33rd country to introduce it. At home the age at which you can marry was raised to 18.

Hands-on research revealed penises are getting bigger.

And actor Rebel Wilson launched a bi-ish dating app, which we’d have to admit has pretty well vanished without trace.

On telly, Star Trek Picard returned as did Vox Machina.

March

March is Bi Health Month and this year’s theme was “beyond visibility“, echoing the messages of September’s Bi Visibility Day.

In politics, the least LGBTphobic candidate won the SNP leadership election to become the new First Minister at Holyrood.

Long-running bi gathering BiCon announced dates for the summer, this time in Nottingham. London’s BiPride festival sought new leadership volunteers.

Researchers wondered whether you could recognise bi men by their voices, and didn’t get the results they expected. They also found bi women are at the greatest risk of heart disease.

Life got worse for bis and other queer people in Uganda. Closer to home the Italian government stopped recognising same-sex couples as the parents of their children.

Our Spring issue came out with delightfully queer pirate drama Our Flag Means Death providing our cover star.

April

America’s CDC had new stats on young bisexuals and there being more of them than ever. President Biden apologised for the ‘Lavender Scare‘ paranoia about gay people in public life 70 years ago; perhaps in 70 years his successor will admit the current discourse around trans people is just as deluded. Biden appointed bi star Lady Gaga to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Meanwhile in Florida, state government became the most notorious of many state legislatures for whipping up hate with Prides having to cancel or restructure their events.

Here in Europe, Hungary’s government encouraged citizens to report LGBT people. This so the state could harass same-sex couples raising their families, and any families supporting trans people.

BiCon announced its pricing for the summer’s bi gathering, and the Lambda Literary Awards announced their shortlists for their annual LGBT+ book awards.

In pop culture, Batman’s bisexual sidekick Robin reached the end of his story.

May

The big bi news was another bi winner of Eurovision while here in Brexitland, we slumped further down the European league table we topped from 2010 to 2015.

The NHS decided we didn’t need the Mpox vaccine any more, and petitioners tried unsuccessfully to stop the government telling schools to out queer kids to abusive parents.

On TV Single Drunk Female dropped back for a second season, XO, Kitty arrived and the queer version of The Ultimatum was compulsively terrible telly. The bi & gay men equivalent was better.

A dramatisation retold the Amber Heard v Johnny Depp court case.

And like UK governments past, Romania lost a court case about how it treats LGBT people while Taiwan allowed same-sex couples to adopt at last.

June

In the UK June kicks off with Volunteer’s Week. Is it time for you to step up and help other bi people?

 

In the US it’s “Pride Month” and President Biden held a party. We had good news about HIV rates, and the STI map of Britain.

There was bisexuality in The Witcher, Warrior Nun got rescued from the scrapheap, and Never Have I Ever returned.

Research showed queer kids don’t sleep so well.

Recently the UK implemented a disregard of past convictions for LGBT people who served in the armed forces; Ireland decided to follow suit.

Estonia’s parliament voted to bring in same-sex marriage, and Thailand teetered on the brink of doing so too.

And while the UK’s government still couldn’t find a moral compass in the face of well-funded hate campaigns, Iceland implemented a ban on conversion therapy.

July

June may be Pride season in the US but Prides were in full swing here – ours run from April through to October. In a small but important statement by one of them, Liverpool Pride incorporated Kyiv Pride.

American bi conference Because announced its dates, as did a smaller bi conference for Belgium.

And on TV, Netflix told the story of 80s popstars Wham!

August

Sha’Carri Richardson became the fastest woman in the world.

In TV representation Heartstopper returned, as did podcast themed drama Only Murders In The Building. We got news of another run of Our Flag Means Death, though it is still yet to air.

And the BBC, who are increasingly bad on LGBT representation and reporting, managed to erase the B from a story about a bi woman finding bi representation in the media and realising as a result that she was bi. Well done, Auntie.

September

Another online bi academic conference was held, based out of Canada this time. And Australia had its own, now annual, bi conference too. In the UK, the biggest bi gathering yet happened with London Bi Pride.

In politics, the one out-bi government minister resigned to spend more time losing her seat at the upcoming General Election, while Westminster kicked the can down the road even further on conversion therapy.

It was the 25th Bi Visibility Day. Being on a weekend it got less attention than some recent years, though it got name-checked by the Welsh government. European research from ILGA looked at bi experience across the continent.

On TV, cartoon Disenchanted began its final run, as did Sex Education. The Boys spin-off Generation V began, and we were guaranteed a Happy Ending.

October

Lithuania decided it was time to get rid of its version of Section 28. It was the 35th annual Coming Out Day. And Australia took the first steps to ending blood donation discrimination.

New analysis of the 2021 census showed bi people are less likely to be married. Other research found we’re even underpaid when we get to the top.

TV saw a remake of Interview with the Vampire, Brazilian popster Anita join the cast of Elite, the Fall of the House of Usher and a second and final season of Loki.

November

Janelle Monáe was recipient of the ‘Spirit Of Soul’ award, renamed to respect their gender.

Internationally, Latvia moved to allow same-sex civil partnerships. In research, we learned bis are less likely to be in employment than straight and gay people, and the ONS admitted it had overcounted pansexuals in census reports.

In the House of Lords a bill to ban conversion therapy was introduced, as the government still wouldn’t do it after many years of promising. And we remembered it was 20 years since Section 28 was abolished in Wales and England.

December

We celebrated 25 years since the bi flag was created.

The year wrapped up with some good news: the US Supreme Court refused to quosh a local ban on conversion therapy, a new government in Poland planned partnership recognition, and the EU pushed again on cross-border parenting rights.

We had lower rates of HIV and over on the telly, the Doctor was more obviously bi in Doctor Who than before.

 

That was 2022 in bisexual

Each year I do a roundup of the year for Bi Community News magazine. Here's 2022's.

Past years: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017

The 2020s have been a tough time for many people and while a lot of “normal” life returned in 2022, things are still not quite as they were before.

We start in January, with the brilliant and long-awaited news of human trials for a vaccine against HIV. The UK government announced the erasure of some more historic offences where bi or gay men were convicted under biphobic and homophobic laws. Student Pride announced it would be postponed in one of the last cases of COVID restrictions hitting a Pride date. We were sad to hear that The Owl House was getting a foreshortened third run before being dropped. And Brum Bi Group went to London to join in a protest on trans people’s human rights.

In February, war reached Europe as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, and queer culture joined in the wave of sanctions by banning them from Eurovision. New Zealand announced a ban on conversion therapy but Singapore rebuffed an attempt to decriminalise sex between men. Debateable bi rep on TV continued with the return of bi liar Loki. In sports, Ireen Wüst broke new records at the Winter Olympics.  Bi+ day out BiFest returned to the Midlands. Finally, we had remarkable research that mixed-sex couples commute differently from same-sex ones and showing the proportion of the population who are bi rising again.

The UK government leaked it was not proceeding with a long-promised ban on conversion therapy in March. The month is Bi Health Month but our minds were on ways to help LGBT+ people in Ukraine as the war started to unfold. American research looked at bi representation on TV in the light of new stats from Gallup.  The Lammy book awards announced their shortlists including several bi categories. Guatemala’s President got presidential and over-ruled a new ban on same-sex marriage. Lovers of the outdoors got news of a bisexual camping weekend.

April saw tickets go on sale for BiCon. The annual bi bash has been running since 1984 – until 2019 in person, then for two years online and this year in a mixed format with some in-person content and some online. A major international conference was cancelled when too many LGBT organisations expressed their lack of faith in the UK government and its reputation on equalities. Heartstopper dropped onto Netflix and became the big LGBT TV show of the year. YouGov found that most people disagreed with the UK government on outlawing “conversion therapy”. And research in the US showed how the pandemic had particularly impacted bi and other queer kids.

Monkeypox was the unfortunate new big thing in May, and we had advice about it. Between that and COVID, Leicester’s Big Bi Fun Day announced it was skipping another year. Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman back in the day, wound up the haters online in a delicious way. As Prides returned there was a special rainbow 50p to celebrate their work since 1972. IDAHOBIT was marked around the world including by Leeds Bi Social Group. The USA got ready to overturn the Roe v Wade judgement that made abortion legal across the nation. And the UK dropped out of the top ten countries in Europe for LGBT people.

In June six years on from the Orlando club shooting we saw something all too similar in Oslo. Also abroad, Thailand looked to introduce same-sex civil partnerships, and while the US Supreme Court had its eye on same-sex marriage as the next step after abortion, polls showed it was more popular across the country than ever. In the UK BiCon pushed its booking deadline back a little while monkeypox numbers kept ticking upwards.

The American Center for Disease Control noted that COVID was having a worse impact on bis than other groups in July. While some Prides were ruling that police could not march – or not march in uniform – in Greater Manchester the police decided to boycott Pride instead. Glasgow‘s Mardi Gla became the first UK LGBT+ Pride to put bis front and centre. Civil partnerships – expected to fade away after the introduction of same-sex marriage – proved to be booming especially since they were opened up to mixed-sex couples as well. Biphobia on the football pitch wound up in court for Tower Hamlets FC.

August saw annual bi gathering BiCon return in-person in Leeds (and also online). Andorra became the 33rd country to legalise same-sex marriage, though it won’t come into effect until 2023, while in Vietnam the health services declared that being queer is not a disease. Monkeypox continued to spread here in the UK, albeit more slowly. Summer bi telly included Never Have I Ever and First Kill.

Each year September is the month of Bi Visibility Day, marked for the 24th time in 2022, and a date that now has wrapped around it Bi Week (in the USA) and in some parts of the internet, Bi Month. Once more there were more than 100 events to mark the date across a host of countries. That included a host of flags, displays and events in the UK, and in the USA a meeting at the White House, the illumination of the Niagara Falls in pink, purple and blue, and America’s LGBT journalism network hosting a discussion on bi representation. In Cuba a referendum backed same-sex marriage, and in Canada the government announced moves to equalise blood donation rules. But most impressively given all going on around them, in Ukraine the organisers of Kharkiv Pride went ahead with their event.

In October America’s version of BiCon, Because, returned. Like BiCon it went for a mixed format offering both in-person and online participation. Mexico finished its jigsaw-like process of introducing same-sex marriage, and Slovakia went there in a single step. Meanwhile in Japan Tokyo brought in a local partnership register similar to those seen in the UK at the end of the 1990s. A remarkable court case in the USA sought to overturn employment protections for bisexual people, and by implication asexual people too, arguing that the existing rulings only covered gay and straight people.

November saw another deadly attack at a queer bar in the USA. One of the handful of openly bi MPs here announced she would not be restanding whenever the General Election comes. One of her counterparts in the US was also seen to have disengaged from her party, and later crossed the floor from Democrat to sit as an Independent. Some far-from-robust research suggested both Oxford and Cambridge universities now have huge numbers of bi students, with heterosexuals now in the minority. In a rare bit of good public health news, Monkeypox numbers had fallen significantly.

And we celebrated 24 years of the bi flag.

As the year wrapped up, court cases had led to the US government move to legislate to protect same-sex marriage and interracial marriage from interference by the Supreme Court. By the middle of the December that legislation had passed all three stages to become law before the Democrats lose control of the House in January. Governor Kate Brown commuted all death sentences in her state. But the cherry on the cake of the year was the dictionary adding and recognising bi synonym multisexual.

 

 

 

That was 2021 in bisexual

 I wrote this round-up of the year's news for Bi Community News. That was 2021...

The original is here https://bicommunitynews.co.uk/15830/that-was-2021/

 

It was another COVID year so the bi review of the year is a little different than usual – but here’s our roundup of 2021!

We start in January, which seems both a moment ago and a million years. New US President Joe Biden got off to a good start. Getting Lady Gaga to perform at his inauguration was only a part of it. New Zealand had fascinating research on bi experience of crime, and there were rumours of a new Sex And The City series that might have some bi representation – though that took a whole year to transpire. And Star Trek:Discovery star Mary Wiseman (who plays Tilly in the show) came out as bisexual.

February‘s news included research showing more bis than ever in the USA. The head of MI6 apologised for decisions his predecessors made while the MOD said they were going to start returning medals to servicepeople who had been stripped of them for being bi or gay. Angola decriminalised same-sex love at last. Big Bi Fun Day understandably announced it was skipping a year again. And actress Adelaide Kane (of the recent remake of Teen Wolf, This Is Us and Reign) came out as bisexual on TikTok. 

During March – Bi Health Month – London’s largest Pride event was thrown into disarray amid complaints over racism. Other Prides announced plans to return despite the pandemic. Leeds’ bi group declared it would shortly be closed down. In politics, the LGBT groups of eight parties united to call for action on conversion therapy while pan MP Layla Moran launched a campaign to put pressure on Poland’s “LGBT Free Zone” districts. Caroline Noakes MP attacked her own government’s failings on LGBT rights after three advisors on LGBT issues quit.

In April there was a chorus of disapproval over a homophobic, biphobic and transphobic lobby group getting charity status. Northern Ireland voted to end “conversion therapy“. And tickets went on sale for a second virtual BiCon bi conference. And Jason Ellis talked about being an openly bi MMA fighter yet not feeling welcome in the LGBT community.

One popular internet claim this year was that “lesbians are becoming extinct”. It’s a weird idea but in May the ONS proved it a lie. Eurovision was won by a band with a bi member – after it was won in 2020 by a bi singer who then held the title for an extra year, that trophy has been in bi hands for a while now. LGBT organisations attacked the UK’s EHRC equality commission for its inaction on LGBTphobia. The annual Rainbow Map of European LGBT rights reflected the reasons for this as the UK slid down the league table once again. Up until 2015 we topped the table. Blood donation rules were changed to remove bias on the grounds of orientation. The Queen’s Speech had nothing for us. Brighton was one of many prides deciding to skip a year rather than try to work out how to hold a safe festival in a pandemic.

June saw the Methodist Church vote by a huge margin to conduct same-sex weddings – a welcome step. Bi’s Of Colour closed down and the 2021 BiFi online festival was cancelled. Abroad, Hungary added to its stock of LGBTphobic legislation. In the US, out-bi Senator Kyrsten Sinema found herself under pressure for voting against the support LGBT people need. Also in the US, the Lammy book awards and Bi Book Awards were announced. Our last issue as a bimonthly print magazine came out, as we were about to move to being quarterly. But the big bi story was a donation of £80,000 to London’s Bi Pride.

From the USA there was research in July that showed a decline in LGBT representation in films in 2020 from GLAAD. Given everything else in 2020, perhaps not one to reach much into. Other research showed a perhaps equally unsurprising finding that non-binary people are more likely to identify as bisexual. A Spanish court overturned a dubious ruling about married bisexuals. Bristol council heard a proudly bi speech, as part of a discussion on LGBT people’s mental health. The NHS reported on the differences between gay, bi and straight people’s health. The Foreign Office apologised for its historic ban on bi and gay staff. And overseas Prides were under attack.

In August we moved to being a quarterly magazine due to spiralling print and postage prices in recent times – and in the nick of time as our longtime editor was involved in an accident that stopped her working on the magazine for months. Research showed the strength of the bi pay gap, whereby bi people earn less on average than our gay and straight colleagues. London’s main Pride festival, mired in controversy, cancelled its 2021 event. They weren’t alone as Manchester’s Pride found itself in a different scandal – this time about money. A new coalition in Scotland between the SNP and SGP meant little for LGBT rights as there is wider consensus in Holyrood on those issues than at Westminster. And as the COVID vaccine rollout spread across the world, we had heartening news of a vaccine for HIV.

September is Bi Month, centred on Bi Visibility Day. Despite much of the world being in kinds of lockdowns and with many people in areas without them nonetheless wanting to stay home or socially distanced due to the pandemic, there were more than 100 events noted around the world to mark the date on September 23rd. Most notably, in the USA Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania issued a statement recognizing September 23 as Bisexual Pride Day. Australia’s bi organisations hosted a huge joint event across the whole week. Switzerland voted overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage, and the first of Poland’s “LGBT Free Zone” counties abandoned that label following international pressure to respect human rights from the EU. In the Midlands, the annual Bi Camp added an extra date for Hallowe’en – dubbing it BooBiCamp. A Labour MP laid into bi men for co-opting the gay rights movement, showing her blissful ignorance of the history of the story of gay and bi men’s liberation in the UK. Gay and sometimes bi men’s magazine GT printed its final copy. And in weird science news we learned bis are more likely to be asthmatic than straight people.

Coming Out Day is marked each October. This time Superman came out as bi, and so did Conservative MP Dehenna Davison. On TV we had bi poly dating on new dating show The Triangle. The month wrapped up with a Westminster government announcement of action on conversion therapy – more than 1200 days after it had last been announced and with a further delay to follow before the year end. Overseas, Portugal ended blood donation discrimination and France inched toward a Conversion Therapy ban. The International Bisexuality Research Conference released videos of many of its speaker sessions, while long-running US bi conference BECAUSE was held in a mixed online-and-in-person format.

In November Google launched a dictionary of LGBT without the “B”. The BBC and Netflix both got caught up in problems with LGBT staff no longer feeling they were safe places to work after management decisions. Long-running bi conference BiCon announced an in-person event for next summer. Abroad, the new German coalition government had a packed LGBT+ equality programme. In the USA a fresh round of elections brought more out people in public office than ever before – and GLAAD reported an increase in anti-LGBT hate crime. And we learned that Lady Gaga wore a bulletproof dress to sing the US’ national anthem at the Presidential inauguration.

December saw some progress on issues of gender recognition, outlawing conversion therapy and blood donation laws. All that abroad though – here in the UK gender recognition reform for Wales and England got delayed yet again while ending conversion therapy had a vital “except in the places where it actually happens” change of direction, alas surprising no-one. On the upside, Chile voted for same-sex marriage and in the UK, people with HIV can at last serve equally in the armed forces. Our final BCN issue of the year snuck through customs and into the post with a change of house font after 20 years. And as the latest version of COVID ran rampant the year came to an end.

As the dad joke has it: last year was 2020, and next year is twenty twenty, too. Hang in there: maybe 2023 will be better… Happy new year!

Bi Review of the Year: 2020

 A piece I wrote for Bi Community News wrapping up the news of the past 12 months.

Original is here: https://bicommunitynews.co.uk/13410/bi-review-of-the-year-2020/

At the start of the year very few of us realised what might be ahead as the COVID-19 virus was still thought to be far away and most likely confined to a corner of China. So for those first ten weeks or so of 2020 things were happening as normal.

So it was at the start of January when Layla Moran became the first UK MP to come out as pansexual. Courts compensated a worker who had been told to pretend to be gay rather than bi in the workplace and returned confiscated medals to an ex serviceman. Northern Ireland started to consult on same-sex marriage while we learned women are more likely to divorce one another than men. There was good news on HIV figures and from the European Court declaring that government inaction on LGBTphobic hate was no longer acceptable. And the Welsh Government declared it would go a step further than merely repealing Section 28 with active work to ensure children are making informed choices on sex and relationships.

In February Bi Pride got a mention in the House, while LGBT History Month saw many more bi-related talks than usual. Overseas Switzerland voted to recognise LGBT hate crimes. There were bis on TV in Doctors and I Am Not OK With This as well as a new season of Atypical to look forward to. And new research showed peculiar findings about bi people and skin cancer.

With the pandemic seeing the start of lockdown in the UK during March events started to be cancelled like Birmingham BiFest and BiFest Wales. As Prides started to fall like dominoes, Eurovision announced its first ever rollover winner. In the USA a St Patrick’s Day parade barred a beauty pageant winner from marching on account of her bisexuality.

We had more bi representation on TV in Love Is Blind’s demonstration of double-standards over bisexuality, BBC polyamory drama Trigonometry, and Batwoman. The House of Commons held its first ever debate on LBT women’s health while Canada declared its intention to outlaw so-called “gay cure” so-called “therapy”. And new figures showed more people identifying as bi in the UK than ever.

In April many of us were starting to get used to life indoors and wondering how much a loo roll could fetch on eBay there were sobering thoughts about how the lockdown meant a lot of bi and LGBT people were now trapped in unsafe situations. The USA responded by relaxing its limitations on bi and gay men donating blood with Australia contemplating the same shift. The first LGBT club closure of the pandemic was announced in Brighton. On TV we had a raft of fresh bi viewing with the return of Flack, Killing Eve and Harley Quinn. But the big bi drama of the month was away from TV as BiNetUSA abruptly tried to claim copyright over the public domain bisexual flag.

Most LGBT magazines stopped publishing for the time being due to the pandemic but we took the decision to keep BCN coming out as one little strand of bi life we could keep fairly normal, so our April edition was the second of six in 2020.

Staying indoors gave people some time to organise and so in May there were online campaigns about the blood donation ban and conversion therapy. Being indoors also meant people could virtually visit museums worldwide. New research showed bi men were the most closeted group across Europe.

As the Black Lives Matter movement drew headlines worldwide in June dating app Grindr dropped its race filter. One of those “how did that take so long?” moments. There was a big victory in the US Supreme Court, while over here a new faux LGB equality campaign group came out against same-sex marriage, for anyone who hadn’t already realised they weren’t on the side of any queer folks. The BBC nonetheless carried on quoting them as if they were a serious human rights campaign. The annual Bi Book Awards winners were announced, though without (for now) the usual glamorous awards event. The Grammys got their tongue tied online. In good news, Gabon decriminalised sex between women and between men and Scotland opened up civil partnerships to any couple regardless of gender. BiCon had a bumpy month with two organising teams quitting in the space of a week.

In July we had more happy news from abroad as Montenegro recognised same-sex civil partnerships and South Africa changed its rules on how marriage ceremonies are conducted. It was less good elsewhere as the budget for PrEP was cut in the UK and in Poland the presidential election came down to a knife-edge before going the wrong way. We learned bis have worse experiences of crime than other people and the GLAAD annual review of film releases noted cinema was getting Whiter and gayer, with no bi male representation in major film releases.

We are used to a host of Prides in August so it was a hot summer with so much less to do every Saturday! However some ran online and BiCon happened in a very slimmed-down online form. The run-up to Bi Visibility Day began with more Town Halls deciding to fly the bi flag. New US research showed bi youth experience of bullying.

It’s Bi Visibility Day, Bi Week and Bi Month in September and among the delights was improvements in dictionary definitions. Northern Ireland inched further forward on equality while the UK courts rules that the Equality Act includes nonbinary people. Coming-out guide Getting Bi came out for the Kindle. In the USA we saw the first research on how the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting the LGBT communities while here Stonewall had research on how many bis are out to their families – not many.

In October we learned there would be a biopic of former US Congresswoman Katie Hill. Netflix dropped GLOW. In good news for millions the Pope made a small shift toward a better attitude to LGBT lives on the part of the Catholic Church. And in bad news here, a BBC which was veering increasingly far from balanced and responsible reporting of LGBT issues warned staff they should not attend Pride events even in their own time and private lives.

All eyes were on the USA in November as Donald Trump lost by a huge margin in the election there – albeit not as wide a margin as many opinion polls had predicted. Biden won with over 80 million votes in the end – more than any previous candidate. Biden’s speech missed out the “B”. Europe considered its next five year plan on LGBT work without the UK, and in Poland there were symbolic protests against the hateful “LGBT free zone” populists. We all realised we had been too distracted by COVID to notice that the LGBT inclusion work in schools that had started under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition had been quietly dropped by the new minister for Women and Equalities.

Most important, COVID vaccines started to be approved. After a very hard year, change was at last in sight.

In December the three month ban on blood donation for bi and gay men and their partners was completely rewritten – for better and for worse – though the new rules don’t come in until a few months into 2021. Kyrsten Sinema rocked a great wig and coat in Washington. There was divine justice as a homophobic MEP got caught breaking COVID rules at a gay party. And Switzerland – whose good news on hate crime kicked the year off – decided to let same-sex couples marry. And so ILGA’s annual world map of LGBT rights showed a ripple of changes. And our fifth edition of the pandemic landed on subscriber doormats, more or less in time for Christmas.

That was 2020. To our most sincere delight, it is in the past. Here’s to a very different year ahead.