Bisexual+ Awareness Week - The Bi+ Umbrella and Defining An Identity
Celebrating the Bi+ Community
Bisexual+ Awareness Week is an annual celebration week held in September as an extension of Bi+ Visibility Day (23 September). The celebration promotes cultural acceptance of the bi+ community and creates a platform for advocating bi+ rights.
But what exactly is the plus in bi+?
Bi+ is an umbrella term that includes all multi-gender attracted (MGA) people. Identities under this term can include bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, omnisexual, queer, and fluid, among others.
Let’s break down the four main identities under the Bi+ umbrella:
Bisexual: Attraction to more than 1 gender, may have preferences for certain genders over others
Pansexual: Attraction to people regardless of gender. Gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.
Polysexual: Attraction to multiple genders (often 2+), but not necessarily all genders.
Omnisexual: Attraction to all genders, and gender plays a role in the attraction.
Here’s a handy grid from Zoe Stoller:
While these terms do have overlapping elements, the most important consideration is how the bi+ person chooses to identify. The term that most resonates with them is the term to honour (yes, even if technically their identity aligns with a different definition).
Defining an Identity
Here’s a great quote from the Bisexual Resource Center: ‘The experience of talking about what bisexuality is is just as nuanced and diverse as the identities of bi+ folks themselves.’
The terms described above are guidelines to help give context to an individual’s experience. A person may prefer one term over another or use multiple terms, and the term(s) they use may change over time as they become more familiar with themselves, their community, and their relationships. This is totally normal!
If you fall under the bi+ umbrella, or think you might be bi+, you may start to resonate with a new term and find yourself in situations where you’re updating others about this change. Here are a few important reminders:
How you define your sexuality is for you! It’s wonderful when the people in your life are open to learning more about you, but if you find yourself needing to justify or defend your identity, please know your understanding of yourself is the bottom line.
Educating others about your identity and the bi+ community is optional. If you have and wish to use your knowledge, experience, and resources to help others better understand multi-gender attraction, that’s fabulous! And if you prefer to direct them to Google, that’s equally valid and fabulous.
Connecting with your community is a great way to find empathy, validation, and support. The bi+ community make up more than 50% of the queer population, and we’re here for each other.
There are some great events happening for Bi+ Visibility Day in Australia this year! You can find them in the Stand Bi Us Forum program in the link below:
Stand Bi Us Forum 2022 (Multiple events, online + hybrid + in person)
Here are some fabulous bi+ communities across Australia:
Happy Bi+ Awareness Week!