On Saturday, June 24th 2017, the Center for Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality, BiUS Entertainment, and FluidBiDesign hosted a panel discussion entitled, “No Homo, No Hetero: Being Black, Bisexual, and Male in America.” Several members of the FluidBiDesign discussion group for sexually fluid men of African descent, MenKind, along with their lovers, supporters, and allies discussed the topic during a 90-minute livestream on YouTube. Emmy-wining news anchor, Kelsey Minor, moderated the panel, which was organized with the generous support of BiNet USA, The Faith Fund, and National Black Justice Coalition.
Back in the 70s, I remember being told that there was no such thing as a Black bisexual man and most of that school of thought was predicated on the myth that all Black men are homophobic. It was an obvious lie given the number of homosexual Black men roaming the streets of my home town, some rather obvious and overt in their gayness, many more not so much. I remember laughing as the person who dropped this “knowledge” on me because he didn’t know he was talking to a bisexual.
Even today, Black bisexual men catch a lot of hell and especially from women and the worst part is that some of those women who speak out against Black male bisexuality are, themselves, secretly bisexual. The truth is that there has always been Black male bisexuals; there will always be Black male bisexuals and for anyone to deny it simply doesn’t make any sense. Bisexuals of any race get hammered with a lot of biphobic crap, stuff that has some truth to it… but is not the whole and total truth of what it means to be male and bisexual. I can appreciate the efforts to do something about this perception but I also feel that part of doing something should also include a major effort to dispel the myths that have been running rampant for as long as I can remember.
That troublesome double standard that says a female bisexual is all well and good – but a male bisexual fits the general description of just being downright evil and nasty has to be eradicated; I’m not sure how to best go about that and the panel discussion you shared could help in this.
Our shared belief in dogma and our willingness to keep believing in it despite the evidence that’s all around us that things are not as we’ve been told they are isn’t helping anyone; just because dogmatic belief says there shouldn’t be any bisexuals or homosexuals doesn’t change the fact that there has always been bisexuals and homosexuals.
The DL exists for a reason and that reason isn’t as horrible as everyone makes it out to be; bisexuals have to exist “somewhere” and if one bisexual wants to meet another bisexual, the DL is the place to do that. But, again, it’s always been like that and for better or worse, hasn’t it? We need more social awareness and acceptance but that’s hard to accomplish when society, bluntly, doesn’t give a damn about this… until bisexuality takes a seat at their table.