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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 only straight 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.”

• 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).

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.
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.