What Does It Mean To Be Bisexual video

When it comes to sexuality and gender, labels are both a help and a hindrance (Shutterstock)

Bisexuality - the B in LGBTQ + - is a sexual identity with many misconceptions surrounding it. Not everyone believes that it is a true orientation; it has been described as a temporary phase before a person declares himself lesbian or gay, for example.But bisexuality is a real identity , and those who identify as bi are a bit tired of being misunderstood.

Simply put, "bisexual" and "bi" are blanket terms for people who "recognize and honor their potential for sexual and emotional attraction to more than one gender," according to the nonprofit Bisexual Resource Center (BRC), the Oldest national bisexual organization in the United States.

People can experience these attractions in different ways and degrees during their lifetime, and bisexual people don't need to have had specific sexual experiences (or, for that matter, any sexual experiences) to identify as bisexual, according to the LGBTQ + Alianza de Gays y Lesbians Against Defamation or GLAAD.

There is a misconception that bisexual people have to have a partner of each gender to be satisfied, which implies that they are more likely to be sexually active or unfaithful, although many bisexual people are happily and faithfully monogamous. Another misconception about bisexuality is that a person cannot really know that they are bisexual unless they have been intimate with a man and a woman.

Bisexuality is not limited to the binary genders of male and female. Bisexual people are attracted to people of the same gender and one or more other genders, including transgender people (Shutterstock)

"Bisexuality is not a flexible and changing orientation as it is believed, it does not go from one place to another depending on how we get up in the morning. They have their reasons associated with attraction, love and sex, but it does not run between one and the other. It will be revealed to the extent that certain conditions are met to feel attracted to another person. It does not assume that if a man is in love and has a partner project with a woman, he will be looking out of the corner of his eye for the presence of a man (or vice versa) to satisfy the other party in need. In reality, there is a prior, loving and sexual condition to be with one or the other sex without despair to satisfy the missing part, " Walter Ghedin, a psychiatrist and sexologist , assured in dialogue with this medium .

Bisexuality is not limited to the binary genders of male and female. Bisexual people are attracted to people of the same and other genders, including transgender people.

"Bisexuality is not a new orientation, it is born with humanity, with more freedom in the Greeks and then the oppression of the Middle Ages and monotheistic religions. However, concealment has been a constant. If homosexuality was behind the closet door, bisexuality ranked further back. The idea that bisexuality conceals the impossibility of defining homosexuality, or that bisexuals are a kind of hybrid that does not finish ensuring their orientation, is still as valid as before ", added the specialist.

What challenges do bisexual people face?

Bisexual people are often pressured by people of all sexual orientations to "choose sides" and simply admit that they are actually gay, lesbian, or straight (AFP)

Misconceptions aside, people who identify as bisexual can experience what is known as "bisexual erasure." They are read as heterosexual with a partner of another gender, and are read as gay or lesbian when they are with a partner of the same sex.

Some people who do not identify as bisexual assume that bisexuality is "just a phase." Male-identified bisexuals, in particular, may experience the uncomfortable intersection of homophobia from female-identified potential partners, while female-identified bisexuals may tend to be hypersexualized due to cultural forces of sexism and misogyny.

Additionally, bisexual people may not feel fully accepted in the larger LGBTQ + community, which can lead to isolation and lack of support. Conversations about LGBTQ + rights sometimes overlook the letter B, without mentioning the needs of the bisexual community. Bisexual people who are in monogamous relationships with someone of another gender, such as a woman married to a man, are sometimes viewed as non-bisexual.

For Ghedin, " the difficulty bisexual individuals out of the closet has an impact on their mental life, being more frequent pictures of anxiety and depression. Ambivalent bisexuals (focused on the dilemma of coming out or not coming out of the closet) and vigilantes (on the alert not to be discovered) suffer the most. Self-affirmed bisexuals (they are the ones who have managed to come out of the closet and affirm their sexual identity) are more preserved from psychic suffering. This last group is the one that can face their sentimental and sexual situation without turning and open up with the other ".

Why is it important to understand bisexuality?

To accept and understand sexuality as a spectrum and not as a binary, it is imperative that society understands and affirms bisexuality. The more identities such as bisexuality are validated, the more secure people identified with these terms will feel and the more space we will have as individuals in a culture where more nuanced views of sexuality and sexual and romantic orientation are maintained.