Bisexuality and health: The cost of invisibility

On September 23, 2019, the 20th anniversary of Bi Visibility Day, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held its first-ever bisexual health research workshop. As an invited panelist at this event, sponsored by the NIH’s Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office, I joined 19 other researchers to discuss key findings, gaps in knowledge, and future directions. You may be asking yourself: Is there really a need for this workshop? How is bisexual health different from the health of other groups? How many people even identify as bisexual? What is bisexuality? Robyn Ochs, a prominent bisexual activist and writer, defines bisexuality as “the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.” People don’t have to identify with the label “bisexual” to have a bisexual orientation. Bisexuality can mean having attractions to or sexual behavior with people of more than one sex or gender — for example, feeling attracted to both women and men. Some people have a range of “nonmonosexual” identities — that is, identities that go beyond heterosexual or lesbian/gay — including pansexual and queer. Some people have more than one identity (I identify as both queer and bisexual). The preferred umbrella term for anyone with a nonmonosexual orientation is “bi+.” Who is bi+? People identify as bi+ across genders, races/e...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Adolescent health Relationships Sex Stress Source Type: blogs