Tag Archives: QTIPOC

World AIDS day 2019

 

On #worldaidsday please remember the bisexuals and pansexuals of colour who are demonised as spreaders of sexually transmitted diseases, when the reality is that we face racism and biphobia when trying to access S.T.I help. We experience multiple barriers from medical institutions, from Queer communities and from communities of colour too. It often feels like there are few safer places for us. We shouldn’t have to fight battles on so many fronts. Bi’s of Colour are here for you (link in bio), but we are just one volunteer run group. You can support other bi & pan people of colour by calling out organisations who erase us. You can include us in your events & projects. You can stop being defensive and violent when we demand you stop pushing us under the bus. HIV & AIDS doesnt discriminate. You can do better than a disease.

An open letter to White Middle class BiCon attendees

Pic of member of the Philippine bi group, Both Sides, waving a bisexual flag
An open letter to whiteandmiddle class BIcon* attendees.

*
 
Share wildly, and do not tag, but do credit me: Nila K
 
***
 
*and this means if you go regularly now. But it also means if you don’t go any more because you got to stay for long enough to develop your own community, network, friends, lovers. This is a thing that space is magically good at.
 
but only for the Right Sort.


 
As far as I’m aware none of us Bi+/Pan BIPoC have ever suggested you boycott the event.

I mean, speaking personally, a lot of that is how laughably unlikely it is that me suggesting this would lead to anything except more traumatising grief. The idea that those of you who get to access this space and build networks that sustain you during the year might consider stepping back = nonsensical.


 
But most of it with me and many others – is that we don’t want you to be more marginalised than you are. As fellow (but not peer) bi people, we know what it is to be shat on everywhere else.

Thing is, we know what it is to have that compounded by finding the one place that purports to support you… and to have that shit on you in its turn.


 
Coz, despite what multiple people have said about and to me: I didn’t ‘choose’ to stop coming.

I was forced out by virulent and violent classist racism.

It was a choice between my whole social, emotional, professional, activist world … and myself.

And thank fuck that I chose myself.

But no one should have to make that ‘choice’.


 
***


 
And yet we still don’t talk to you about this, and you still keep choose to support a horrifically exclusionary space and calling it community, family and (LOOL) radical. 


 
So, think on that when you deal with us, eh?

Connections with my skin – A Guest Post

A guest post from N. Gupta

 

I have basically a 99% hard limit re ‘no white people as lovers/play partners/fuckbuddies.

Because I am done showing/sharing my skin and body with people who have no clue what their white skin means.

And no investment in learning *to the level that I need for any encounter to be remotely good/pleaseuable for me*

if im ever gonna have that intimacy again

and tbh it feels unlikely and I go back and forth on how i feel about that

THEN :
i am prirotising black and brown bodies like AND unlike mine:

– trans, gender non conforming, bi, crip, mad, working/mixed class, immigrant bodies, goddess/magic/witchy bodies.

Bodies that contain multitudes and borders.

Bodies that get stopped and searched at borders and on the street.

***

Me, reading this back. OH. Right. Yes!

with endless thanks to Rhizome Syndrigast Coelacanth Flourishing whose writing and making and thinking and feeling and re-imagining have been so inmportant to me in last couple years  Love and solidarty to u, mate xx

It’s a 99% limit because someone being BIPoC doesn’t guarantee a connection. or that they won’t be shit to me, or me to them.

I donn’t get to ‘disappear’ into that world coz it’s not magically free of transphobic, biphobic, ableist, classist, sanist, capitalist, racist, liberal, faily etc bulllshit.

And if someone is qtibpoc but is that more comfortable hanging on to instead of challenging that stuff, our skin doesn’t make us kin.

And coz if you wanna be my lover .. you literally have to come round and deali with my messy house. Coz I’m largely housebound these days.

It’s a 99% limit because there are *and always have been* white working class people in my chosen fam. (and some of their families pretty expolicity chose/’adopted me)

We share and connect on many of these lines in ways.

And coz I have rarely found absolutism to be a useful/positive force/ i need pluralism and options.

So yeah

Black Pride and what it means to minorities inside minorities.

I wrote this short piece for Independent Voices 2 days before Black Pride.  I’ve been going to Black Pride for years, and while it isn’t perfect, it’s a hell of a lot better than most other Prides I’ve attended.  I hope you enjoy the article, and please remember…

Don’t read the comments!

Bi’s of Colour Bisexual of the Year!

We at Bi’s of Colour have known Andre for years, and have been impressed with his activism, his positivity, and his ability to keep going with a smile on his face.  We are all proud to have Andre as our first ever Bisexual of the Year!

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My name is André Lawson-Walters, and I’m a proud black bisexual from Wolverhampton, UK. I have been advocating for bisexuality for over five years.
Previously, I have been the Group Facilitator and Lead Campaigner for Brum Bi Group (Birmingham, UK) and the Group Facilitator for Third Way Bi Group (Wolverhampton, UK), both of which are bisexual support and social groups. As well as a being a Volunteer Outreach Worker with Terrence Higgins Trust.
I believe that advocating for bisexuality is crucial because even though roughly half of the LGBTQ+ community identifies as bisexual, we’re seldom represented.  This often leaves many bisexuals to feel invisible and alone. Especially if they are a Person of Colour. Nevertheless, I hope that by being so visible and open about my own bisexuality will help others (especially POC) to embrace their bisexuality.
Twitter: @BlaqueBohemian

On Sunday 8th July 2018, UKBlack Pride https://www.ukblackpride.org.uk will be happening at the pleasure gardens in Vauxhall, London.  For the first time in their history there will be TWO bisexual stalls!  Both Bi’s of Colour  http://bisofcolour.tumblr.com and BiPride UK https://biprideuk.org will have stalls present.  Please come visit us both and pick up some badges, info sheets and bright, bisexual smiles.  To top off your day, go to CaBiRet https://www.facebook.com/events/1758324607521315/ for some bisexual entertainment!

It is with regret that the Bi’s of Colour Book will no longer be happening.  Despite extending the submission date, and opening the call out to the whole Bi of Colour world, we didn’t get enough contributions (Those who had already submitted their work have been paid).

We will share the submissions we did receive either in the form of blog posts, or in another medium.  Bi’s of Colour are still going strong – we are & always will share the stories and experiences of bi/pan folk of colour; whether online or off.

Regards

Bi’s of Colour Collective

– 7th European Transgender Council – Register now

This looks like a great opportunity for European Trans folk of Colour – there will be a day of empowerment just for us before the main event happens.  The conference is also offering full funding for those who need it, and are specifically encouraging of Trans POCs too.

Trans communities (like all LGBT+ communities) are an absolute blizzard, so please contact them and increase the volume of voices from Trans People of Colour!

– 7th European Transgender Council – Register now

The silencing of bisexual people of colour

The number of times people have explicitly or implicitly let me know that if i would just shut up about being bi in terms of politics, oppression, liberation, connected struggles etc….. that they would ‘tolerate’ me.  Gay, lesbian, het. All of you.

The number of times people have explicitly /implicitly let me know that if i’d just shut up about being brown…. ditto. White people, I’m looking right at you here. And some poc who would rather not ‘rock the boat’ and hate anyone who does.

Let’s just say that if I had a fiver for every time, I’d never have ended up homeless.

I would probably still be as isolated/fucked over/sick of humanity – my  chronic health conditions are largely trauma/extreme stress response things, so i’d probably have most of that.

But I would have been doing it from atop a biiiiiiiiiiiigg pile of cash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIAXG_QcQNU