Now I am the one who is invisible.”Ĭheck out this breakdown of events in this thread: Īnother #BiHistoryMonth Fun Fact: The "bi lesbian" Battle Of The Labels isn't new.
According to Seigel, “ had been working on the march for years, without official acknowledgement…. In 1990, Micki Seigel, a bisexual woman who had served as publicity officer on the commitee the previous year, resigned after the decision to return to the original name. This latter faction organised a national letter writing campaign to exclude “bisexual’”from the name of Pride events, and in 1991, the word was removed from the Northampton event once again. While many were in favour, other saw it as watering down the event to include people who they saw as living a heterosexual lifestyle or being potentially dangerous to lesbians. The local lesbian community was divided by this decision. In 1989, the Pride committee unanimously agreed to change the name from the Northampton Lesbian and Gay Pride March to the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Pride March. One of the most vivid examples is the years long struggle over the name of Northampton Pride in Massachusetts. In the decades prior, bi activists regularly found themselves clashing with the gay and lesbian activists that many of them had organised and fought alongside in gay liberation groups and AIDS activism. The fight for bisexual visibility in Pride events was not an easy one, and certainly didn’t start with the 1993 march. I am the token out bisexual asked to speak, and I am a symbol of how powerful the bisexual pride movement is and how far we have come.” – Lani Ka’ahumanu, ‘It ain’t over ‘til the bisexual speaks’, 1993. Lani was the only openly bi person invited to speak at the event, which she closed with her now infamous “ It ain’t over ‘til the bisexual speaks” speech. This was the first time ‘bisexual’ had officially been including in the name of such an event, thanks for the tireless work of fellow BiNet USA organiser Lani Ka’ahumanu. In 1993, Brenda, who was a founding chairperson of the Gay Activists Alliance, was involved in organising the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. So how did an event, and word, popularised by Howard and another iconic bisexual activist, Donny the Punk, come to erase and even exclude bisexuality on so many occasions? Long struggle. “The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why LGBT Pride Month is June tell them ‘A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.” – bisexual activist Tom Limoncelli. “She used to call us when she was bored waiting for paid phone sex calls to come in, and make the waiting time a productive organising opportunity and personal energy recharge instead,” wrote activists Lani Ka’ahumanu and Lorraine Hutchins about the Pride organiser in her memorial. A year later, she helped organise another march and, thankfully for us, the tradition continues yearly around the world. While Howard was not at Stonewall that night, several of her friends, many of whom were sexual workers and kinksters, were present.
In 1969, a Jewish, polyamarous, bisexual woman called Brenda Howard organised the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade to commemorate the riots at the Stonewall Inn.