made by @afrobender on twitter. if you would like to ask any questions, politely contact me there.

exclus do NOT fucking interact or use this carrd.

what is straight passing privilege?

The idea of passing is the ability for a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own, which may include racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age and/or disability status. Passing may result in privileges, rewards, or an increase in social acceptance or be used to cope with stigma.

A common thing bisexual people hear is that we are privileged because we can pass as heterosexual. We are told that we have privileges because of that, and that our oppressions is not as bad as other communities within the LGBT acronym. This rhetoric is biphobic and promotes bi-erasure.

To lesbians and gay people, ''straight-passing'' just means being in the closet. But to bisexuals, its considered a level of privilege we have which makes us less oppressed and more likely to adapt to heteronormativity or heterosexual spaces.

See the double standard?

When someone references being in the closet, it is instantly seen as a bad thing. Nobody wants to hide who they are, but if you are hiding by choice, it's most likely because you've deemed the closet as being safer than being out in your community and environment. This is the very upsetting reality for bisexuals; especially bisexual women.

When you use the phrase straight passing there's this image of, well, privilege. It makes it sound as if we're purposely pretending to be straight in order to get all the special things straight people get; which is a lie. Statistics have proven this as a MYTH and just another attempt to silence bisexual people.

Addtionally, passing, in general, is a concept stolen from discussions that concern racial issues, and it’s a concept that only works in racial issues. A white-passing person is privileged for being white-passing even if it was known that they are not white. Their _‘closeness’- to whiteness alone brings them privilege.

Meanwhile, bi people lose any kind of privilege they have for being perceived as straight (aka erased) the moment we are outed as bisexual, regardless of how well we “pass.”

Besides, the implication that all bi people are capable of being perceived as cishet erases the fact that many of us are trans and/or gender nonconforming, and that more often than not, our sexuality is erased and reduced to gayness/lesbianism too.

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Domestic Abuse ;

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is defined as domestic violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other. it can take the form of physical, verbal, emotional, economic and/or sexual abuse.

• Bisexual women are more likely to face abuse than any other women in the lgbt community

• There is a higher prevalence of lifetime experiences of IPV among bisexual women than heterosexual women

• 26% of gay men and 37% of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 29% of straight men

• 22% of bisexual women have been raped by an intimate partner, compared to 9% of straight women

•Bisexual males were more likely to report physical IPV victimization and forced sex perpetration and victimization than 100% heterosexual males

These statistics are a direct result of how harmful the stereotype that bisexuals are more promiscuous than other sexualities and more likely to cheat is. And it's proof of how little awareness the bisexual community in comparison to everyone else.

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Mental Health ;

Multiple studies have shown that bisexuals are more likely to experience mental health issues than any other sexuality.

In these studies, bisexuals report the highest rates of anxiety and depression and the lowest of being out to friends and family, among several other emotional difficulties.

• Bisexual youth health statistics show how bi teens need more mental health support

• compared with lesbians and gay men, bisexual individuals were more likely to report identity uncertainty, conceal their sexual orientation, and have a weaker sense of connection to the LGBT community, which were in turn associated with greater affective symptoms and poorer mental well-being.

THESE STATISTICS ARE NOT RANDOM. they are the product of the rampant biphobia. half of bi women end up as rape victims, and bi men are more likely to than straight women, because of the stereotype that bisexuals don’t have boundaries when it comes to sex. THIS is what biphobic people perpetuate and what biphobia inside the lgbt community does.

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Means Of Living ;

The bisexual community is the least funded of all the LGBT and we are the most in need for the resources we don’t have, and these things that have not been spoken up on, because of the lack of care for bisexual people.

• Bisexual people constitute the largest sexual minority group, outnumbering gay or lesbian people in most studies. Paradoxically, bisexual people have received little research attention

• Almost 30 percent of bisexual women and bisexual trans people live in poverty

• The bisexual community is more likely to be unemployed, on welfare and in poor health

• Bisexual people have disproportionately high rates of getting stalked and harassed

Bisexual people are more likely to end up poor and homeless because despite making up the majority of the LGBT community, we have the least amount of resources needed to sustain us.

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Definitions and Quotes of Bisexuality ;

"Being bisexual does not mean they have sexual relations with both sexes but that they are capable of meaningful and intimate involvement with a person regardless of gender." – Jade Bode, "The Pressure Cooker," View From Another Closet, 1976

"I am drawn to particulae pepple – regardless of gender. It doesn't make me wishy-washy, confused, untrustworthy or more sexually liberated. It makes me bisexual." – Bisexual activist Lani Ka'ahumanu in "The Bisexual Revolution", OutWeek #84, 1991

"Bisexual - being emotionally and physically attracted to all genders" – GLSEN, Out Of The Past Guidebook, 1998

"Over the past fifteen years, however, [ one Caucasian man ] has realized that he is 'attracted to people - not their sexual identity' and no longer cares whether his partners are male or female. He has kept his Bi identity and now uses it to refer to his attraction to people regardless of their gender". – Paula C. Rust, "Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities," Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Anthology, 1998

"To be bisexual is to have the potential to be open emotionally and sexually to people as people, regardless of their gender. – Sex and Sexuality: A Thematic Dictionary of Quotations, 1993 (1) Offical Pink Publishing, "Introduction," Bisexual Lives, 1988 (2)

""With respect to our integrity as bisexuals, it is our responsibility to include transgendered people in our language, in our communities, in our politics, and in our lives." –“The Next Natural Step” by Naomi Tucker, Anything That Moves, #4 1992

"We are tired of being analyzed, defined and represented by people other than ourselves, or worse yet, not considered at all. We are frustrated by the imposed isolation and invisibility that comes from being told or expected to choose either a homosexual or heterosexual identity.

Bisexuality is a whole, fluid identity. *Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature: that we have "two" sides or that we must be involved simultaneously with both genders to be fulfilled human beings. In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders. Do not mistake our fluidity for confusion, irresponsibility, or an inability to commit. Do not equate promiscuity, infidelity, or unsafe sexual behavior with bisexuality. Those are human traits that cross all sexual orientations. Nothing should be assumed about anyone’s sexuality, including your own.

We are angered by those who refuse to accept our existence; our issues; our contributions; our alliances; our voice. It is time for the bisexual voice to be heard."" – The Bisexual Manifesto, Anything That Moves, 1990

""I believe that people fall in love with individuals, not with a sex... I believe most of us will end up acknowledging that we love certain people or, perhaps, certain kinds of people, and that gender need not be a significant category, though for some of us it may be." – Ruth Hubbard, 'There Is No 'Natural' Human Sexuality, Bi Women' , 1986

"Some bisexuals say they are blind to the gender of their potential lovers and that they love people as people... For the first group, a dichotomy of genders between which to choose doesn't seem to exist." – Kathleen Bennett, "Feminist Bisexuality, a Both/And Option for an Either/Or World," Closer to Home: Bisexuality and Feminism, 1992

"Some bisexual respondents bypass the issue of 'degrees' of attraction to women and men by defining bisexuality as a humanistic, gender-blind way of relating to others. They see bisexuality as a way of loving the person, not the sex, or being nondiscriminatory in their attraction to others. For example, Ludwica wrote, 'I feel as if I'm open to respond to the person, not just the gender." – "Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics; Sex, Loyalty and Revolution" by Paula C. Rust, 1995

all the above quotes have mentioned the terms genderblind, all genders, and regardless of gender several times. All these terms, due to biphobia and bi-erasure, have been dissociated from bisexuality, and given to other identities who overlap ours.

By saying bisexuality excludes nonbinary and trans people, is sexual, soley defined as attraction to men and women only, is just a stepping stone, a trend or that it's a fluid sexuality, then you are erasing OUR history and everything bisexuality really is. Bisexuality is attraction to all genders. Bisexuality is a real identity and we exist beyond the image nonbisexuals have made for us in their imagination.

The bisexual community is not transphobic nor is it white or cis centred. Over and over again, the lgbt community has pined bisexuals as primarily cis, white, middle class oppressors who are priviliged despite the fact that its been proven that bisexuals are more likely to be trans and bipoc. As a black trans bisexual person myself, I've grown tired of watching the world perceive me as privileged and marginalized by society as well as the lgbt community. Marsha P. Johnson was a black trans woman; but she was also bisexual. Transgender Bisexuals are the backbone of the lgbt community, so it's time you started showing some respect and educate yourself on what bisexuality is, what it is not and start revolting against the biphobia that's overflowing both inside the community, and out of it.