Bisexual History (Erased)

It’s frustrating that this information is not readily available in schools, community centers and that more people in LGBTQ+ communities aren’t at all aware. I would've had a much easier time knowing that we have an extensive history spanning through the centuries and every field of human enterprise; that we have always found a way to make room for ourselves. There is a pride that comes with knowing that you’re capable of accomplishing things you hadn’t imagined; that you have something in common with people who’ve made a difference or who’ve simply made it through the obstacle course life is. I have not listed every piece of bisexual+ history there is, as that would be unexhaustive and impossible since we are so often labeled lesbian, gay, or straight. I’ve instead decided to mainly focus on recorded contributions of bisexual+ individuals and groups that I could find that stuck out to me.

American Timeline – Late 19th Century to Present 

1892 The first English-language use of the word "bisexual" was by the American neurologist Charles Gilbert Chaddock in his translation of the 7th edition of Psychopathia Sexualis by Richard von Kraft-Ebing 

1914 Film A Florida Enchantment features a bisexual character, the first in American film. (Due to the censorship legally required by the Hays Code, the word bisexual could not be mentioned and almost no bisexual characters appeared in American film from 1934 until 1968)

1914 “Pansexualism” first appears in the Journal of Abnormal Sexuality. J. Victor Haberman used the word to underline and criticize Freud’s theory of human sexuality and behavior revolving around sex, thus being one of “pansexualism.” In this context it was a psychoanalytic term used for criticism which is very different than how we use it now. Source: The Oxford English Dictionary

1920s: Sigmund Freud publishes a book revolving the idea of bisexuality being innate.

1923 Openly bisexual poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay receives the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver.

1924: The Society for Human Rights, the first known American homophile organization (LGBT rights organization) was founded in Chicago and one of the founding members/the Vice President was a bisexual man who hid it for years.

1947-1953 Kinsey Reports begin where Alfred Kinsey interview thousands of people about their sexual behavior and sexual desire.

1948 Alfred Kinsey develops the Kinsey Scale to connote sexuality as a spectrum.

1961 Illinois adopted the American Law Institutes revised model Penal Code which repealed the law prohibiting sodomy which had been used to prosecute gay and bisexual men. Source

1966 Bisexual activist, Stephen Donaldson aka Donny The Punk, forms the first on-campus LGBT group, the Student Homophile League, at Columbia University. Source

1969 Bisexual activist, Brenda Howard (affectionately named “the Mother of Pride”) organizes the first Pride march in New York City. In response to the Stonewall raid, Brenda Howard organized the Christopher Street Liberation Day March a month after the riots. A year later, Howard coordinated another march to commemorate the year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, thus beginning the longstanding tradition of pride parades each year. Today, the "Brenda Howard Memorial Award" is given by PFLAG Queens to celebrate advocates making a difference for the bisexual+ community. Brenda went on to found the New York Area Bisexual Network to coordinate resources for regional bi+ individuals. NYABN is still active. Source

–  Brenda Howard along with the bisexual activist Stephen Donaldson (aka Donny the Punk) (and gay activist L. Craig Schoonmaker) are credited with popularizing the word "Pride" to describe these festivities. Source

–  Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, two trans activists of color who were key actors in the Stonewall riots and following decades of activism, were also bi. Source

1969 Gay Activist Alliance is founded in response to the Stonewall Riots with bisexual activist Branda Howard as a founding chairperson. Source

1970 LGBTQ activists disrupt annual meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in San Francisco, demanding they declassify “homosexuality” as a mental illness.

1972 In an Melody Maker interview David Bowie says “I’m gay and always have been, even when I was David Jones.”

1972 The National Bisexual Liberation Group was founded by Don Fass in New York and issued the first bisexual newsletter, The Bisexual Expression, to its members. Source

1972 Bill Beasley, a bisexual activist in the civil rights movement as well as the LGBT movement, was the core organizer of the first Los Angeles Gay Pride March. He was also active with the Gay Liberation Front. Source

1972 A Quaker group, the Committee of Friends on Bisexuality, issued the "Ithaca Statement on Bisexuality" supporting bisexuals. The Statement, which may have been "the first public declaration of the bisexual movement" and "was certainly the first statement on bisexuality issued by an American religious assembly," appeared in the Quaker Friends Journal and The Advocate. Source

1973 Homosexuality is declassified as a disorder and removed from the DSM due to various efforts from LGBTQ activists.

1974 Newsweek and Time Magazine ran stories on "bisexual chic," bringing bisexuality to mainstream attention as never before. Source

1975 The longest surviving bisexual community center, the San Francisco Bisexual Center, opens its doors. Source

1975 Activist Carol Queen came out as bisexual and organized GAYouth in Eugene, Oregon. Source

1976 Dr. Alan Rockaway teaches the first ever course on bisexuality at Sonoma State University called “Psychological Views of Bisexual Behavior.” Source

1976 The San Francisco Bisexual Center was founded by Harriet Levi and Maggi Rubenstein with Dr. David Lourea as a co-director. It was the longest surviving bisexual community center, offering counseling and support services to Bay Area bisexuals, as well as publishing a newsletter, The Bi Monthly, from 1976 to 1984.

1976 The landmark book View from Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women, by Janet Mode was published. Source

1976 In a deeply problematic interview with Playboy, David Bowie confirms that he is bisexual.

1977 In response to the first successful gay rights ordinance (co-authored by bisexual activist Alan Rockaway), Anita Bryant launched a national anti-LGBTQ campaign. In response, The San Francisco Bisexual Center helped coordinate a boycott of Florida orange juice and a press conference with lesbian activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon and pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock. Source

1978 Dr. Fritz Klein creates the Klein Grid to refine the Kinsey Scale in his book, The bisexual option: A concept of one-hundred percent intimacy, in which he examined the incidence and nature of bisexuality, the attitudes of bisexual persons, and the rewards of bisexuality. Source

1978 GAMMA (Gay Married Men’s Association) is created by well-known bisexual activist, A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin. Source (Bisexual Organizing Project)

1978 A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin, Darlene Garner, and Delores P. Berry organize The National Coalition of Black Gays the first national organization for African Americans and third world gay rights in Columbia, Maryland. Source: Wikipedia

1978 (or 1979) One To Five was founded by Scott Bartell and Gary Lingen for Minneapolis/St.Paul, Minnesota. Source

1978 (or 1979) BI Women Welcome was founded in Minneapolis. Source

1978 (or 1979) The BI Married Men's Group was founded in the Detroit suburbs. Source

1978 (or 1979) BI Ways was founded in Chicago. Source

1979 A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin helps mobilize the first ever March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Source (Bisexual Organizing Project)

1979 A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin helped organize the first black gay delegation to meet with President Jimmy Carter's White House staff. Source

1979 A. Billy S. Jones-Hennin helps convene the first People of Color LGBT conference at Howard University’s Harambee House Hotel. Source (Bisexual Organizing Project)

1979 Dr. Marvin Colter and John Soroczak co-founded Arete, The Bisexual Center of Southern California, in Whittier, California, a support and social group for bisexuals.

1980 Dr. Alan Rockaway helped pass Florida’s Amendment 2, a privacy law that protected LGBTQ citizens. Source

1981 Dr. Lourea and Cynthia Slater, bisexual/leather icon, present safer-sex education workshops in bathhouses and BDSM clubs in San Francisco. Source

1981 Bisexual activist Alexei Guren began outreach and advocacy for Latino married men who have sex with men in Miami, Florida. Source

1982 Former BiNet USA President Alexei Guren helps co-found the Health Crisis Network (now known as Care Resource) in Miami, and begins outreach and advocacy for Latino married men who have sex with men. Source

1983 While the bisexual community had been previously dominated by bisexual men, bisexual women began to organize spaces for themselves in the 1980s. For instance, the Boston Bisexual Women's Network was founded in 1983. Still active today, The Boston Bisexual Women's Network publishes the quarterly newsletter Bi Women, the oldest continually published bi women newsletter in the world. Source

1983 BiPOL, the first and oldest bisexual political organization, was founded in San Francisco by bisexual activists Autumn Courtney, Lani Ka’ahumanu, Arlene Krantz, Dr. David Lourea, Bill Mack, Alan Rockway, and Maggi Rubenstein. BiPol launches demonstrations against “anti-gay/bisexual raids in Haiti and U.S.” SourceQueerest Library Ever Blog

1984 ABilly S. Jones with G. Gerald and Craig Harris organize first federally funded national “AIDS in the Black Community Conference” in Washington, D.C.

1984 Dr. Lourea went on to criticize the Department of Public Health for closures of bathhouses and sex clubs in a March 1984 letter. After a two year battle, BiPOL activist, AIDS educator, and therapist Dr. David Lourea persuades the San Francisco Department of Public Health to recognize bisexual men in a weekly “New AIDS cases and mortality statistics” report significantly increasing the discussion and resources dedicated to treatment and prevention of AIDS for bisexual men, whereas before they had mostly only recognized gay men. This model is then used by other department of public health offices around the country. Source. 

1984 Bisexual activists also fought for the recognition of women in the AIDS epidemic. Source

1984 BiPOL sponsored the first Bisexual Rights Rally, which took place outside of the 1984 Democratic National Convention. Source

1984 The First East Coast Conference on Bisexuality (which was also the first regional bisexual conference in the US) was held at the Storrs School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, with about 150 people participating. Source

1984 From 1984 until 1986, bisexual activist Veneita Porter, of the Prostitute's Union of Massachusetts and COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), advocated for women, transgender people, and injection drug users with AIDS. Source

1985 Cynthia Slater (1945-1989), early outspoken HIV positive woman, organizes first Women’s HIV/AIDS Information Switchboard. This sort of activism was particularly important for bisexuals as they were often blamed for spreading AIDS to their heterosexual partners. Source Slater is also considered a co-founder of the Leather community. Source

1985 The Bisexual Resource Center was founded originally under the name the East Coast Bisexual Network by participants of the First East Coast Conference in 1984.

1986 American Institute of Bisexuality board member and former BiNet USA President Denise Penn M.S.W. co-founds AIDS Walk Orange County, in a California conservative stronghold represented by Sen. William Dannemeyer. Sen. Dannemeyer sent letters to editors and elected officials demanding they pull support for the walk, but the walk continued. AIDS Walk Orange County celebrates its 29th year of existence this May. Source

1986 BiPOL's Autumn Courtney was elected co-chair of San Francisco's Lesbian Gay Freedom Day Pride Parade Committee; she was the first openly bisexual person to hold this sort of position in the United States. Source

1987 In a devastating October 1987 article, Newsweek portrays bisexual men as “the ultimate pariahs” of AIDS epidemic. Bi activist and person with AIDS, Dr. Alan Rockaway of BiPOL is quoted speaking against the stereotype. Dr. Rockaway was also a pioneering psychologist who helped write and defend the first LGBT employment non-discrimination ordinance to be approved in a major city. Despite brilliant ideas like introducing a boycott of Florida orange juice, Dr. Rockaway’s contributions are often “bisexually erased” and he is often “misoriented” as a gay man instead of being properly identified as bisexual. Source

1987 Dr. Rockaway started two of the nation’s first LGBT mental health programs in Miami and Berkeley and Alliant University’s Rockway Institute is named in his memory. Dr. Rockaway’s AIDS Quilt panel was included as part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt when he passed away in November of 1987, however his obituary erased his bisexuality. Source Dr. Rockaway also co-authored the Full Equality Ordinance, the nation’s first citywide gay rights ordinance to prohibit housing, employment and public accommodations discrimination against LGBTQ people, and led a successful campaign against Anita Bryant, a homophobe who claimed that homosexuals recruited kids into the gay lifestyle. The Florida Citrus Commission supported Bryant’s work so Rockaway led a successful boycott of orange juice nationwide and got Bryant fired from the commission. Source

1987 BiNet USA was founded under the name of North American Bisexual Network (later changed to “BiNet USA” in 1990)

1987 The East Coast Bisexual Network established the first Bisexual History Archives with bisexual activist Robyn Ochs' initial collection; archivist Clare Morton hosted researchers. Source

1987 A group of 75 bisexuals marched in the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which was the first nationwide bisexual gathering. The article "The Bisexual Movement: Are We Visible Yet?" by Lani Ka'ahumanu, appeared in the official Civil Disobedience Handbook for the March. It was the first article about bisexuals and the emerging bisexual movement to be published in a national lesbian or gay publication. Source

1987 The Bay Area Bisexual Network, the oldest and largest bisexual group in the San Francisco Bay Area, was founded by Lani Ka'ahumanu, Ann Justi, and Maggi Rubenstein. Source

1987 Barney Frank became the first U.S. congressman to come out as gay of his own volition; he was inspired in part by the death of Stewart McKinney, a closeted bisexual Republican representative from Connecticut. Frank told The Washington Post that after McKinney's death there was, "An unfortunate debate about 'Was he or wasn't he? Didn't he or did he?' I said to myself, I don't want that to happen to me." Source

1987 Bisexual activist Lani Ka’ahumanu writes an article in the Civil Disobedience Handbook titled “Are We Visible Yet?” Source

1988 At the beginning of 1988, the bisexual community continued to defend itself after being labeled “time bombs” by Newsweek. In January 1988, the Bay Area Bisexual Network held an afternoon workshop on “Bisexuals and AIDS” at the San Francisco UC Extension Center. Source

1988 Veneita Porter (former executive director of both BiNet USA and the Bisexual Resource Center) published “Minorities and HIV” in The New England Journal of Public Policy. Porter also went on to become the director of the New York State Office of AIDS Discrimination where she helped design the first educational projects and trainings for state workers, hearing judges and legal staff. Unfortunately Porter has also had their bisexuality erased by both The New York Public Library Digital Collections and Yale University. Source

1988 Gary North published the first national bisexual newsletter, called Bisexuality: News, Views, and Networking. Source

1989 An October 1989 Cosmopolitan magazine article stereotypes bisexual men as dishonest spreaders of AIDS and leads to a letter-writing campaign by the New York Area Bisexual Network (NYABN). Cosmopolitan has printed no articles defaming bisexuals since the campaign. Source

1989 Cliff Arnesen became the first openly bisexual veteran to testify before members of the Unites States Congress during formal hearings held before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Arnesen addressed lesbian, gay and bisexual veteran’s health issues including HIV/AIDS, Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress and homelessness. He testified on May 3, 1989, during formal hearings held before the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs: Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He also testified before the same Subcommittee on May 16, 1990, as part of an HIV/AIDS panel. Source

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. The local lesbian community was divided by this decision. While many were in favor, others saw it as watering down the event to include people who they saw as living a heterosexual lifestyle or being potentially dangerous to lesbians. This latter faction organized 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. Bisexuals were welcome to march as allies. Source

1990 Micki Seigel, a bisexual woman who had served as publicity officer on the Northampton the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Pride March committee the previous year, resigned after the decision to return to the original name. According to Seigel, “[bisexuals] had been working on the march for years, without official acknowledgement…. Now I am the one who is invisible.” Source

1990 BiPOL San Francisco produces the 1990 National Bisexual Conference, with bisexual health as one of eight workshop tracks. “NAMES Project” AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed with bisexual quilt pieces; 465 people attend representing 20 states and five countries. Source The conference also inspired attendees from Dallas to create the first bisexual group in Texas, called BiNet Dallas. Source

1990 BiNet USA sponsors first national conference in San Francisco under the name North American Bisexual Network.

1990 In honor of the 1990 National Bisexual Conference, the City of San Francisco proclaimed the first ever “Bi Pride Day.” As part of the acknowledgement, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors also proclaimed, “Whereas, the contributions of bisexuals in developing AIDS service projects, combating discrimination, and advocating for social justice have long been undervalued or discounted by most of society; and whereas, the 1990 National Bisexual Conference offers the bisexual community an opportunity to showcase some of its extraordinary work and leadership in establishing model AIDS programs, and working to build a society free of discrimination and injustice; and whereas, the 1990 National Bisexual Conference gives all people the occasion to finally end the silence about the numbers of bisexual persons who have died of AIDS, and to recognize the tremendous leadership contributions of bisexual activists in the fight against the killer disease.” Source

1990 Bisexual activist Carol Leigh, a.k.a. Scarlot Harlot, is arrested at 6th International AIDS Conference in full flag regalia during women’s protest against scapegoating of prostitutes in AIDS crisis. Leigh would also go on to coin the term “sex worker” and be featured in a 2012 documentary, My Friend Scarlot Harlot. Source

1990 Bisexuals were out in full force at the 6th International AIDS Conference in San Francisco. Bisexual activist Rebecca Hensler protests with other women from ACT UP. Source

1990 Susan Carlton offered the first academic course on bisexuality in America at UC Berkeley. Source

1990 A film with a relationship between two bisexual women, called Henry and June, became the first film to receive the NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). 

1991 Under threat of a lawsuit, the American Psychoanalytic Association (APA) finally changes its position on allowing the training of LGBT psychoanalysts.

1991 The Bay Area Bisexual Network began publishing the first national bisexual quarterly magazine, Anything That Moves: Beyond The Myths Of Bisexuality, founded by Karla Rossi, who was the managing editor of the editorial collective until 1993. Source

1991 Psychologists Sari Dworkin and Ron Fox became the founding co-chairs of the Task Force on Bisexual Issues of Division 44, the gay and lesbian group in the American Psychological Association (APA). Source

1991 Iris De La Cruz, bisexual AIDS activist, writer and performer died. De La Cruz wrote the popular news column “Kool AIDS on Ice” until her death. Iris’s House was founded in 1992 as the “nation’s first HIV/AIDS agency to provide family focused services to women of color infected and affected by HIV.” Named in honor of Iris De La Cruz, the agency currently erases De La Cruz’s bisexuality from her bio. Source

1991 Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Kaahumanu is published. This anthology was forced to compete (and lost) in the Lambda Literary Awards under the category Lesbian Anthology; in 2005, Directed by Desire: Collected Poems a posthumous collection of the bisexual Jamaican American writer June Jordan's work had to compete (and won) in the category "Lesbian Poetry." BiNet USA led the bisexual community in a multi-year campaign eventually resulting in the addition of a bisexual category, starting with the 2006 Awards. Source

1991 Outweek debuts cover story titled “The Bisexual Revolution: deluded closet cases or the vanguard of the movement?” Source

1992 Dr. Ibrahim Farajajé founds Moving Violations, a men of color HIV/ AIDS focused direct political action group, in Washington, D.C. In 1991, working with ACT UP/D.C., Farajajé led a sit-in occupying the D.C. mayor’s office when no action was taken after meetings and reassurances with the mayor on D.C. and federal HIV/AIDS funding issues. Dr. Farajaje now serves as the current Provost and Professor of Cultural Studies and Islamic Studies at the Starr King School for the Ministry.

1992 Liz Highleyman co-founded the ACT UP/Boston IV League needle exchange, one of the first in United States. Highleyman would go on to become a prolific writer, editor and influencer in the HIV/AIDS community and is editor-in-chief and publisher of the website HIV and Hepatitis. Source

1992 The Bisexual Connection (Minnesota) sponsored the First Annual Midwest Regional Bisexual Conference, called BECAUSE (Bisexual Empowerment Conference: A Uniting, Supportive Experience). Source

1992 Minnesota changed its State Civil Rights Law to grant the most comprehensive civil rights protections for bisexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender people in the country. Minnesota's bisexual community had united with lesbian, gay, and transgender groups to lobby for this statute. Source

1992 The South Florida Bisexual Network (founded in 1989) and the Florida International University's Stonewall Students Union co-sponsored the First Annual Southeast Regional Bisexual Conference. Thirty-five people from at least four southeastern states attended. Source

1992 Colorado voters approved an amendment to the Colorado state constitution (Amendment 2) that would have prevented any city, town, or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to recognize bisexuals or gay people as a protected class. This led to the 1996 Supreme Court Case Romer v. Evans, in which the Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that the state constitutional amendment in Colorado preventing protected status based upon bisexuality or homosexuality did not satisfy the Equal Protection Clause. The majority opinion in Romer stated that the amendment lacked "a rational relationship to legitimate state interests," and the dissent stated that the majority "evidently agrees that 'rational basis'—the normal test for compliance with the Equal Protection Clause—is the governing standard." The state constitutional amendment failed rational basis review. Source

1992 Outweek article detais Northampton Pride’s exclusion of bisexual women who wanted to join the Lesbian and Gay Pride March and the fallout from it, the women’s caucus of ACT UP San Francisco not wanting to be represented by a bisexual woman (Rebecca Hensler one of their most outspoken members), the disbanding of the women’s caucus of ACT UP San Francisco over whether or not bisexual women can use the word “dyke” to describe themselves is published. Source

1993 Bisexual activist Sheela Lambert wrote, produced, and hosted the first television series by and for bisexuals, called Bisexual Network. It aired for 13 weeks on NYC Public Access Cable.

1993 Northampton Pride changes name to “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March.” Source

1993 Lani Ka’ahumanu serves as project coordinator for an American Foundation for AIDS Research grant awarded to Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services. This is the first grant in U.S. to target young high risk lesbian and bi women for HIV/AIDS prevention/education research. She creates “Peer Safer Sex Slut Team” with Cianna Stewart. Source

1993 Hap Stewart, M.S.W. (1934-1996), early outspoken advocate for alternative holistic HIV/AIDS care and treatment with ACT UP/San Francisco, is appointed to Marin County (California) AIDS Commission. Before his passing, Stewart would contribute a piece to “Bi Any Other Name” the seminal work on bisexual communities edited by Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins. Source

1993 As a result of BiPOL's nationwide lobbying efforts, bisexuals were successfully included on the platform in key leadership roles and in the name of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. More than 1,000 people marched with the bisexual contingent making it the largest bisexual conference ever held at the time, signifying a growing recognition of the bisexual community. Source

1993 Lani Ka’ahumanu delivers speech to the March on Washington about bisexual tokenism, erasure, assimilation and transgender issues named, “It Ain’t Over Til the Bisexual Speaks.” Source

1993 The first large scale research study on bisexuality was conducted by Ron Fox where he established and maintained a comprehensive bibliography on bi research. Source

1993 The Bisexual Option: Second Edition by Fritz Klein, MD is published.

1993 The First Annual Northwest Regional Conference was sponsored by BiNet USA, the Seattle Bisexual Women's Network, and the Seattle Bisexual Men's Union. It was held in Seattle, and fifty-five people representing Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, and British Columbia attended. Source

1993 The "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy was enacted, which mandated that the military could not ask service members about their sexual orientation. However, until the policy was ended in 2011 service members were still expelled from the military if they engaged in sexual conduct with a member of the same sex, stated that they were bisexual, gay, or lesbian, and/or married or attempted to marry someone of the same sex. Source

1993 The Janus Report on Sexual Behavior showed that five percent of men and three percent of women considered themselves bisexual. Source

1994 Dr. Farajaje, Lani Ka’ahumanu, Laura Perez and Victor Raymond, The Indigenous Queers/Bisexual Caucus, present “Preaching to the Perverted or Fluid Desire” attend the National HIV Prevention/Education Summit held by the Association of Physicians for Human Rights (now the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association). Source

1994 John Soroczak, a psychotherapist, facilitated the first bisexual rap group at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center in 1994. Source: "BiMedia | Bisexual News & Opinion from". BiMedia.org. 2012-02-10. Archived from the original on 2015-10-15. Retrieved 2013-11-01. Source

1995 After years of organizing, sitting in meetings, and complaints San Francisco Pride finally includes bisexual and transgender in its name. Source

1995 Cianna Stewart, of the Living Well Project and San Francisco Asian Pacific Islander AIDS Services, develops sexual/gender diversity and HIV/AIDS awareness handbook and videos in five languages. Stewart would also co-produce and co-direct “There’s No Name For This,” one of the first documentaries exploring the lives of Chinese and Chinese-American lesbians, gays and bisexuals. Source

1995 Harvard Shakespeare professor, Marjorie Garber made the academic case for bisexuality with her book Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life, in which she argued that most people would be bisexual if not for "repression, religion, repugnance, denial, laziness, shyness, lack of opportunity, premature specialization, a failure of imagination, or a life already full to the brim with erotic experiences, albeit with only one person, or only one gender.” Source

1995 BiNet USA Bisexual Youth Initiative, Fayetteville, North Carolina, developed and mailed a national survey to LGBT youth programs. The survey was published and sent back to agencies, offering assistance to improve services to bisexual youth. Source

1996 Angel Fabian co-organizes National Task Force on AIDS Prevention’s first Gay/Bisexual Young Men of Color Summit at Gay Men of Color Conference, Miami, FL. Source

1997 The Fourth Annual Southern California Conference on Bisexuality features a “how to” demonstration from Safe Sex Sluts. Source

1997 Bisexual activist and psychologist Pat Ashbrook pioneered a national model for LGBT support groups within the Veterans Administration hospital system. Source

1997 Bisexual activist Dr. Fritz Klein founded the Journal of Bisexuality, the first academic, quarterly journal on bisexuality. However, other media proved more mixed in terms of representing bisexuals. Source

1997 Evelyn Mantilla came out as America's first openly bisexual state official at an LGBT PrideFest in Connecticut. Source

1998 BiNet USA hosts National Institute on Bisexuality HIV/AIDS Summit with the National Gay Lesbian Health Association Conference, Lynda Doll of the Center for Disease Control, with Elias Farajaje-Jones, Luigi Ferrer, Ron Fox, Lani Ka’ahumanu, Fritz Klein, Marshall Miller, Cianna Stewart and Joe Wright. Dr. Fritz Klein is often considered one of the founding fathers of bisexuality and co-founded the American Institute of Bisexuality. Dr. Klein passed away from cancer in 2006 and was survived by his life partner Tom Reise. Source

1998 The Bisexual Pride flag was designed by Michael Page and unveiled. The color pink is used to signify attraction to the same gender. The color blue represents attraction to the opposite gender. The color purple represents an attraction to two or more genders. Source

1990s & 2000s a slew of famous women come out as bisexual+ helping to normalize it in pop culture (for women).

1999 The inaugural Celebrate Bisexual Day, now sometimes referred to as Bi Visibility Day, was created by Wendy Curry, Michael Page, and Gigi Raven Wilbur and continues to be celebrated every September 23rd.Source

2000 The Epistemic Contract of Bisexual Erasure by Kenji Yoshino is published in order to explain why the category of bisexuality has been erased in contemporary American political and legal discourse.

2001 The American Psychological Association (APA)'s "Guidelines on psychotherapy with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients" stated "homosexuality and bisexuality are not a mental illness"; bisexual activist Ron Fox served on the task force that produced the guidelines. Source

2002 Pete Chvany, Luigi Ferrer, James Green, Loraine Hutchins and Monica McLemore presented at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Health Summit, held in Boulder, Colorado, marking the first time bisexual people, transgender people, and intersex people were recognized as co-equal partners on the national level rather than gay and lesbian "allies" or tokens. Source

2002 Robyn Ochs delivered the first bi-focused keynote during the National Association of Lesbian and Gay Addiction Professionals. Source

2003 The nation’s first federal civil law addressing sexual violence in detention, The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) is passed. Just Detention International (JDI) was instrumental in securing passage of the bill and continues to play a key role in PREA’s implementation at the federal, state and local levels. One of JDI’s earliest leaders was bisexual activist Stephen “Donny the Punk” Donaldson. In 1966, Donaldson co-founded the country’s first gay student group but later felt forced out of the gay rights movement after a torrid affair with one of the leaders of the earliest lesbian civil rights group. Donaldson was later jailed for protesting his lack of treatment for an STI and contracted HIV as a result of being raped in prison. Donaldson died in 1996, and like many other bisexual activists who died of AIDS, he left an incredible legacy of working with many different types of communities in the pursuit of justice for all, with no one left behind. Source

2003 The Union for Reform Judaism retroactively applied its pro-rights policy on gays and lesbians to both the bisexual and transgender communities. Source

2005 Bi Men: Coming Out Every Which Way edited by Ron Jackson Suresha and Pete Chvany is published.

2005 Bi America by William E. Burleson is published.

2005 Bisexual scholars and activists mobilized with The Task Force, GLAAD and BiNet USA to meet with New York Times science section editor and researcher Brian Dodge to respond to misinformation the paper had published on a study about bisexual men. The study, entitled Sexual Arousal Patterns of Bisexual Men, by the controversial researcher J. Michael Bailey, allegedly "proved" that bisexual men did not exist. With little critical examination, various media celebrities and outlets jumped on the band-wagon and claimed to have "solved" the "problem of bisexuality" by declaring it to be non-existent, at least in men. Further studies, including improved follow-up research led by Michael Bailey, proved this to be false. Source

2005 The Queens Chapter of PFLAG announced the creation of the "Brenda Howard Memorial Award," marking the first time a major American LGBT organization named an award after an openly bisexual person. Source

2006 Bisexual category of Lambda Literary is added to the awards category because of years of effort from BiNet USA. Source

2006 The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe: Quips, Tips, and Lists for Those Who Go Both Ways by Nicole Kristal and Mike Szymanski is published.

2008 Kate Brown was elected as the Oregon Secretary of State, becoming America's first openly bisexual statewide officeholder. Source

2009 Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World, Second Edition edited by Robyn Ochs is published.

2009 The National Equality March in Washington, D.C., was held calling for equal protection for bisexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender people in all matters governed by civil law in all states and districts; a dedicated bisexual, pansexual, and queer-identified contingent was organized as part of the March. Several bisexual groups came together and marched, including BiNet USA, New York Area Bisexual Network, DC Bi Women, and BiMA DC. There were also four out bisexual speakers at the National Equality March rally: Michael Huffington, Lady Gaga, Chloe Noble, and Penelope Williams. Source

2009 LGBT activist Amy Andre was appointed as executive director of the San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee, making her the organization's first openly bisexual woman of color executive director. Source

2010 Pansexual flag emerges on the internet. It was designed by Jasper V. The pink represents attraction to those who identify within the woman spectrum (regardless of biological sex). The blue represents attraction to those who identify within the man spectrum (regardless of biological sex). The yellow represents non-binary attraction (such as androgynous, agender, bigender, genderfluid, transgender, and intersex people). Source.

2010 AmBi the largest social club for bisexual+ individuals in the world, where people participate in events, meetups and other activities was created. They have chapters in various cities nationwide.

2010s More and more young people are identifying as not completely heterosexual but resist labels at all or opt for fluid, pansexual or queer rather than bisexual. Source Tumblr helped fuel and facilitate in depth knowledge and creation surrounding gender and sexuality.

2011 One of the demands of 2009's National Equality March was met as the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy was ended, allowing bisexuals, lesbians, and gay men in the U.S. military to be open about their sexuality. Source

2011 San Francisco's Human Rights Commission released a report on bisexual visibility marking the first time any governmental body released such a report. Its findings indicated that self-identified bisexuals made up the largest single population within the LGBT community in the United States. In each of the report's studies, more women identified as bisexual than lesbian, though fewer men identified as bisexual than gay. Source

2012 Berkeley, California, became the first city in America to officially proclaim a day recognizing bisexuals. The Berkeley City Council unanimously and without discussion declared September 23 as Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day. Source

2012 Kyrsten Sinema was elected to the House of Representatives, becoming the first openly bisexual member of Congress in American history. Source

2013 Angel Fabian, the Coordinator of Gay and Bisexual Men’s Services at the Hispanic AIDS Forum in New York, is interviewed at a vigil for Islan Nettles, a young Black transgender woman who was murdered in front of a New York City police station. Source

2013 Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner is published.

2013 On Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day, the White House held a closed-door meeting with about 30 bisexual advocates so they could meet with government officials and discuss issues of specific importance to the bisexual community; this was the first bi-specific event ever hosted by any White House. Source

2013 BiLaw, the first American national organization of bisexual lawyers, law professors, law students, and their allies, was founded. Source

2014 The Bisexual Research Collaborative on Health (BiRCH) was founded to search for ways to raise public awareness of bisexual health issues, as well as to continue high-level discussions of bisexual health research and plan a national conference. Source

2014 A bisexual exhibit at GLBT History Museum in San Francisco has its debut: Biconic Flashpoints: 4 Decades of Bay Area Bisexual Politics.

2014 FluidBiDesign/MenKind is founded. It’s a support and advocacy community based in NYC for sexually fluid men of African descent. The focus of the group is to empower Black men through engaging in conversations about masculinity, manhood, and myths.

2014 Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men edited by Robyn Ochs & H. Sharif Williams is published.

2014 Best Bi Short Stories: Bisexual Fiction (first ever non-erotica bisexual fiction anthology to be published) edited by Sheela Lambert is published.

2015 The Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage, legalizing it throughout the United States; this increased the rights of bisexual people in America wishing to marry their same-sex partners. Source

2015 The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concluded that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not allow sexual orientation discrimination in employment because it is a form of sex discrimination. Source

2015 J Christopher Neal becomes the first openly bisexual Grand Marshal of NYC Pride.

2015 Kate Brown became the first openly bisexual governor in the United States upon the resignation of Oregon's chief executive. Source

2016 Fashionably Late: Gay, Bi, and Trans Men Who Came Out Later in Life by Vinnie Kinsella is published.

2016 Kate Brown was elected as governor of Oregon, and thus became the first openly bisexual person elected as a United States governor (and indeed the first openly LGBT person elected as such). Source

2018 Pansexual is one of Merriam-Webster’s words of the year. May 24th is Pansexual Visibility Day. Source. Pansexual Pride Day is December 8th. Source

2018 Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual person to win a major party nomination to run for a U.S. Senate seat, and later that year she became the first openly bisexual person elected to the U.S. Senate. Source

2018 Kate Brown was re-elected as governor of Oregon. Source

2018 Bisexuality: Theories, Research, and Recommendations for the Invisible Sexuality edited by D. Joye Swan and Shani Habibi is published.

2018 Claiming the B in LGBT: Illuminating the Bisexual Narrative edited by Kate Harrad is published.

2018 The hashtag #BisexualMenSpeak was created on Twitter by J.R. Yussuf as a space for bisexual+ men/masculine identified people to speak for themselves and talk about the ways being bisexual+ impacts the way they move through the world.

2018 The NYC LGBT center raises the bisexual pride flag for the first time.

2018 America's first city-wide Bi Pride event was held, in West Hollywood. Source

2019 The American Psychoanalytic Association (APA) apologizes for previously treating homosexuality as a mental illness, saying its past errors contributed to discrimination and trauma for LGBTQ people.

2019 The hashtag #bisexualmenexist is created and championed by Vaneet Mehta which later goes viral globally in 2020. 

2020 Christy Holstege became the first openly bisexual mayor in America, as mayor of Palm Springs, California. Source.

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