Happy Bisexual Awareness Week!
Leaders from the bisexual community convened at the White
House this week to discuss issues of concern to the oft-overlooked B in LGBT
that need to be addressed through public policy changes. Monday's meeting was a
follow-up to a 2013 Bisexual Leader Roundtable meeting and occurred during the
second annual Bisexual Awareness Week.
The policy briefings addressed bisexual-specific needs in
data collection, employment discrimination, HIV prevention and care,
immigration and asylum issues, mental and physical health disparities, suicide
prevention, and violence. According to the briefings, all of the areas listed
are areas of concerns and have unique impacts for bisexual people.
“Perhaps one of the most valuable elements to Monday's
policy briefing was the opportunities for people to share resources – those
resources were our experiences, fields of work, and knowledge, all of which
varied widely but were strong across the board,” GLAAD media strategist
Alexandra Bolles wrote of her experience at the White House
gathering.
“When put together, these resources served to move the bi
community as a whole towards cultural and political advancement,” she said.
“While the bi community must overcome a disproportionally high hurdle in order
to access hard resources and to achieve, I felt we were in a space where being ourselves
was valuable, productive, and enough.”
Summaries of the policy briefings can be found on the Bisexual
Awareness Week website.