Bi Visible

A couple bi group members made a Bisexuality Pride Flag for the Dyke March, burning the midnight oil to get it done the other night. They did a really great job!


The stripes are pink, purple, and blue; I've thought this was, you know, pink for girls, blue for boys, purple overlap in the middle, but I overheard someone from Bay Area Bisexual Network say that it was half of the colors in the rainbow. I carried the flag during most of the March and woke with sore biceps this morning.


There were two other bi flags at the March, so of course we immediately found each other and stepped off together. We didn't always stay together and while marching up Valencia ArmStar pointed out that the other two flags were way ahead of us. She asked if maybe we should run to catch up, and I responded that this way, it will seem as though there are 400 people in the bi contingent, because there were so many people between us.


We did a lot of educating yesterday. It says something about the lack of bisexual visibility that I explained what this flag signifies over a dozen times (not counting the fellow in the BART station before TL and I even got on the train). I know others in our group did as well. Almost everyone was really open and responded with the equivalent of "Welcome, I think that's great!" In all the years I've been out as bi, I have never had a gay or lesbian person tell me "Get off the fence" or "Make up your mind" or anything else that people I know others have heard.


I had handed the flag to someone else briefly when three women of a certain age started walking behind us. One of them asked the flag bearer, "What flag are we marching under?" because it was right over their heads. She told them that it is the Bisexual Pride Flag and they immediately took off - speeding up and moving to the right to get away. I remarked to my friend that it seemed like they couldn't get away from us fast enough, and she asked, "Did you hear what they said? 'We know what we're doing.'"


So do we.