(This post also appears on the LGBT Perspectives site)

Remember Boy George?

The singer has been under fire from some people on Twitter recently for a somewhat snide comment he made in response to a tweet by the boyfriend of the late George Michael.

Boy George said in response to Fadi Fawaz’s claim that his account may have been hacked after a tweet went out from it saying Michael took his own life:

“Ok. ‘My computer got hacked’ is like ‘I’m bisexual’ or ‘I’m sniffing because I have allergies!”

Some felt Boy George was mocking bisexual people, which the singer denied.

He seemed to make matters worse when he responded to one of them with this: “Lot’s of people use ‘bisexual’ when they really mean ‘gay. ” (See NME for a report on the affair)

But therein lies the method to his apparent tweeting madness: Boy George was simply stating, in an indirect way, a fact of LGBT life. Indeed, it is true that some — perhaps many — gay people claim to the world at first that they are bisexual as they gradually come to terms with their sexuality and come out.

I’m not sure why Boy George felt it was necessary to take a shot at George Michael’s partner, and I’d rather not know what motivates him or anyone else to fire off those sorts of tweets.

But there is no doubt that some bisexual people feel that we — yes, I am a proud bisexual person — have a hard time being taken seriously. It seems that some can’t accept that there are people who are genuinely bisexual, and think we are using it to cover up our homosexuality.

That’s nonsense, of course. I don’t need a psychologist or sexologist to confirm my bisexuality: My late former significant other was a male, and my current significant other is a female — who self-identifies as a lesbian. She is not exactly thrilled about me being a bisexual person, but I am being monogamous (even if I am polyamorous by nature, but that’s a story for another day).

I could go on here about how difficult it is being a bisexual person in a monogamous relationship, perhaps more difficult than being gay or heterosexual. But this post is not really about me. Suffice to say that being in a monogamous relationship means one side of my sexuality and my romantic nature will be left wanting.

Apparently, only about 24 percent of bisexual people feel it is easy to be out, according to a report on the Irish Times site, which in turn is citing a report from the National LGBT Federation.

And here’s a startling stat from the report: ” The LGBTI Ireland Report, a national study of the mental health and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, found that more than 65 per cent of bisexual people had considered suicide compared with 56 per cent of lesbian woman and 52 per cent of gay men.”

I’m not sure why they didn’t include the stats for trans and intersex people, but the figure for bisexual people is alarming. I had no idea about this until today.

The article goes on to explain some of the myths surrounding we bisexual people, such as bisexual people can’t be faithful. Some think we are all swingers. And some feel we are simply liars — that if a woman is in a relationship with a woman, then she is a lesbian; if a man is in a relationship with a man, he is gay.

And so on.

It all serves as a reminder that biphobia does exist out there, and does adversely affect some bisexual people.

***

Meanwhile, Krista Burton has a fun piece on the New York Times site about how “hipsters” have ruined her gaydar.

She writes: “In cities, trendy young people — queer and straight, male, female and non-binary — are blending together, look-wise. That’s because mainstream style is now hipster style. But here’s the thing: Hipster style is just queer style, particularly queer women’s style. Put another way: Lesbians invented hipsters.”

And so she can’t tell the gay women from the bisexual and hetero women anymore.

It’s a good read.

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On a more serious note, in what is likely to be the first of many setbacks for LGBTQ people in the United States once the Republicans take control this month, “A federal judge in Texas on Saturday issued a court order barring enforcement of an Obama administration policy seeking to extend anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act to transgender health and abortion-related services,” Reuters is reporting.

“In granting an injunction one day before the new policy was to take effect, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor held that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law governing rule-making practices. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs were likely to prevail in court on their claim that the new policy infringes on the rights of private healthcare providers under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Other reports say the matter may not get to court at all, because the Trump administration will get rid of Obamacare, anyway.

— Jillian

Photo credit: mattbuck4950 via Foter.com / CC BY-SA