Brief Thoughts on Bi-Erasure
My intention here is not to divide or inflame, but to add my voice to the conversation and contribute to the ever-forward march of social progress. I also don’t pretend to speak for everyone affected or to be an expert, but I can’t be alone in some of the following sentiments.
On December 8th, 2020, I was a contestant on the esteemed television program Jeopardy! That evening, I wore a Bisexual Pride flag pin on stage. I had an ephemeral platform for the evening, and I find we can use all the visibility we can get, because Bi-Erasure is a real phenomenon. Bi-Erasure is defined by GLAAD as a pervasive problem in which the existence or legitimacy of bisexuality (either in general or in regard to an individual) is questioned or denied outright. Erasure is still a major problem both outside and notably within the LGBTQ+ space.
Last year, in September, I participated in the second-annual Bi-Pride March right in the heart of WeHo, near Santa Monica and Robertson. It was a motley crew of I’d say about 75 people marching down the sidewalks on that main part of Santa Monica where all the gay bars and restaurants are. We were flipped off by people in those bars. It may have only been a small gesture, and I know so many others have experienced much worse, but it really hurt. Sometimes I feel gaslighted, like I shouldn’t believe my own sexuality because some of the community-at-large doesn’t respect or acknowledge it. But then I remember… it’s my truth. You can’t change facts. So yes, I wore my pin on Jeopardy! because it’s a powerful symbol to show you that we exist. WE EXIST.
On the subject of powerful symbols, I also want to raise awareness about the seeming unwillingness of Unicode to create flag emojis for the bi community and other queer identities. People argue the rainbow flag is a sufficient catchall symbol/emoji for the entire LGBT+ space (see: all pride merch made by every corporation ever). While maybe it could and should be, knowing how some tiny bits of the community feel about us smaller groups it certainly isn’t to me. It took Unicode until this November to roll out a trans pride flag emoji, which is far too late. It may seem like a silly argument, but think about it this way — an actual organization (consortium, whatever) governs what symbols are valid for us to use and share with each other. They in essence they deem what does or doesn’t exist in our language, how we speak it, and the platforms that support it. And they’ve deemed the bloody Jolly Roger valid for years… but not our flags. Imagine if only the European Union flag emoji was available and not all the flags of individual European countries. What if you were talking about, say, Italy (a country with strong national pride and notable graphic identity) in a conversation? There would be no way to express that specific country graphically, all the things it represents. And no, the spaghetti emoji does not represent everything Italy is all about.
Once again, it sounds silly but that’s what Unicode is doing. They’re participating in digital Bi-Erasure and the erasure of all other non-gay queer identities. Unicode puts up so much red tape to get an emoji made, to prove a concept’s validity, that some of us smaller subgroups don’t have the resources or numbers to break through. Apparently it’s easier for the 💩 lobby to make an argument to them than a specific type of human being…
Here is some additional info about Unicode approval difficulties and a petition about creating a Bi-Pride flag emoji.
https://mashable.com/article/bisexual-pride-flag-emoji-rejected-by-unicode/
https://www.change.org/p/unicode-unicode-google-and-apple-where-is-the-bisexual-flag-emoji