Intent is Everything

fyqueerlatinxs:

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) Mexican
Arguably Mexico’s most famous bisexual woman, Frida Kahlo is best known for her haunting self-portraits. Although she did not reach widespread fame during her life, today her art is celebrated by Mexican people in Mexico and in communities abroad for its strong links to indigenismo and for the harsh candor in which she explored femininity.

Jaime Bayly (1965 – present) Peruvian
A writer, journalist and TV personality, Jaime Bayly‘s life has been full of controversy. Beloved for his self-deprecating humor and loathed for his unrelenting self-promotion, Jaime came out to the Peruvian public as bisexual in his 1994 best-selling book No se lo Digas a Nadie (Don’t Tell Anyone). According to Perú Económico, he is the fifth most influential person in Peru, with 13 novels and a nationally syndicated column.

 

Ana Carolina (1974 – present) Brazlilian
A Latin Grammy nominated singer, composer, and musician, Ana Carolina is one of Música Popular Brasileira’s (popular Brazilian music) best known stars. Openly bisexual to her family since the age of 16, Ana Carolina famously came out to the Brazilian public in 2005 in Brazilian magazine VEJA. With 8 albums under her belt since beginning her career in 1999, Ana Carolina continues to create music, her last album N9ve reaching double-platinum status in Brazil.

Julio Bocca (1967 – present) Argentinian
Said to be the most important Argentinian dancer of all time, Julio Bocca is one of ballet’s biggest stars. With his own dance company, Ballet Argentino (which he founded in 1990), Julio performed on stages all over the world before retiring in 2007. Out as bisexual since 2001, he admits that coming out lifted a weight from his shoulders, since prior to then everyone inquired about his personal life and since then no one cares.

Raúl Esparaza (1970 – present) Cuban
A US born Cuban Broadway stage actor and singer, Raúl Esparza has been repeated nominated for the Tony Awards. He is best known for his performances as Philip Salon in Taboo and Riff Raff in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Raúl came out as bisexual to the US American public in 2006 when the subject of a New York Times profile. Raúl has since expanded on his career, with roles on the TV series Pushing Daisies and Medium.

Gabriela Mistral (1885-1957) Chilean
The first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Gabriela Mistral was poet, educator, and feminist. A prolific writer, Gabriela published over 800 essays in magazines and newspapers throughout Latin America and the world. Although her bisexuality was not confirmed in her lifetime, scholars of her poetry and works point to underlying themes of female eroticism to support the notion that Gabriela was in fact bisexual.

Jaime Saenz (1921-1986) Bolivian
One of the greats of Bolivian literature, Jaime Saenz was a poet, novelist, and writer of short stories. Known for his dark poetry that is often described as hallucinatory and transcendent, Jaime was openly bisexual and unashamed of it. His poetry is studied in Latin America for its strong ties to the indigenous culture(s) of La Paz, where he lived his entire life.

(Source: xqsimagazine.com)

queerbookclub:

Here’s the second of two lists aimed at promoting more diverse queer lit - the first, of 2012 qpoc books, is here. It should be said that there’s no way this list is exhaustive, or even close. If I was unsure about a book’s contents (that is, if I was unsure if the trans content/characters were prominent, or if I thought the book might be exploitative), I tended to give weight to who the author is (that is, I was more likely to include books I know were written by trans people). Of course, I’ll be happy to add books to the list if you have any suggestions that fit the theme! Here’s what I found, arranged by genre:

poetry
Seasonal Velocities: poems, stories and essays by Ryka Aoki
Dialectic of the Flesh by Roz Kaveney

nonfiction/memoir
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today by Kate Bornstein
Real Man Adventures by T Cooper
Bumbling Into Body Hair by Everett Maroon
Transition: Becoming Who I Was Always Meant to Be by Chaz Bono
Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form by Anna Anthropy
Cooking In Heels: A Memoir Cookbook by Ceyenne Doroshow
Transposes by Dylan Edwards
No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics edited by Justin Hall
Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children edited by Rachel Pepper
Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You edited by Ryan Conrad

fiction
Heidegger Stairwell by Kayt Burgess
Roving Pack by Sassafras Lowrey
First Spring Grass Fire by Rae Spoon
The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard edited by Tom Léger and Riley MacLeod

science fiction & fantasy
The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
The Spark by Susan Jane Bigelow
Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction edited by Brit Mandelo

young adult
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Being Emily by Rachel Gold
One in Every Crowd by Ivan E. Coyote
Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis

children’s/picture books
When Leonard Lost His Spots: A Trans Parent Tale by Monique Costa and Marina Shupik
The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy by S. Bear Bergman and Suzy Malik
Backward Day by S. Bear Bergman and KD Diamond

Many thanks to Giovanni’s Room, Malinda Lo, the GLBTRT of the ALA, this trans women in fiction wiki and many goodreads users for providing the resources that made compiling this list feasible!

butterofcolor:

here’s to all the quiet queers.

all the queers who eat micro-agressions and secretly cry themselves to sleep.

the queers who dress the way their cis mothers told them to.

the queers who think about killing cis fucks every half hour, but never say a word more radical than “sorry.”

the queers who sip tea at their friend’s house while considering suicide, since that’s just about all they can think about.

the queers who are living double lives.

the queers who put on makeup at 2 a.m. in a hand mirror, making sure to wipe it off before school the next morning.

the queers who go to work dead and come home to see the world.

the queers who fuck, and suck, and kiss with the same hands and lips they use to eat dinner with their well-meaning shitty-acting parents

the queers who are ugly to you, too fat for you, running from you with lips sewn shut

here’s to the quiet queers, since it’s about fucking time we stopped shaming them.

(Source: mascfemme)

bisexualftw:

JoCasta Zamarripa came out today in this interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

via @bi_calendar + @victory fund

bialogue-group:

Then President of BiNet USA Wendy Curry said it best when the Bisexual Community refused to go along with too many in the the mainstream Gay/Lesbian establishment and ditch Trans*/GenderQueer people to try and get Equal Rights for just Cisgender Heteronormative/Homonormative people back in 2007 —

The trans community is part of the bi “net.” Unlike other national groups, we will not discard “inconvenient” parts of our community in order to win a political victory. Likewise, we would never consider tossing out the polyamourous, the monogamous, the pagan, or the christians; our diversity makes us strong …

The people who wish to “shave off” gender identity and the same people who, when necessary, will remove bisexuals from marriage, military, or any other civil rights actions. We’re too complicated. We distract from the “core” issue …

Sure, I’d love to live in a country where I couldn’t be fired for being out. But not if I had to look a transgender friend in the eye and tell them they weren’t convenient.. that it’s not their time.

It’s not about “those people” making things difficult (unless by those people, you mean the ones willing to ditch gender identity and divide the BLTG community). This is an attack on the bi community directly. Whether it’s about your gender identity, (one of) your partner’s, or your future partner - it all comes down to the right to be employed should not be given based on any one’s gender.

A wise person once said “United we stand, divided we fall”. There was no mention of when it’s “convenient.”

bisexual-community:

“If you say you’re gay, very few people say, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ Bisexuals have to come out every time they walk into a room … I get it from both communities. We like to joke that’s the one thing straights and gays agree on: They don’t understand bisexuals” …

… . When the bigotry comes from the straight community, it’s hurtful. But when it comes from the gay community, it’s worse—because they should understand. This is the experience of the gay community—having the straight community tell them they’re wrong, they don’t exist. For me, it feels like personal betrayal. I feel like ‘I was there with you, in the beginning,’ and then I hear ‘What has bisexuality done for the movement?’ That just floors me. The history has been rewritten.” ~Denise Ingram

Ingram, 41, grew up in Jamaica—where being anything other than straight is punishable with jail time but is more often handled by mob violence—and she spent the ’80s and ’90s advocating for gay rights in New York City, where she identified as a lesbian before coming out as bisexual. Ingram met her husband of three years, James Klawitter, at a meeting of BiUnity, a Philly-based bisexual support network.

She feels connected to the LGBT community—entitled to the connection even—and she remembers the times when no one in the movement was accepted by the mainstream, when no one thought to check her gay credentials …

Linda A. Hawkins is a counselor and research coordinator at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she works with LGBT youth. She previously worked as a counselor at the Attic Youth Center and sees some gold at the end of this rainbow. But even in her field, she says, there were sometimes issues among colleagues when she disclosed her bisexuality (she’s in a long-term committed relationship with a woman—who, yes, also initially had some reservations about dating someone who’s bisexual).

But what Hawkins—and nearly every other person interviewed for this article—has found is that the kids, or at least the younger generation, seem to have a lot fewer hang-ups about being bi, gay, gender non-conforming or whatever. “I see more acceptance from youth,” she says. “I’ve worked with young people for the last 15 years in Philadelphia, and I can tell that the flexibility around gender and sexuality has expanded. And that leads to kids being more accepting of themselves, of others and of bisexuality.”

fliponymous:

Several of the myths about bisexuality come from the common root that we are defined by our partners. This misconception is a direct cause of bisexual invisibility, and is frequently compounded into erasure. The common myths that come directly or indirectly from this include:

1. Bisexuals are incapable of monogamy – they will cheat on you with another gender, can’t be satisfied with one partner, aren’t really bisexual if they aren’t polyamorous.
2. Bisexuality is a transitional phase rather than a stable identity – bi now, gay later.

In a monosexual worldview, it’s easy to use our partners as markers of our sexuality. In the straight community, what is the “trophy wife” but a visible indicator of heterosexual virility? … In the monosexual part of the queer community, to walk down the street with your same-gender partner is an affirmation of your Pride, your ability to be just like everybody else. But if you are bi, and you have one partner, if they have a clearly defined gender you are lumped into one of the monosexual categories.

Polyamorous bisexuals would seem to be able to make their bisexuality more visible. This is debatable, because what they make visible by walking down the street tends to be myths about polyamory rather than about bisexuality … nearly all representations of bisexuality involve either simultaneous partners of multiple genders, or some form of serial alternating monogamy with varying levels of commitment …

The metamyth, that when we’re with someone of the opposite gender we’re straight, and with someone of the same gender we’re gay, is purely a case of being defined by the gender of our partners. No other sexual orientation faces this myth. Further, if our partner is genderqueer, I posit that someone assuming that our identity is monosexual is denying our genderqueer partner hir identity and assigning a gender to them. Show me a monogamous bisexual (and there are more of us around than you know, because, SHAZAM, you can’t see us when we’re in the same room with you unless we say so), and I’ll show you someone who has been assumed to be monosexual …

So this is why I make a point of labeling myself as a monogamous bisexual. By being visible as such, I break down the metamyth, which also breaks down the idea that I will leave my wife someday for a man, that I am a greedy cheater on the make, and the myth that I’m just a gay man with a beard (willing or otherwise).

My wife is not my beard. My beard is that stuff growing out of my face. I’m not straight, and she not only knows that, she’s as comfortable as I am with it, and she knows that I’m not going to cheat on her with anyone of any gender. I wish people would quit assuming that I will.