FiLiA 2023 will be the first FiLiA to include a session specifically for and about bisexuality and bisexual women. This is a really exciting and overdue milestone, but why is it so important? One of our volunteers lays out some of the reasons we’re having this session this year, and what the session will look like.

The first reason to hold a bisexuality session is because bisexual women are already attending FiLiA conferences, even without sessions focused on us! According to our polling,  19% of our volunteers and 15% of last year’s conference attendees were bisexual, so it seems only fair to have a session looking specifically at this group’s issues, the way we already do with other communities. We want FiLiA to be a welcoming space for all women, and to amplify the voices of all women, and the first step to doing this is to create space for them.

Bisexual women are at increased risk of many of the issues affecting all women, yet invisibility means we are not sufficiently supported by women’s organisations or LGBT organisations. Evidence from research performed in the UK indicates bisexual people have worse physical and mental health outcomes than lesbian, gay, or straight people, and bisexual women are more likely to have experienced intimate partner abuse than lesbians or straight women.

Bisexual women are also at increased risk of sexual violence, being more likely than straight women to have experienced sexual abuse and stalking/harassment. Despite this, there are no organisations in the UK specifically for bisexual women, and women’s organisations often combine resources for our community with resources for lesbians, which though understandable, does a disservice to both groups by treating us as homogenous.  For example, lesbians are unlikely to need support around consensual intimate relationships with men, and straight women wouldn’t need resources about facing homophobia from intimate partners, but bisexual women would benefit from both these services.

LGBT groups and organisations often overlook bisexual people entirely, despite our making up 1.3% of the UK population, equivalent to the 1.5% of gay and lesbian people, and more than double the 0.5% who report a different gender identity to their sex.

Bisexual people are also much less likely to be out than gay or lesbian people, possibly because of the stigma against, and negative stereotypes about, our community. This isolation limits our ability to connect not only with other bisexual people, but also with gay and lesbian people, to learn from these communities’ extensive experience of dealing with homophobia and hate crime, which is so often under-reported.

We hope that the bisexuality session this year will create connections that become part of building a bisexual women’s community, and enable the development of bisexual culture. But what will the session look like? That depends on you. As conference gets closer you’ll be able to share what you’d like the session to focus on, and what your priorities are.

We won’t have speakers at this year’s session, so the spotlight will be entirely on attendees mingling, connecting, and networking with other bisexual women. We’ll also be able to discuss possible future projects focusing on this community, and how you can get involved by shaping and contributing to them. We’re really looking forward to seeing you all in Glasgow this October!