Big Damn Heroine

3rd June 2017

Post reblogged from Abnormal as expected with 3,358 notes

chabouillet:
sleepdontvisit:
finalowen:
Pride In London says it has no room for a bisexual parade group. Here’s a small smattering of the groups that do have representation at London Pride 2017:
- Bankers (Oh so many bankers. Every bank needs its own parade group.)
- Supernatural fans (Yes, really)
- Dogs (Both actual animals and those dressed up as them)
- Historic Royal Palaces (Because hey, who gives a shit about LGBT people in poverty? Celebrate the idle rich!)
- Nandos and Starbucks (Ads galore! That’s the true spirit of Pride!)
- The Ministry of Defence (Killing people in foreign countries but in a rainbow-themed way.)
- The Conservative Party (The political party that introduced Section 28, the law which banned schools from even mentioning that LGBT people existed because it would ‘promote’ homosexuality.)

Now, it seems that Pride In London’s position is that it’s bi people’s fault for not having the money to make their own group, and that we should be happy to have individual bi people among other groups.
This is not an LGBT Pride parade, unless you believe that the B stands for Barclays.
This… is factually incorrect? Like, first off, no source, but secondly going through the list of groups there are DOZENS that include bisexuals, as most groups are about the community in general and it’s more likely that you just have “LGBT” groups as opposed to specifically lesbian, gay, bi, or trans groups.
And this bisexual news page specifically says a local bi group will be repping there?
Maybe ONE bi group is being excluded because sign ups are full but like… that’s how that works? They can’t just retroactively kick other groups out??
Yes, we do need to have a conversation about the commercialization of pride and the overbearing corporate presence but making shit up isn’t the way to do it.
I’m willing to stand corrected on this but like… I see exactly zero efforts to exclude bi people.
This person says it much better than I did!
@finalowen
First off, I screwed up by not putting sources in the post, because it makes it easier for people to dismiss. My mistake.
But the fact remains there are specific groups in the London Pride Parade for most parts of the community, except for Bisexuals. (The BCN page specifically states that the entries marked with asterisks do not specifically have parade entries or stalls, just groups based there, so that link contradicts nothing.)
Gay men, Lesbian women, Trans people, Asexual people, all are represented to some extent in solo parade groups without having to be lumped under the umbrella in the background.
Now, let’s look at some of the back and forths with the Pride In London twitter that prompted this post.
So to sum up a few of the key points from these exchanges: the bi rep in their committee was on leave. In other posts on Twitter they say that they assumed this rep would spread the word. Bi orgs did apply before their listed deadline, but they changed the goalposts. At no point did anyone realise that they were completely missing bi groups from the parade and that a section of the community is going unrepresented.
There is more to cover about London Pride and their history with bi rep which makes me less inclined to trust them, but for now (as it’s early and if it wasn’t for my phone blowing up I wouldnt be awake, but that’s my fault for not including the sources to start with), these are the facts as relates to this issue There are specific groups for most parts of the community, but not bisexuals. There is not a bisexual parade group at Pride.
I question why the organisers at no point realised they were missing a whole section of the community they are supposed to serve, that the rep was on leave, that they expect quick organising of money from the group with no funded organisations and more likely to be living in poverty.
And yes, I question the priorities and ethics of a Pride that has no room for bisexual people to gather and march together, to be visible, but does have room for Starbucks to litter us with rainbow coloured advertising, dates of application be damned.

Tagged: bi erasure bisexuality I was talking about this the other night at my lgbt choir