Sixty-one percent of bisexual women report experiences of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, compared with 44 percent of lesbian women and 35 percent of straight women, according to the most recent data available from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.īisexuals are the invisible near-majority, making up almost half of the LGBT community. There's also the fact that bisexual women are disproportionately more likely to experience sexual violence. Bisexuality is 100 percent bisexuality, and doesn’t need to be quantified by anything else. This remedial understanding of my sexuality fails to understand bisexuality's fluidity and complexity. Bisexuality, to them, is half gay and half straight. When people like my ex and her friends assume my bisexuality is just a stepping stone to coming out as gay, they presuppose that bisexuality isn’t queer enough. She said she didn't, but she couldn’t handle what others thought of my sexuality.
When she broke up with me, I asked her if she doubted my romantic and physical attraction to her. Looking back, I know she didn’t ever really accept my bisexuality and tried to ignore it as much as possible.
My girlfriend in college subscribed to this idea, eventually breaking up with me after a few months of dating, because her friends teased for having a “gay boyfriend.” She knew shortly after I began seeking her out that I was bisexual, but she didn’t see it as real because she never saw me with a guy. I've even gone through breakups because of the notion that I can't truly be bisexual.