Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
By Lani Kaahumanu and Loraine Hutchins
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“I am part of the generation that came of age when Bi Any Other Name was already in print. This groundbreaking anthology gave me the language, courage and sense of community I needed as a young queer woman.” —Daisy Hernández, A Cup of Water Under My Bed
The 25th Anniversary Edition
Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out first debuted in 1991. This groundbreaking book helped catalyze a national movement for bisexual identity, justice and equality. Often dubbed “the bisexual bible,” Bi Any Other Name was on Lambda Book Review’s Top 100 GLBT Books of the 20th century and became a beloved reference text in many classrooms, doctors’ offices, libraries, and pulpits. A 2007 Mandarin translation was published in Taiwan. The new 2015 introduction of this book updates readers to the enormous changes the past quarter century has brought – for bi people, the larger society and the sexual rights and liberation movement of which we are a part.
When did you know? How did you come out? What was your experience? The coming out stories in this book speak to the many ways bisexuals embrace realities outside rigid either/or categories throughout the passage of our lives. Everyday stories of women, men, transgender bisexuals, teenagers to octogenarians, from many different cultures and family arrangements. The fierce truth of these lives made visible puts a check on bisexual erasure, exposing the binary constructions of gay/straight and male/female as oversimplifications that reduce spectrums to mere opposites.
Caught between the mainstream culture’s persistent discounting of bisexuality, the sensationalizing characterizations presented in media, and the sexual liberation movement’s continual disregard of bisexuality as a serious identity, bisexual people are often not seen or heard when they speak out. There is a vital need for these earnest voices to be heard in the new century. Enormous cultural changes have occurred in the past 25 years, yes, but understanding bisexualities has just begun.
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Reviews for Bi Any Other Name
52 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I read this a bit longer ago, actually, but went out and bought it last year. Some of the stories are tough to read, but I really liked a couple of them - it made me feel less alone.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bi Any Other Name was one of the first and remains one of the best books on bisexuality. This anthology has over seventy bisexual contributors with a broad spectrum of backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures. The essays themselves are also very diverse, from academic works and journal articles to personal stories and poetry. This book dispels the stereotypes of being a bisexual while revealing the immense diversity of those who claim the identity. A very engrossing and important book, I would highly recommend it.Experiments in Reading
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bi Any Other Name is an anthology of writings by people who identify as bisexual, published in the early 1990s. At the time, I’m sure it was on the ground-breaking edge of a movement: giving voice for the first time to the many different kinds of people who came together around a common identity of being bisexual. There was power in the words, and power in the recognition of a shared, emerging identity, with little precedent to hold on to.Today, though, the book feels like a historical document. The place most of the authors were writing from no longer exists: a feminist movement where many still believed that “feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice,” a country where a burgeoning AIDS epidemic was rapidly spreading biphobia and quashing the sexual revolution, a gay movement that was still trying to segregate itself from mainstream America rather than arguing for integration and equal rights. I felt little connection to most of the writers, which may be why I think the same book written now would be very different. In today’s world, there still isn’t a ‘bisexual movement’ to speak of, but it seems that gay culture and the main-stream are no longer at such polar opposites that coexisting in both seems an impossible task. Perhaps a more modern edition of this book would turn more toward queer theory.All in all, an interesting read for the historical content, but not very relevant to a broader audience.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a must read, especially if you happen to be bi. It tends to drag in places, but what anthology doesn't? The good more than makes up for the bad.