Bi vs Pan

Defining Bisexuality

Defining bisexuality

 - 70s -

“Kate Millet concluded her December, 1974 talk: by lauding "the very wealth and humanity of bisexuality itself: for to exclude from one's love any entire group of human beings because of class, age, or race or religion, or sex, is surely to be poorer - deeply and systematically poorer.”

- "The Bisexual Movement's Beginnings in the 70s", Stephen Donaldson, part of the book Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries and Visions, edited by Naomi Tucket, 1995 (this in particular refers to 1974)

“Historian Martin Duberman (now head of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York) took note in 1974 of the new visibility of bisexuality (he said that in 1973 he had written in his personal journal, "Bisexuals seem to be popping up all over.") and insightfully declared, "It's easier, I believe, for exclusive heterosexuals to tolerate (and that's the word) exclusive homosexuals than those who, rejecting exclusivity, sleep with people not genders .... 

To suggest, as practicing bisexuals do, that each of us may contain within ourselves all those supposed diametric opposites we've been taught to divide humanity into is to suggest that we might not know ourselves as well as we like to pretend.”

- "The Bisexual Movement's Beginnings in the 70s", Stephen Donaldson, part of the book Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries and Visions, edited by Naomi Tucket, 1995 (this in particular refers to 1974)

“Margaret Mead in her Redbook magazine column wrote an article titled ‘Bisexuality: What’s It All About?’ in which she cited examples of bisexuality from the distant past as well as recent times, commenting that writers, artists, and musicians especially ‘cultivated bisexuality out of a delight with personality, regardless of race or class or sex.’ ”

- Janet Bode, “From Myth to Maturation,” part of the book View From Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women, 1976

“Being bisexual does not mean they have sexual relations with both sexes but that they are capable of meaningful and intimate involvement with a person regardless of gender.”

- Janet Bode, “The Pressure Cooker,” part of the book View From Another Closet: Exploring Bisexuality in Women, 1976

“[John] reacted emotionally to both sexes with equal intensity. ‘I love people, regardless of their gender,’ he told me.”

- Charlotte Wolff, “Early Influences,” Bisexuality, a Study, 1979

- 80s -

“Bisexuality, however, is a valid sexual experience. While many gays have experienced bisexuality as a stage in reaching their present identity, this should not invalidate the experience of people for whom sexual & affectional desire is not limited by gender. For in fact many bisexuals experience lesbianism or homosexuality as a stage in reaching their sexual identification.”

- Megan Morrison, “What We Are Doing,” Bi Women: the newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network, 1984

“In the midst of whatever hardships we [bisexuals] had encountered, this day we worked with each other to preserve our gift of loving people for who they are regardless of gender.”

- Elissa M., “Bi Conference,” Bi Women: the newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network, 1985

"I believe most of us will end up acknowledging that we love certain people or, perhaps, certain kinds of people, and that gender need not to be a significant category, though for some of us it may be"