Lani Ka’ahumanu - Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out

Bi Any Other Name is one of the most comprehensive, well-edited anthologies I have ever read. At roughly 380 pages, it may be deemed the Bisexual Bible.

Lambda Book Report, 1991

This ground-breaking anthology gave me the language, courage and sense of community I needed as a young queer woman. It gave me a sense of home. The stories here show us not only that we are not alone but that we are actually part of a larger, historical and powerful conversation on love, desire and community.

Daisy Hernandez, A Cup of Water Under My Bed

When I was young, I was hurt by political ringmasters who said they wouldnt talk, sleep or work with me because I was bisexual. Now that Ive talked, worked and slept with them all, I know their secret. They desire what they condemn. The bisexual community was waiting for this classic long before its publication. Read it.

Susie Bright, sexpert

Bi Any Other Name remains one of the only texts that situates bisexuals speaking for themselves within a rich intellectual context. It is, quite simply, an indispensable text.

Jonathan Alexander, co-author, Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies

The LGBTQ movement still fails to enlist the power, voice and leadership of millions of bisexual people. This essential book argues against erasure, and powerfully evokes the liberatory power of bisexuality and bisexual activism through engaging stories, original theory, vivid history and analysis. Bi Any Other Name presents moving testimony from scores of bisexual organizers and innovators who remain the LGBTQ movements most visionary leaders. This is a must-read book for anyone working for social justice.

Urvashi Vaid, Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the Assumptions of LGBT Politics.

Bi Any Other Name 2015 edited by Lani Kaahumanu and Loraine Hutchins

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For more information contact:

Riverdale Avenue Books

5676 Riverdale Avenue

Riverdale, NY 10471.

www.riverdaleavebooks.com

Design by www.formatting4U.com

Cover by Scott Carpenter

Digital ISBN 9781626011984

Print ISBN 9781626011991

Second Edition, September 2015

First Edition, February1991

Alyson Books, Boston

The following have generously given reprint permission

Lesbian Contradictions, Seattle/San Francisco, for the excerpt of , appearing in its entirety. Both reprinted from the Winter 1990 issue, #29.

North Bi Northwest , the Seattle Bisexual Womens Network newsletter, for the Bio types cartoons by Lenore Norrgard.

Gay Community News, for the cartoon , from the 1983 April Fools issue.

Room for You, 1983 by Betsy Rose.

, 1989 by Sharon Forman Sumpter, Los Angeles, California.

Photo credits:

Efrain Gonzalez,

Lani Kaahumanu

For my daughter,

Dannielle the great

L.K.

&

for us,

beautiful bisexuals,

we love you!

L.H.

Juliet:O Romeo, Romeo!...

Deny thy father, and refuse thy name;...

O! be some other name:

Whats in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet...

Romeo:With loves light wings

did I oer-perch these walls;

For stony limits cannot hold love out,

And what love can do, that dares love attempt.

Shakespeares tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, is about lovers whose warring families prevent their love. We bisexuals are also caught between our heterosexual and homosexual families. Were called by every other name but bi, and still we dare attempt our love. Thus, the title for our book.

Sharon Forman Sumpter

Susan Carlton

Carol A. Queen

Cornelius Utz

Amanda Yoshizaki

Alan Silver

Ann Fox

Joe Rios

Laura Johnson

Dave Matteson

Laney Nelson

C.J. Barragan III

Ellen Terris

Chandini Goswami

Nate Brown

C.K. Ferrier

Wayne Bryant

Lisa Yost

Rifka Reichler

Nachama

Victoria Woodard

Ronda Slater

my foundations:

Dajenya

Karen Hurley

David Lourea

Annie Sprinkle

Neil MacLean

Karla Rossi

Loraine Hutchins

Leonard Tirado

Betsy Rose

Elizabeth Reba Weise

Michael Brewer

Brenda Blasingame

Hap Stewart

Irene Wolt

Bobbi Keppel

Billy and Peaches Jones

Chris Girard

Richard Susan Bassein

Mattie Key

Selena Julie Whang

Shu Wei Chen Andy

Janet Bohac

Paul Haut

Kei Uwano

Marcy Sheiner

Christopher Alexander

Suzanne

Obie Leyva

Marcy Sheiner

Matthew LeGrant

Robyn Ochs

Lisa Orlando

Cliff Arnesen

Sharon Hwang Colligan

Naomi Tucker

Dajenya

Rebecca Gorlin

Roland Glenn

Dolores Bishop

ben e factory

Rebecca Shuster

Ann Schneider

Elise Krueger

Lenore Norrgard

Lucy Friedland and Liz A. Highleyman

Sheilah Mabry

Rich Aranow

Lani Kaahumanu

Beth Elliott

Karen Klassen

Loraine Hutchins

Michael Ambrosino

Amanda Udis-Kessler

W hen we, Lani and Loraine, were children growing up in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, we had no out bi role models in our lives, not one. No gay or lesbian or trans ones either. Yet this LGBTQ rights and liberation movement has grown, within our lifetimes, from being a handful of unnoticed men and women dressed in business clothes holding signs about homosexual rights outside the White House in 1964, to a multitude hearing both the President of the United States and the President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) support same-sex marriage as a basic civil right, and several years later a U.S. Supreme Court decision legalized marriage equality nationwide. Under President Obamas administration the U.S. military reversed its decades-old Dont Ask, Dont Tell proscription against out LGB people serving in the countrys armed services! How could we have imagined when we were teenagers that, in the new century, thousands of triumphantly out LGBTQ people would walk boldly through the front doors of the White House as invited guests at Stonewall Pride receptions and governmental meetings? As youth we had no idea what the first early organizing efforts for U.S. gay rights in the 40s, 50s and 60s would portend. We certainly didnt know how dizzying the language changes, how culture-wide the debates, would become.

Its been a long strange trip1 into this 21st century; full of losses and triumphs. Being bi is still about whether were visible, or not, after all these years. Its about what we call ourselves, about whos doing the naming, how and why. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, says Juliet to Romeo, yet what names are used still matters. Naming is paramount to how we understand the world. As children we make sense of our environment via language. We are taught the proper names of people, places and things through close human interactions. For those of us who are bisexual, being mistaken for anything-other-than-bi is still a frustration and an insult. Hidden in plain sight, we are often unrecognized though we walk among you, embracing and expressing the many different ways that people love. Bi people are becoming MUCH more visible in everyday ways in our culture than we were 25 years ago. There are now bisexual characters on television shows, and out bisexual celebrities, professional athletes, artists, academics and local and statewide politically elected officials. Not many, certainly not enough to statistically represent what we know is out there, but still many more available bi role models than when we first released this book.