Bisexual inclusion has at long last become a widely talked about topic within UK LGBT organisations. But are those organisations really making an effort or, even after name changes and other shake-ups, just paying lip service? Why have some taken so long to change their terminology? And is bidding farewell to “lesbian and gay” in itself an erasure, particularly for lesbians? DIVA spoke to a selection of LGBT organisation representatives to find out their thoughts…
Stonewall is, of course, the UK’s biggest LGBT rights charity. “We conducted a bi consultation in 2015,” Stonewall’s communications manager Kim Sanders tells DIVA. “From this we learned that we need to think more about the way we work, and not just the issues we work on. We know that bi people suffer six times higher rates of mental ill-health, and a recent YouGov survey revealed that 49% of people aged between 18 and 24 identify as something other than straight.”