BISEXUALITY IN DIVA
“I really don’t understand why you expect/seek acceptance from us when you’re not a lesbian,” says a reader’s letter in a mid-90s issue of DIVA. “We have fought long and hard to gain acceptance, both from within ourselves and from other gay women, and we don’t give that up to outsiders easily.” Another letter insists: “I read DIVA because I’m an out and proud lesbian/ dyke, not a fashionable wannabe. [Just as] I used to go to Pride every year for gay Pride, not to support any other cause.” Yet another correspondent snaps: “You can’t become a lesbian when it is convenient. Lesbians are born. It’s an identity that goes beyond sex. It is a state of mind, not some sort of perversion to tell your male sexual partner to get him off.” No prizes for guessing which group of people they’re talking about. We’ll draw a veil over the bisexual correspondent who later sent a letter which (I assume) was written in response, asking “Why are all lesbians ugly?” Hmm, that’s not quite the way to deal with it…