UC Davis kicks off the first annual

Bisexual Awareness Week

San Francisco – Bisexual students at the University of California at Davis are raising the visibility bar for bisexuals with the first annual

Bisexual Awareness Week.

Twelve bi awareness building educational events are scheduled throughout the week on the university campus starting today, January 22 and ending Friday, January 25.

"There are a lot of stereotypes associated with bisexuality," said Angelique Tarazi, chair of the Associated Students of the University of California at Davis’s Gender and Sexuality Commission and biological sciences major, to The California Aggie Online, UCD’s campus newspaper. “This should be a really good week for exploring [and] explaining reasons for both positive and negative feelings."

Bisexual Awareness Week is presented by the Bi Visibility Project at UCD and co-sponsored by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center; Student Assistants to the Chancellor; La Familia; Women's Resources & Research Center and National Organization for Women, reported The California Aggie.

Forty-eight percent of 1,752 self-identified gay and bisexual colleges students surveyed in 2001 by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States became aware of their sexual preference in high school, while 26 percent found their true sexuality in college. Out of gay and bisexual ment, j20 percent reported, in the same report, they were aware of their sexual orientation in junior high school and 17 percent said they knew in grad school. For the girls, six percent of self-identified gay or bisexual women were aware of their same-sex attractions in junior high school, and 11 percent knew in grade school.

Bisexuality Awareness Week follows Lisa Diamond’s article debunking myths and stereotypes about bisexual women and Utah’s Bisexual Awareness Month.

For more information about Bisexual Awareness Week’s events, visit www.lgbtrc.ucdavis.edu.

Photo courtesy Biflag.com

And the nominees for SF Pride 2008 will be…

Up to LGBT community members who will be e-mailing or mailing in their choices for grand marshal nominees for individuals, organizations, and the notorious “Pink Brick,” which is awarded to an individual who has harmed the LGBT community, to the the

San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committtee Inc.

Nominations are due by January 31. Public voting will take place around San Francsico in March.

Nominations must include the full name of the individual or organization being nominated, contact information (phone and e-mail address), a photo (if available), and a brief explainition of the reason the person is being nominated.

For more information, visit www.sfpride.org.

Photo courtesy of San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee Inc.

International Celebrate Bisexuality Day

Today, September 23 is the 8th annual International Celebrate Bisexuality Day. According to a Wikipedia.org entry, International Celebrate Bisexuality Day was started in 1999 by bisexual rights activists Wendy Curry, Vice President of BiNet USA, Michael Page, and Gigi Raven Wilbur, to combat bi invisibility and erasure.

So, I hope we are all going to do a little something today to celebrate International Celebrate Bisexuality Day. One of the things that you can do is support your local bisexual organization.

To find your local bisexual organization, visit http://www.binetusa.org/ or the Bisexual Resource Center at http://www.biresource.org/.

For those of you who are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you might be interested in the Bay Area Bisexual Network’s 20th Anniversary event Sunday, November 11th 11:30 - 2 p.m. at Lake Merritt Hotel/Barbary Lane LGBT Senior Housing. Contact Lani Ka'ahumanu at aloha2@mindspring.com or to make a donation, contact Emily Drennen at emilydrennen@yahoo.com.