I first noticed my spell-check was biased when Microsoft tried to tell me “heteronormative” wasn’t a word back in undergrad. (It’s underlined on this draft in WordPress now, “no replacements found.”) My phone doesn’t know “genderqueer,” “intersectionality,” or “biphobia.” Neither does the media, who continue to put gender identities and queer narratives in scare quotes, even when they’re supposedly “on our side” (see what I did there?).
Via homoarigato.
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Also note that the “Bisexual: A Label With Layers: Tom Daley Comes Out as Bisexual, Igniting L.G.B.T. Debate” article on the NYT uses “biphobic” in scare quotes, and then accuses Dan Savage of being biphobic.
Dan Savage has, in the past, said some biphobic things, namely that bi men were just closeted gay men, because the trend until recently seemed to be to use “bi” as “I don’t want to say I’m gay or lesbian,” an act which contributes to bi-erasure (unless the people is actually bisexual, of course, which is a problem with the constantly having to “prove” it). Which isn’t to say that sexualities don’t change, but “bi” is not a closet for non-bi folks to barge into whenever they don’t want to be “too gay.”
Anyway, if the author had bothered listening to any of the Savage Lovecast in the last four years or so, particularly in the last two, Savage has made a real effort to acknowledge and discuss biphobia, to offer better advice to bi folks about coming out, and to discourage using “bi” as a term to lighten up the homosexuality of those on the high end of the Kinsey scale (but acknowledging that sometimes your definition of your own sexuality changes). NYT: get your fact-checkers.
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