BiNet USA (officially Bi/Net USA, The Bisexual Network of the USA Inc.
[) was an American national nonprofit ]bisexual community
The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- ...
whose mission was to "facilitate the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibility, and collect and distribute educational information regarding bisexuality
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...
. Until 2020, BiNet USA provided a national network for bisexual organizations and individuals across the United States, and encouraged participation and organizing on local and national levels." They claimed to be the oldest national bisexuality organization in the United States. In 2020, all of the content on BiNet USA's website was replaced with a statement that the BiNet USA president, Faith Cheltenham, now identified as Christian conservative and was walking away from progressive politics entirely.
Programs and campaigns
Some of the work the organization has been involved in includes the following.
Campaigns
* 1993: Played a key role in the successful national campaign to include "Bi" in the March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
* 1998: Organizes an Ally Campaign, educating and holding ally organizations accountable for their actions.
* After the 1991 bisexual anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
'' Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out'' was forced to compete in the Lambda Literary Awards under the category "Lesbian Anthology", and ''Directed by Desire: Collected Poems'', a posthumous collection of the bisexual poet June Jordan's work, had to compete (and won) in the category "Lesbian Poetry", BiNet USA led the bisexual community
The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- ...
in a multi year campaign eventually resulting in the addition of a Bisexual category, starting with the 2006 Awards.
* 2008: Under the slogan "Vote Against Hate in 2008", partnered with Rock the Vote to successfully reach out to and register people from its constituent communities and encourage participation in the American electoral process.
Policy initiatives
* Bisexual Youth Initiative (1995): a survey was developed and sent out to organizations nationwide serving LGBTQ youth. The survey report was published and sent to agencies, offering assistance in improving services.
* Bisexual Rural Initiative (1996): Initiative to reach out and determine specific needs of bisexuals in rural areas.
* Bisexual Health Initiative (2007): participated in the development of the report ''Bisexual health: An introduction and model practices for HIV/STI prevention programming'' in conjunction with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Fenway Community Health, including the ''Bisexual Health Timeline''.
Conferences (partial list)
* with the Bisexual Resource Center
The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as The East Coast Bisexual Network, it incorporated ...
and the Washington, DC-based Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals co-sponsor the largest US bisexual conference to date with over 600 people in attendance. (1993)
* Hosts the First National Institute on Bisexuality and HIV/AIDS (1998)
* Co-sponsor of the Transcending Boundaries Conference (2005) (2006)
* With the Lambda Literary Foundation and New York City's
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Services Center co-sponsor of the ''"Big Bi Book Weekend"'' including ''"Bi Lines: A Celebration of Bisexual Writing in Reading, Music and Culture"'' a fund-raising event to benefit the Bi Writers Association (2007)
* With the Bisexual Foundation et al. co-sponsor of the International Conference on Bisexuality (1994) (1998) (2004) (2006) when held in the United States. A member of the standing committee that is currently planning the 10th ICB to be held on the campus of the University of Rhode Island in July 2008.
History and structure
Tracing its roots back to the 1987 Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the group further coalesced in 1990 when BiPol convened the first National Bisexual Conference in San Francisco. At that time a conference track was dedicated to creating a national organization. This first conference was attended by over 450 people from 20 states and 5 countries, and the mayor of San Francisco sent a proclamation "commending the bisexual rights community for its leadership in the cause of social justice", and declaring June 23, 1990 Bisexual Pride Day
Celebrate Bisexuality Day (also called Bisexual Pride Day, Bi Visibility Day, CBD, Bisexual Pride and Bi Visibility Day, and Bisexuality+ Day) is observed annually on September 23 to recognize and celebrate bisexual people, the bisexual communit ...
.
The following summer, the North American Bisexual Network was formalized in Seattle. Later its name would change to BiNet USA which coincided with the group becoming a nonprofit organization.
In its first decade, BiNet USA worked on a variety of campaigns, national policy initiatives and hosted/co-hosted a number conferences. Moving into its second decade, BiNet USA, like many other U.S. charitable organizations, was hit hard when funding dried up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the US mainland in September 2001. It was forced to lay off its paid staff and roll back its plans for new office space.
Faced with these new economic and logistical realities, BiNet USA begins to focus more of its efforts on Internet activism using the Internet as an organizing tool for community growth. It uses an "800" phone number, website, MySpace page, Facebook Group, and ListServ
The term Listserv (styled by the registered trademark licensee, L-Soft International, Inc., as LISTSERV) has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications in general, but is more properly applied to a few early instances of ...
, established using Yahoo Groups, to facilitate communication between various and disparate bisexual, pansexual and fluid communities and activists nationwide.
In 2005, after a period of progress marked by growing acceptance in both the larger LGBT and straight communities, the bisexual community suddenly came under a new attack promulgated by the publication of a study entitled "Sexual Arousal Patterns of Bisexual Men" by the controversial researcher J. Michael Bailey
John Michael Bailey (born July 2, 1957) is an American psychologist, behavioural geneticist, and professor at Northwestern University best known for his work on the etiology of sexual orientation. He maintains that sexual orientation is heavily ...
. This study allegedly "proved" that bisexual men did not exist. With little critical examination, various media celebrities and outlets jumped on the bandwagon and claimed to have "solved" the "problem of bisexuality" by declaring it to be non-existent, at least in men.
Working with other established LGBT institutions such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force GLAAD
GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...
, the Bisexual Resource Center
The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as The East Coast Bisexual Network, it incorporated ...
as well as newer ones such as Bialogue, BiNet USA moved to co-ordinate a national response to this threat to the well-being of the bisexual community. It has now revitalized and updated its 'Rapid-Response Spokesperson Team' and now monitors and responds quickly to media portrayals of the bisexual community.
Starting in 2008 under the leadership of its then president Wendy Curry
Wendy Curry is an American bisexual rights activist and animal rescue advocate.
Career and civil rights work
She was the President of BiNet USA, an American national bisexual civil rights organization, a position she assumed in 2006. Previou ...
, who is herself a software engineer, BiNet USA greatly expanded its use of Internet activism taking advantage of the flowering of a variety of social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
venues including LiveJournal, MySpace and Facebook.
In September 2009, BiNet USA expanded its board of directors, making Gary B. North
Gary B. North, is an American writer and activist. He is a newspaper editor, former president of the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild/Southern California Media Guild ( AFL-CIO), and a founder of BiNet USA as well as the Conflict Resolution Service and ...
the new president.
In October 2009, BiNet USA endorsed the National Equality March and helped organize a contingent of several bisexual groups that participated in the march.
In 2014, BiNet USA declared the seven days surrounding Celebrate Bisexuality Day to be Bi Awareness Week, also called Bisexual Awareness Week
The Bisexual Awareness Week, also known as #BiWeek, is an annual celebration held from September 16–23. It is an extension of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, held annually on September 23. The celebration promotes cultural acceptance of the bise ...
. The week begins the Sunday before Celebrate Bisexuality Day.
Structure
BiNet USA was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in Florida on February 14, 1994.[BiNet/USA, The BiSexual Network of the USA Inc.]
''Florida Division of Corporations''. Retrieved April 29, 2020. It has 501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
status.[ Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia. Decision-making is by consensus by the board of directors with the advice and consent of the members of the Standing Committees and the various Regional Representatives.
]
Leadership
BiNet USA is overseen by a board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
. The members of the board of directors are as follows.[
* Faith Cheltenham, President
* Juba Kalamka, Vice President
* Denise Penn, Secretary
* Lynnette McFadzen, Treasurer, ]Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
Claims of copyright of bisexual pride flag
On April 28, 2020, BiNet USA president Faith Cheltenham claimed via the organization's Twitter account that they own sole copyright to the bisexual pride flag, stating that they would be restricting the flag's use without direct authorization. The tweets subsequently received many critical responses, including questioning the validity of a copyright claim, as previous documentation had established the flag as being within the public domain. Their original Twitter account was deactivated on April 29, 2020, and a new account was made and pointed to by Cheltenham.
On April 29, 2020, Dr. Lauren Beach gave a statement on her Twitter in which she stated that, as a board member, she was not consulted about BiNet USA's decision and that she does not agree with it. A day later, she confirmed that the board had an emergency meeting on April 30, 2020, and that a statement is to be released soon. On May 1, Faith Cheltenham released a statement prepared by the BiNet USA's board onto the official blog page, as well as tweeting it from the, now reactivated, official Twitter account. Also on May 1, Beach stated she had resigned from the board. Two days later, Cheltenham posted a statement that she had asked Juba Kalamka to be president of BiNet and that he would do so as of January 21, 2021. The same day, BiNet USA posted a statement that began "As of May 2020, BiNet USA CEASES AND DESISTS OF ALL USE OF THE BISEXUAL PRIDE FLAG".
On May 25, 2020, BiNet USA's Twitter reversed its position, stating "We strongly reject and refute any assertion that BiNet USA claimed, or ever claimed the bisexual pride flag."
In November 2020, Cheltenham announced that she would retain control of the organization and identified as a conservative. She stated that she "and all bi content" would no longer be on mainstream social media.
See also
* Bisexual American history
* Bisexual community
The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- ...
* Biphobia
* Bisexual erasure
Bisexual erasure or bisexual invisibility is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.
In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can includ ...
* Creating Change Conference
The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...
* Bisexual Resource Center
The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as The East Coast Bisexual Network, it incorporated ...
References
External links
BiNet USA official website
Curried Spam (LiveJournal)
articles by former BiNet USA president Wendy Curry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binet Usa
1991 establishments in Washington (state)
Bisexual culture in the United States
Bisexual organizations
LGBT political advocacy groups in the United States
Charities based in Washington (state)
LGBT history in the United States