Bialogue, a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words ''

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

'' and ''

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

'', is an American activist group that started in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, working on issues of local, national, and international interest to the bisexual, fluid,

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

, queer-identified communities and their allies. Bialogue's mission is to dispel myths and

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalization, generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can ...

s about

bisexuality Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, ...

, address

biphobia Biphobia or monosexism is aversion toward bisexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being bisexual. Similarly to homophobia, it refers to hatred and prejudice specifically against those identified or perceived as being in the ...

and

bisexual erasure Bisexual erasure (or bi erasure), also called bisexual invisibility, is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality (or similar identities, such as pansexuality) in history, academia, the news media, and othe ...

, educate the public on the facts and realities of bisexuality and advocate for the

bisexual community The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, b+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, bi/pan/fluid community, or bisexual umbrella, includes members of the LGBTQ community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually flui ...

. Its slogan is "Taking Action not just Offense".

History

Bialogue was founded in 2005 and is the merger of two older

–based activist/political groups: BiPAC and the Coalition for Unity and Inclusion. Founded in 1989, BiPAC (short for the "Bisexual Political Action Committee") was an explicitly militant activist political group dedicated to confronting and eradicating

and

. In addition to working on issues exclusive to New York City

, BiPAC also worked in conjunction with other New York City

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

and progressive groups of their day including

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

Queer Nation Queer Nation is an LGBTQ activist organization founded in March 1990 in New York City, by HIV/AIDS Activism, activists from AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP. The four founders were outraged at the escalation of Violence against LGBT peopl ...

, Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization, ''Children of the Rainbow'', ''Por Los Niños'', and the Coalition for a District Alternative (CoDA). The Coalition for Unity and Inclusion (founded in 2000) was a coalition of

and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

activists who drew support from reform-minded directors of the more traditional

LGBT organizations Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) organizations may refer to LGBTQ rights organizations or to groups formed for other purposes: *LGBTQ rights organization *List of LGBTQ-related organizations *List of LGBTQ rights organizations, org ...

, liberal politicians as well as the grassroots bisexual and transgender community. They used such tactics as letter writing campaigns, petition drives and an innovative "feedback campaign" to achieve their goals. The original impetus for founding both BiPAC and the Coalition for Unity and Inclusion was to combat instances of blatant biphobia within the larger New York City

LGBTQ community The LGBTQ community (also known as the LGBT, LGBT+, LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIA+, or queer community) comprises LGBTQ individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individu ...

. Bialogue, which emerged in response to the flap over the 'Bailey Study' which attempted to invalidate bisexuality itself, has always worked closely with such established bisexual organizations as

BiNet USA BiNet USA (officially Bi/Net USA, The Bisexual Network of the USA Inc.) was an American national nonprofit bisexual community whose mission was to "facilitate the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibil ...

, the

Bisexual Foundation The American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB) is a charity founded on July 23, 1998, by sex researcher, psychiatrist and bisexual rights activist Fritz Klein to promote research and education about bisexuality. AIB produces the ''Journal of Bisexu ...

and 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 mainstream LGBTQ groups such as

GLAAD GLAAD () is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization. Originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals in the media and entertainment industries, it has since ...

References

External links

*
Bialogue at LiveJournal
{{Bisexuality topics 2005 establishments in New York City Bisexual culture in the United States Bisexual organizations LGBTQ political advocacy groups in the United States Organizations established in 2005

History

See also

References

External links