Bi ReCon Information

Bi ReCon is the first UK event of its kind: a day of workshops, presentations, research seminars and activities aimed at bringing together members of the bisexual community with key organisations, and researchers who study the experiences and needs of this group. Recent sexual equalities legislation specifically recognises bi people and outlaws biphobic activities and discrimination. Therefore organisations now have to pay attention to the 'B' in LGBT, but may not know what specific issues bi people face. This day aims to address these issues and to build bridges between bi communities, researchers and key organisations and groups.

Bi ReCon is a jointly run event by the BiCon 2008 team and BiUK. BiCon is the national bisexual conference which has been running since the 1980s and now takes place every August, attracting over 200 attendees each year (www.bicon.org.uk). BiUK is a group of researchers and activists who are committed to studying bisexual matters and working with bi communities towards their goals (www.biuk.org). They moderate the bi research group email list (www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/BIRESEARCHGROUP.htm) and put on regular events such as the recent critical sexology seminar on international approaches to bisexuality (www.criticalsexology.org.uk/past.html).

In 2004, BiUK carried out an extensive piece of research on attendees at BiCon. This study demonstrated the inclusiveness of the bi community in the UK, with attendees expressing a variety of sexual and gender identities, being from a broad age range, and with a third of participants having one or more mental or physical health impairments. However, the study also highlighted the need for more outreach into diverse cultural groups (with most of the participants being white British), into rural as well urban communities, into younger age groups, and into groups who have not been through higher education. One of the aims of Bi ReCon is to explore access and inclusiveness issues with other groups who work with such communities.

The BiCon 2004 study also supported much past research which has found that bi communities have higher rates of mental health problems than heterosexual, lesbian or gay communities. For this reason Bi ReCon focuses particularly on mental health issues and brings together key charities and organisations to discuss potential ways of working together to bring about change. The higher incidence of mental health issues has been linked in much research to biphobia, bisexual invisibility, lower levels of support and acceptance, and the ‘double discrimination’ that bisexual people experience from straight and lesbian/gay communities. For this reason, members of lesbian and gay groups and charities, as well as representatives of police and other public bodies and unions have been invited to Bi ReCon.

Attendees at BiCon 2004 all spoke of the importance of having ‘safe spaces’ where they could freely express their identities and be ‘out’ about their sexuality. Hopefully the Bi ReCon event will kickstart dialogues about how to provide more such spaces specifically for the various bi communities in the UK, as well as within wider LGBTQ culture. It is also hoped that discussions will work towards making the everyday space of workplaces, educational institutions and public services in the UK more bi-friendly.