The secrets of bisexuality

Bisexual people face the prejudices of heterosexuals and homosexuals Sigmund Freud claimed that we are all potential bisexuals. Even today, the term is surrounded by myths, ignorance and much invisibility

E.M. Is 34 years old, is a woman but we will keep her anonymity. She confesses that when she began to feel attracted to people of the same sex she thought, "I must be a lesbian." However, there was something that did not fit on that label. "I felt that I did not fit anywhere because I was neither heterosexual nor lesbian and I was not aware of it until I met a friend who introduced herself as bisexual. At that moment I realized that it was where I fit in, and it was a relief ", He writes by email to this newspaper.

The term bisexual is not new in society, much less in scientific literature. The most notorious cases were the theories of the father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud who asserted that "we were all potentially bisexual" or the studies of researcher Alfred Kinsey in creating the scale that established the sexual orientation of each.

Bisexuality is defined as the sexual orientation of those who feel sexually, emotionally and / or romantically attracted to people of more than one gender and / or according to the arguments of the State Federation Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual and Bisexual (FELGTB) Sex, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, at the same level or with the same intensity.
              
"You look at the person, regardless of their sex, once they can be a man, sometimes a woman. People think that we have to like one more thing or another, but no, you are attracted to a person, whether male or female" , Explains Julita García, coordinator of the area of bisexuality of the FELGTB.

We are not homosexuals concealed'
               
Still today the term is still wrapped with myths, ignorance and much, "a lot of invisibility," laments Julita. Rejection is always present, Roberto adds (which is not his real name), a boy of 25 years. "From the moment that people believe and tells you that one day you will definitely leave the closet, 'because everybody does it', giving them the reason that bisexuals do not exist, that everything has to be white or black, When in the rainbow there are more colors, "he says.


This lack of recognition has been demonstrated in an analysis conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, whose findings were recently exhibited at the 141st annual meeting of the American Public Health and Exposure Association in Boston. According to the document, "men who identify themselves as heterosexual are three times as likely to class bisexuality as unlawful sexual orientation." One attitude, maintains Mackey Friedman, study investigator, who can negatively influence the health of bisexual people. Even earlier studies have shown that these emotions lead to "increased substance use and risky sexual behaviors," the report said.
                    

Bisexual people, he adds, face the prejudices, stigma and discrimination of heterosexual people as well as homosexuals, which can lead to feelings of isolation and marginalization.

Something that confirms Julita García: "It may be curious but even within the homosexual group, some (only some), see us as people who have not yet left the closet, which we still hard to recognize, and so we say we are bisexual. Bisexuality is not a transitional stage to say that you are homosexual, it is just more sexual orientation. We are not concealed homosexuals, "he says bluntly. In addition, he confesses that many times, a bisexual person prefers to say to his relatives that he is homosexual, just because he is much better seen and accepted.
                    


The legal advances of the last years in this country, counts Mario of 25 years, of which we also avoid giving his real name, have dignified all the groups. But in the social sphere, "improvements in the homosexual group have not been accompanied by a better acceptance of bisexual people, on the contrary. Everybody has gay friends, but how many girls are willing to start a relationship with A bisexual boy? And if they do, what is the response they receive from their environment (family, friends, workplace)? He asks. There are still many myths, although more than that are prejudice or discrimination in full rule ".

Diversity and diversity

In fact, says Francisco Cabello, director of the Andalusian Institute of Sexology and Psychology, sexual orientation is very complex. "The perspective of sexual diversity makes sexuality express itself with different orientations: heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality and paraphilic orientation of sexuality," he explains.

And that diversity, he adds, is conditioned by the different levels that make up sexuality such as the genetic and morphological sex, the individual's ideas about his body, reflections on the role that society expects the person to perform or their own expectations In relation to their interaction with society, the erotic behaviors they practice or the implications of all these dispositions in their relationship with themselves and with society.
                    
Thus, any combinatorial entails such diversity that "it is improper, if necessary, to speak of bisexuality, but it is more coherent and appropriate to speak of bisexuals," he maintains. And if the same dynamic is applied to heterosexuality, he points out, it would be seen that because of so much difference it is concluded that there is an entanglement, where the definitions, at the cost of insignificant or unnecessary, occupy little place. When this becomes conscious, Cabello concludes, "the time will probably come when no one's attention will be drawn to the sexual orientation of another person."

Eight Myths
                      
On this sexual orientation can be enumerated eight myths that circulate of frequent form: The bisexual people are promiscuous, infidel and vicious by nature. They are immature, confused or in a transitional phase. These are cowardly and lying individuals. They do not care about meat or fish. They are disease vehicles, a threat. Basically we are all bisexual (as Freud said). Finally, "bisexual people enjoy heterosexual privilege."