Some of the latest statistics in ABC’s Australia Talks National Survey revealed that 44% of Australians would refuse to date someone who identifies as bisexual.
Before we go any further, being bisexual myself, I must confess that I feel immediately defensive to this statistic. It’s not that I’m surprised by it, actually, the opposite.
While being queer is celebrated and bisexuality is considered under that umbrella, bisexual people like myself often feel as though we’re in this grey area of being queer, where we don’t get a “proper” coming out and we experience eye-rolling reactions from certain parts of the queer community.
No one should have to fight for their sexual identity, but being bi is regularly seen as a “greedy” choice, with comments like “just pick a side already”, claiming that you “want the best of both worlds” and it “must be nice” to be able to “change your mind”.
In being a feminine presenting female, I’ve copped a lot of backlash from the queer community for not being “obviously queer”, meaning that someone wouldn’t know I identified as queer by just looking at me. But personally, I think that idea is old fashioned, as we live in a time where there isn’t a certain “look” for a queer person and making assumptions about a person’s identity by their exterior is disrespectful.
The grim statistic that 44% of Australians wouldn’t date someone who is bi was by Australia Talks, hosted by Nazeem Hussain and Annabel Crabb this year. They surveyed 60,000 people to hear their opinions on pretty much everything, with topics spanning politics, the environment, technology, health, wellbeing, and life.
But we can’t get past this particular stat. 44% of 60,000 Australians is 26,400 people, who distinctly refused that they would date someone who identifies as bi. But on behalf of all of us, why?
Let’s dig a little deeper.
For Australians over 75 who took part in the survey, more than three quarters said it was a deal-breaker, while a huge 84% those aged between 18-24 said they were cool with dating bisexuals.
Okay, this makes a little more sense given that our younger generations are becoming way more fluid and open-minded while social media has allowed us to share and explore who we are in a transparent way.
Despite this, it’s still pretty devastating that a hefty amount of biphobia exists in older Australians. Now that I think about it, It feels as if this runs true with older generations that are a part of the queer community, as I’ve known these people to have a very distinct idea of what it means to be queer, and often bisexuals don’t really fit into that.
Progress can be slow and painful, but it’s really reassuring to know that it’s occurring within the younger generations because really, we’re the ones shaping the future. It’s pretty consistently being proved that it’s up to us to create change, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job.
An outpouring of hilarious Tweets emerged after the survey data was released, but this one is a personal fave:
44% of australians won’t date me, a bisexual, but that’s fine because i have fucked 100% of their mums and dads
— chloe sargeant (@chlosarge) June 22, 2021
Sorry not sorry.
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