Stonewall’s new publication “Being yourself: Sexual orientation in the workplace” profiles among its lesbian, gay and bi role models the City of London Councillor Edward Lord OBE.
Edward talks about coming out as bisexual from previously being out as gay – counter to the stereotypical image of bisexuality as a ‘stopping off point’ on the way from identifying as straight to gay – and about subtly queering the workplace.
He says: “I still fear that there is a perception within our community that bisexuality doesn’t exist, that it’s just a phase on the way to becoming gay or that it’s somehow wrong. I’ve had very deep and meaningful relationships with both men and women. So I want to send a clear message that if you find yourself being attracted to people of both genders then it is okay to say you are bisexual.”
That’s one out bisexual in a book of 20 role models: who are yours?
One of my bisexual role models is Stephen Lingwood, a Unitarian minister, advocate of marriage equality, opponent of faith schools, and builder of community. http://reigniteuk.blogspot.co.uk/
Hi There,
I was wondering on a similar note, if you have need to see a mainstream psychiatrist for depression, bipolar or just life circumstances and you happen to mention you were bisexual, how did they respond?
Did they have an accepting approach, that this is just your sexual orientation and ask how you felt about it.
..or did they try and feed it into a psychiatric diagnosis, label you as desperate, promiscuous and make it into a …. ‘problem’ O.o
I have heard some negative stories from friends and others people about disclosing bisexuality to psychiatrists. But I’m hoping there are some positive stories out there as well.
Please let me know if you have experienced this or just your personal thoughts.
There’s some really interesting research on that which got presented in partial form at BiReCon a while ago – quite possibly this year’s BiReCon will cover that ground some more?
Hello,
I told a psychiatrist I saw for the very first time that I’d had girlfriends when i was younger and later had been married. He didn’t react at all and just asked me questions to do with my depression. He basically ignored it as an issue. But I guess if you are talking about bipolar you are maybe concerned with the mania side of that condition when people can become hyper sexual. I dont know what to say. I don’t feel the psychiatrist I saw was thinking anything negative about me but then I just have depression. What are your concerns? Do you feel he would invalidate your feelings of being bisexual and interpret them as being symptoms of mania. You could say that you also feel that way when you are depressed and so it is delinked from having a condition that affects your mood.