--- NEWS 3A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. 2009 BISEXUAL (CONTINUED FROM 1A) Dennis Dailey, professor emeritus in social welfare, taught human sexuality courses at the University for more than 25 years before his retirement. He said the bisexual stigma had a political undertone. Queers and Allies, in conjunction with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center at KU, display a booth outside Wescoe Hall Thursday morning. The two groups came together to celebrate Visibility Day—a call for family, friends and allies of the LGBT community to recognize, celebrate and raise awareness of its lifetimes. "There's politics in that, for example, bisexuality complicates the political agenda of gays and lesbians, and bisexuality pollutes the political intention of those who think heterosexuality is the only thing on the planet." Daley said. Godd-Nelson said this suspicion was prevalent in younger gay and lesbian people, as well. Messinger said older gay or lesbian people she knew were insecure dating bisexual people. Because being gay or lesbian was difficult, they were often fearful of their bisexual partners leaving them to be in a heterosexual relationship, a considerably easier path to take, she said. Lori Messinger, associate professor at the school of social welfare, recently published an article about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people on university campuses. She said much of the negativity came from some people's assumption that bisexuals were "gay copouts." "It's seen as you're not willing to come all the way out of the closet. You're just putting your foot out," she said. 'GREAT GROUP IN THE MIDDLE' Howard has encountered a number of myths about bisexuality, one being that a bisexual individual will Monica Soto, Kansas City, Kan., senior and public relations manager for Queens and Allies, said disapproval for bisexuality often stemmed from it being viewed as a choice that didn't really exist as a sexual orientation. Soto said she disagreed with this idea because though she and other lesbians had used bisexuality as a transition, others had stayed consistent with their bisexuality over time. "Some bisexuals show a preference in one of the genders, but most of the time, at least from what I've seen, they still stand firm in their bisexuality regardless of a preference," she said. They aren't choosing bisexuality, Soto said. It's how they are. date a guy and a girl at the same time out of need or desire for both. Howard said she did date both genders, but never at the same time. Infidelity was infidelity, she said, no matter the sexual orientation. Messinger said she thought bisexuality had a broader definition, overall. She said that younger girls tended to be extremely affectionate with each other — braiding hair, touching and leaning on each other, for example. She said although this was not necessarily a "lesbian thing," it showed that women had found a way to be close to each other while, perhaps, still having a sexual connection to men. "Sexuality is really this multi-faceted thing that has to do with your emotions, intimacy, sexuality and friendship, and all of these things are connected," she said. "I think we're all a little more bisexual than we think we are. But we think it's all about sex and not these other Dailey referred to bisexuality as the "great group in the middle." He said society didn't have an understanding of sexual aspects of it. If we could think more broadly, we wouldn't be so hung up about it". "It's seen as you're not willing to come all the way out of the closet. You're just putting your foot out." during a 10-year period. Though this study focused on women, it was in reaction to a study published in "Psychological Science" in 2007 that claimed men do not have bisexual attraction. "What we know is that how human beings are in the world erotically is an extraordinarily complex and an extraordinarily fluid issue, and it doesn't always conform to the political, social, religious expectations of the culture in which it exists," he said. orientation in general, including bisexuality. RACHEL GODD-NELSON Kansas City, Kan. junior Approximately 2 percent of the population, or 6.1 million people, is known to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual in the United States, according to the National Health and Social Life survey. Some other recent studies have tried to shed light on the topic. In January 2008, the American Psychological Association published a study that suggested bisexuality was a distinct sexual orientation for women, instead of just a transitional phase. Lisa Diamond, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Utah, conducted the study with 79 women "What women do, who they sleep with, it's basically like 'whatever,' Dailey said. "What men do, how they name themselves in the world, what choices they make — these are extremely important to everybody. So men who do things that are more feminine are going to get in trouble." Dailey said the findings of this study were true only to an extent. Diamond's conclusion that there was a larger group of bisexual women than bisexual men was missing an important element that would influence these results: the social Messinger said she thought women had more sexual freedom than men. pressure on men to be straight. Dailey said he thought society had sexist tendencies and held men to a different standard than women. Dailey said working in traditionally female occupations, having sex with other men and not being masculine enough were examples of abnormal male behavior by societal standards. "I think a lot of it is about our society. They're told that it's bad and gross and dirty," she said of men having sex with men. "For women, CHALLENGING IGNORANCE Howard said education and general discourse would be most important for dispelling the myths, assumptions and stigmas about bisexuality. Both Messinger and Dailey agreed that society's acceptance of LGBT communities had improved, but Dailey said the change was relatively small. He said, "we delude ourselves if we think there's been a dramatic change." He acknowledged that changed attitudes of certain churches and comprehensive sexuality education in some public schools were a step forward but were still achievements of a small scale. For the time being, Howard must deal with the concerns of her mother, who, after reading about the legislation of gay rights and learning of the struggles faced by the LGBT community, is expressing her own opinion on the matter. "She gets more and more worried about me and my safety and happiness, and so there have been some comments where, if I break up with a girl, she's like: 'You should date guys now. You should be normal,' Daily said. "No, that's not how it works," she said she tells her mother. "I'll date who I want." — Edited by Abbey Strusz KLEIN SEXUAL ORIENTATION GRID Each of the 21 boxes should contain a value from 1 to 7, categorizing the individual's answers to the questions. For variables A to E the possible answers are: 1=Other sex only, 2=Other sex mostly, 3=Other sex somewhat more, 4=Both sexes, 5=Same sex somewhat more, 6=Same sex mostly, and 7=Same sex only. For variables F and G these range from 1=Heterosexual only to 7=Homosexual only.
PAST (entire life up until a year ago)PRESENT (last 12 months)IDEAL(what would you like?)
A-Sexual Attraction:To whom are you sexually attracted?
B-Sexual Behaviour:With whom have you actually had sex?
C-Sexual Fantasies:About whom are your sexual fantasies?
D-Emotional preference:Who do you feel more drawn to or close to emotionally?
E-Social preference:Which gender do you socialize with?
F-Lifestyle preference:In which community do you like to spend your time?In which do you feel most comfortable?
G-Self-identification:How do you label or identify yourself?
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