National Bisexual Awareness Day took place on Sept. 23. Some, like me, found ways to celebrate and raise awareness for the bisexual community. Some may think, “Why does there need to be a Bisexual Awareness Day when Pride Month already exists?” I understand the confusion that comes with this question. Indeed, Pride Month does celebrate everyone in the LGBTQ+ community for the struggles of obtaining rights and being seen as equals to everyone else in society. 

However, there’s a stigma that surrounds the bisexual community. It not only comes from certain people in the heterosexual community, but from within the LGBTQ+ community. 

Some of the main stereotypes  that come to mind when people think of bisexuals is that they’re promiscuous and have an equal attraction to males and females.

Because of their attraction to males and females, people assume that bisexuals are constantly cheating on their partners. Just because someone identifies as bisexual doesn’t mean that they’ll be unfaithful to their partner. Cheating on a partner isn’t only regulated to bisexuals — people will cheat, regardless of their sexual orientation. Having this associated with everyone who identifies as bisexual creates a space of ignorance can cause a  loss of support.  

Even though bisexuals are attracted to men and women, it’s not always a 50-50 attraction. There are people who have an unbalanced attraction, meaning  some have a stronger attraction to males and vice versa. This can result in people assuming that bisexuals are either experimenting, or are closeted homosexuals. 

I used to have a  gay coworker who would always comment about how I’m not bisexual, just a closeted lesbian who hasn’t had a chance to date a girl because of my unbalanced attraction towards women. 

He denied the fact that I’m attracted to males as well, knowing that I had told him that multiple times. Even though he’s part of the LGBTQ+ community, he still disregarded my sexuality. It was frustrating and made me feel like I was invisible. 

Another thing that society has done to the bisexual community is deny and attempt to erase evidence of it. Most people today still think that you are either homosexual or heterosexual — no middle ground. This binary idea of sexuality is what usually causes people to deny or erase bisexuality, especially in the media, where there is rarely any bisexual representation . 

Even if there is, it simply comes off as experimentation or  hypersexual characters. There are some characters in the media, such as Rosa Diaz from “Brooklyn 99” and  Miles Hollingsworth III from “Degrassi: Next Class,’” that are providing a better representation of bisexuals to the rest of society than in previous generations.  

It is important to raise awareness for the bisexual community because even with media representation, there’s still denial in society. Having a conversation about it can possibly help with dismissing stereotypes and ignorance.