Bi vs Bisexual

We are often asked why Bi.org tends to use the shorter, less formal word "bi" rather than “bisexual". The practice is not an accident, but rather the result of careful consideration. Bisexuality, like homosexuality, heterosexuality, and asexuality ^[1] is a scientific term that describes sexual orientation. While these terms are important in sex research and medicine, in everyday language they can often sound clinical and inappropriate. Indeed, anti-LGBT extremists use words like "homosexuals" in an attempt to dehumanize and stigmatize gay people. 

Over the past century, as our society has come to understand that not everyone is "wired" to be heterosexual, our cultural concept of sexuality has evolved from something people do to part of their identity and sense of self. That awareness has given us terms like gay, lesbian, and queer. While it's still common for individuals and organizations to refer to groups of bi people as "bisexuals", we think the time has come to move on from this practice. We have therefore chosen to use the colloquial term "bi" whenever more casual, everyday language is appropriate. We generally use “bisexual” as the precise term for the sexual orientation and “bi” as a sexual identity.

We are often asked why Bi.org tends to use the shorter, less formal word "bi" rather than “bisexual". The practice is not an accident, but rather the result of careful consideration.

Bisexuality is a term that was coined in the second half of the 19th century, an era when the pioneers of the LGBT movement essentially invented the field of sex science in their quest to establish a legal basis for the decriminalization of sexual intimacy between men. Before that time, Western society generally regarded same-sex activity as nothing more than a deviant act, often condemning it as a moral failing or a crime punishable with jail time or worse.

In the 1860s, early LGBT rights activists like Karl Heinrich Ulrichs put forth the idea that homosexuality is not unnatural; that attraction has a biological basis, and that some people are "wired" differently and have clear patterns of attractions. Men who had sexual relationships with other men, he argued, weren't morally flawed, but instead were merely acting according to their inherent nature. In 1868, Karl-Maria Kertbeny, another early LGBT rights activist, wrote a letter to Ulrichs in which he invented the terms heterosexual and homosexual. He went on to use the terms to argue against the anti-sodomy laws and other forms of legal discrimination against what we now call LGBT people.

Although it took over a century to gain near-universal acceptance, scientists slowly came to agree with the activists; the idea that people have an innate sexual orientation proved useful in explaining their real-world observations. Pioneering sex researcher Richard von Krafft-Ebing popularized Kertbeny's terms. In 1892, after encountering people time and time again who did not fit into either the homosexual or heterosexual categories, von Krafft-Ebing expanded upon the lexicon by coining the term bisexual to describe people who showed both same-sex and opposite-sex attractions. While linguistically this was a step in the right direction, von Krafft-Ebing and his medical peers remained a product of their time. Despite their desire to help non-heterosexual people by lifting moralistic stigmas, they generally continued to stigmatize anything but heterosexual penis-in-vagina sex (including masturbation and oral sex) as non-procreative, and therefore unproductive and unhealthy.

Over the past century, the field of sexology has come a long way. We now know that non-procreative activities like masturbation do not cause insanity or a loss of vitality and can be an important part of a healthy sex life.^[1] We have also learned that sex serves important non-reproductive functions such as facilitating interpersonal bonding, helping individuals reconcile after conflict, and reducing social tensions, both in human and primate societies.^[2] Our appreciation of the many causes and functions of non-heterosexuality continues to evolve. Even the field of sexology itself has changed; instead of being mere research subjects, queer people are now heavily represented in this discipline that now regards the wide spectrum of heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, and asexuality ^[3] as part of a colorful mosaic that is humanity.

Although sex research and activism have been an important force in improving our understanding of human sexuality, that doesn’t mean its terminology is well-suited to everyday language. The word "homosexual" is useful because it has precise meaning, but in everyday conversation it can sound old-fashioned, medical, and even dehumanizing. Increasingly, respectful speakers of the English language have come to avoid using sexual orientation terms as nouns. Anti-LGBT extremists, on the other hand, like to use the word "homosexuals" to refer to lesbians, gays, and even bis because it sounds clinical and helps portray us as diseased, abnormal, or as people whose lives are defined by our sexual orientation.

Over the past century, as our society has come to understand that not everyone is "wired" to be heterosexual, our cultural concept of sexuality has evolved from something people do or experience to part of their identity and sense of self. That awareness has given us terms like gay, lesbian, and queer. While it's still common for individuals and organizations to refer to groups of bi people as "bisexuals", we think the time has come to move on from this practice. We have therefore chosen to use the colloquial term "bi" whenever more casual language is appropriate. We generally use bisexual as the precise term for the sexual orientation and bi as a sexual identity.