Looking through some old papers, I discovered a mention of a website for the group who had organised the bisexual presence at LGBT Pride 96. Here is a post-event version of it:

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Pride Trust Bisexual Working Group

[missing image – ah, having found a print out, it was looking down on seven hands, one from each person, nearly touching. There is an obvious variety of skin colours shown.]

Who we are

A group brought together by the Pride Trust to ensure bisexual representation and visibility at the annual Pride march and festival in the UK.

Our coordinators in 1996 were:

• Lisa C[..] [old email deleted]
• Ian Watters [old email I had forgotten ever having deleted]

A group and coordinators still needs to be organised for 1997.

Pride 1996

We organised a tent at the festival at Clapham Common featuring:

• Performances from a number of bi folk, rock and misc. singers;
• The play "Betty (sic) Page is bisexual and has a hairy chest" performed by Melissa Carr (previously shown at the ICA);
• Presentations on Women and Bisexuality by Sue George and on bisexuality and HIV/AIDS by a speaker from Project Sigma;
• Stalls featuring a range of bi merchandise — T-shirts, badges, stickers, books, etc, and organisations and groups, from the London Bi Group and SMBi's to Bisexuals Action on Sexual Health;
• A `chill-out' zone and ambient music.

There was an exhibition of bi art as well. A signer was available.

Some thoughts on bisexuality

"All my most important relationships had been with women, so I called myself a Lesbian, but then I fell in love with a man"

"I've always known I could fall for men or women. I always knew that myself, though it took a while before I told anyone"

"I always thought of myself as straight, but I'd never entirely ruled out the possibility of falling in love with a woman"

"I tried to be straight, I tried to be gay, but it didn't work. I'm bisexual. It hasn't been easy, but I'm here, I'm out, and I'm proud at Pride"

Different people have different definitions of bisexuality. But in the bisexual movement, most people seem to agree that:

• It doesn't mean you have to have exactly the same feelings for women as for men.
• It doesn't mean you have to have acted on your feelings. Emotions count too.
• The most important thing is what you say about it.

There are plenty of stereotypes about bisexuals (we can't make up our minds, we can't be monogamous, we're greedy). The reality is that there are all kinds of bi people.

Not everyone who has sex with both women and men calls themself bisexual. But if you acknowledge attractions to both women and men, you'll be accepted as part of the bi community. When people do choose to identify as bisexual, it can be for political reasons – to be visible in the battle against homophobia – and also for emotional reasons – to validate all of their sexuality without hiding.

What you choose to call yourself is up to you.

Information Points

Bi Community News (includes local listings): s.a.e. to BM Ribbit, London WC1N 3XX. Phonelines: 0181 [old London Bisexual Helpline number], 0131 [old Edinburgh Bisexual Phoneline number]. Usenet newsgroup soc.bi, home page http://serf.org/~jon/soc.bi.

(c) Jennifer Moore 1996

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As with the first website for a BiCon, this was hosted on the web space of someone with a job at a university.^[1]Why? As well as this being a while before webspace became widely and cheaply available, before the introduction of the draft HTTP 1.1 protocol – the way web browsers and web servers talk to … Continue reading Unlike that site, I could find an archived copy…

It's also before most people thought of registering a domain name – this site may have been created before even bi.org was registered.

If it wasn't, I am surprised we didn't have it there, but it's possible that the site was originally created before LGBT Pride 96 in July, and it was updated to the version that was archived after it. For some reason, it doesn't seem to have been updated beyond this version before vanishing.

Geek note: In an example of 1996 HTML coding, in the original none of the 'list item' tags were closed…