Internationally the big news is that BiNet Canada has been created (http://www.binetcanada.org). After a lot of activity over the internet, the organizers met for their first time at the North American Bisexual Conference in Vancouver this August.
The bisexual community hosts international conferences on even years. Start saving up those frequent flyer points for the 2002 International Bisexual Conference in Australia! Odd-years are reserved for continent-wide conferences: The North American conference this August in Canada and the proposed San Diego conference in 2003, with similar conferences in Europe, South America, and so on.
Nationally the big news in the United States is that BiNet USA is making a major comeback. With increased involvement from New Jerseyians, including one Will Marcotte on the new board of directors, they are doing exciting things. The first Executive Director is slated to be hired soon. Her primary goal will be to direct a campaign that will focus on making bisexuals visible in the media. BiNet USA has already had one success: CNN did a spotlight on "real life bisexuals" this month following Anne Heche's announcement that she was bisexual. The piece included myself and Amara Willey (both from New Jersey); Donna Redd (a bisexual activist from Queens) and others. The piece was very well received.
And now the news from New Jersey...
Activities for New Jersey's bisexuals have expanded both northward and southward. In the last year two extremes of the state have been blessed with the creation of new social and discussion groups. The southern meeting is in Voorhees and meets on either the 4th or 3rd Friday of the month (depending on space availability) at the Camden County Library. The northern meeting is in Jersey City and meets on the second Wednesday of the month at the Hudson Pride/Jersey City Connections office. Information about both is viewable on http://www.BiZone.org
In this last year we saw the creation of Bi Night at The Den, a GLBT bar in Somerset. The second Saturday of the month has become a magnet for bisexuals. While this may transform to something slightly different in the future, it's certainly a great start for social activities for New Jersey's bisexuals.
A lot of the growth in New Jersey's bisexual community can be attributed to the Bisexual Leadership Retreat that was held in Marlboro in August 2000. Dozens of bisexual leaders came together to teach each other through workshops on everything from fundraising to increasing membership, to the history of bisexual activism. A lot of networking and brainstorming lead to many new projects.
BiZone, NJ's largest bisexual organization, sponsored the retreat. BiZone has been growing dramatically over the last year by adding new events, improving their web site, and modifying the organization. Their new web site (http://www.BiZone.org) contains one of the most complete calendars of bisexual events around. Traditionally groups grow by adding more events to their home base. BiZone has bucked that trend by adding new events around the state. In fact, if you were to drive from the southern-most BiZone event to the northern-most BiZone event, it would be a three hour drive. Congrats BiZone! That's great news for an organization that is celebrating its first decade of operation!
An interesting milestone that may otherwise have gone unnoticed is that for the first time there were two bisexual groups that had tables at the Asbury Park Pride festival this June. The two groups were BiZone and the new NJBiWomen organization. Bisexuals are growing up!
NJBiWomen is New Jersey's newest bisexual group. NJBiWomen is a social/discussion group for bisexual, bi-curious, and bi-friendly women and people of transgender experience. They welcome all bi-friendly women and transgender people in solidarity with the women's community. Meetings are held at 7:30 PM on the first Tuesday of every month at the Pride Center, 211 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ. For directions, call the Pride Center at (732)846-2232 or visit their web page http://www.biwomen.org
History repeated itself a couple months later at the first ever Jersey City GLBT Pride Festival. There were two bisexual groups sponsoring tables as well. By coincidence, just days before the festival the U.S. Census reported that Jersey City is one of the cities with more cohabiting gay couples than any other New Jersey community. If they counted couples with one or more bisexual partner I wonder how big the numbers would be!
So what's happening in the next year? Well, one event will occur shortly after the publication of this magazine, and another about a year later. The Tri-State Bisexual conference has grown into an event for the entire northeast and this year is called Transcending Boundaries. It will be held October 19-21 at Yale University in New Haven, CT. Visit their groovy new web site and register today: http://www.transcendingboundaries.org (for a complete list of bi conferences, visit http://www.biconf.org)
A year from now BiZone hopes to host the 2002 bisexual conference right here in New Jersey. Look for announcements early this winter. If you are interested in volunteering, send email to bi2002@whatexit.org
That's all on the bisexual front. See you next issue!