BiNet USA
BiNet USA logo
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| Formation | 1990 |
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President
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Faith Cheltenham |
| Website | www |
BiNet USA is a nonprofit national bisexuality organization whose mission is to "facilitate the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibility, and collect and distribute educational information regarding bisexuality. To accomplish these goals, BiNet USA will provide a national network for bisexual organizations and individuals across the United States, and encourage participation and organizing on local and national levels." It is the oldest national bisexuality organization in the United States.
Some of the work the organization has been involved in includes:
Tracing its roots back to the 1987 march on Washington, the group further coalesced in 1990 when BiPol convened the first National Bisexual Conference in San Francisco. At that time a conference track was dedicated to creating a national organization. The following summer the North American Bisexual Network was formalized in Seattle. Later its name would change to BiNet USA which coincided with the group becoming a nonprofit organization.
In its first decade BiNet USA worked on a variety of campaigns, national policy initiatives and hosted/co-hosted a number Conferences. Moving into its second decade, BiNet USA, like many other US charitable organizations, was hit hard when funding dried up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the US mainland in September 2001. It was forced to lay off its paid staff and roll back its plans for new office space.
Faced with these new economic and logistical realities, BiNet USA begins to focus more of its efforts on Internet activism using the Internet as an organizing tool for community growth. It uses an "800" phone number, its Website, a MySpace Page, Facebook Group and its very active ListServ, established using Yahoo Groups to facilitate communication between various and disparate bisexual, pansexual and fluid communities and activists nationwide.
In 2005, after a period of progress marked by growing acceptance in both the larger LGBT & straight communities, the bisexual community suddenly came under a new attack promulgated by the publication of a study entitled “Sexual Arousal Patterns of Bisexual Men” by the controversial researcher J. Michael Bailey. This study allegedly "proved" that bisexual men did not exist. With little critical examination, various media celebrities and outlets jumped on the band-wagon and claimed to have "solved" the "problem of bisexuality" by declaring it to be non-existent, at least in men.
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