This Saturday, September 23 marks International Bisexual Visibility Day, and events are planned in cities all around the world to celebrate bisexuality and tackle bi-erasure.
In the Republic of Korea, the city of Busan is holding its very first Pride parade and to coincide with international celebrations, the rally will prominently feature bisexuality.
Candy Yun works for the Korean Sexual-Minority Culture and Rights Centre (KSCRC) and says the bisexual community in Korea community “does not exist independently like other sexual minority communities.”
KSCRC has previously conducted a project on social media to promote bi-visibility but this weekend, will be taking that project a step further.
“We’ve decided to parade with a 10-metre long bisexual flag at the Busan Queer Culture Festival to celebrate Bisexual Visibility Day,” Yun tells SBS.
“Korea has had pride parades since 2000, and from several years ago individuals and organisations started to bring diverse pride flags to the parades but we never have a bisexual flag. So we decided to bring it to promote bi visibility,” she says.
Yun adds that there are still many misconceptions about the bisexual experience, with the media often portraying the bi community as people who are on the fence about their sexuality.
“There are few cases in which bisexual people are represented on TV, and even if it is, it is often described as a person who is confused,” she says.
“The misrepresentation in the media only reinforces the negative prejudices against bisexual people.”
Yun says that she hopes increased visibility will help people to understand that being bisexual is not a state of confusion and is as valid as other sexualities.
“Same-sex marriage, discrimination, and stigmatisation of sexual minorities is also common to bisexual people”, she says.
“In order to eliminate these stigmas, it’s important we promote bi visibility and continue to raise our voice for the end of discrimination.”
