Riverdale Avenue Books
Releases
Bisexual Classic on September
23rd
Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
25th Anniversary
Edition
Celebrate International Bisexuality
Day
Then: Bi Any Other Name is one of the most comprehensive, well-edited anthologies I have
ever read. It may be deemed the Bisexual Bible. - Lambda Book Report, 1991
Now: I am part of
the generation that came of age when Bi Any Other Name was already in
print. This groundbreaking anthology gave me the language, courage and sense of
community I needed as a young queer woman. —Daisy Hernández, A Cup of
Water Under My Bed
New York, NY – September 23, 2015 – The
25th anniversary edition of Bi
Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out by Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine
Hutchins was published by Riverdale Avenue Books on International Bisexuality
day 2015. This
groundbreaking anthology rode a wave of grassroots organizing and catalyzed a
national movement for bisexual identity, justice and equality. The coming
out stories of women, men, transgender bisexuals, teenagers to octogenarians,
from many different cultures and family arrangements reflect the many ways
bisexuals embrace life. This book was on Lambda Book Review’s Top 100 GLBT
Books of the 20th century and in 2007 a Mandarin translation was published in
Taiwan. The new introduction updates readers to the enormous
cultural changes of the past quarter century.
About Co-editors:
Lani Ka’ahumanu is often
regarded as the strategic political architect of the U.S. bisexual movement.
She has a 40+ year career instigating and mobilizing social justice actions,
campaigns, street theater and cultural events while challenging bisexual
invisibility and ignorance within the HIV/AIDS and health industries. She
co-founded the first bisexual feminist political action group BiPOL [1983], San
Francisco Bay Area Bisexual Network [1987] and BiNet USA [1987].
Loraine Hutchins is a 4th generation Washingtonian who
co-founded BiNet USA and Washington, DC’s AMBi – the Alliance of Multicultural
Bisexuals. She is a youth advocate and independent scholar who helped build the
communications and development capacities of many social justice non-profits.
After earning her doctorate in Cultural Studies, Hutchins teaches
multi-disciplinary health, sexuality, gender, and women’s studies courses at
Maryland’s Montgomery College.
# # #
What They
Are Saying about This Classic Title
When I was young, I was hurt by political ringmasters who said
they wouldn’t talk, sleep or work with me because I was “bisexual.” Now
that I’ve talked, worked and slept with them all, I know their secret. They
desire what they condemn. The bisexual community was waiting for this classic
long before its publication. Read it.”
Susie Bright, sexpert
To say that Bi Any Other Name is a
“classic” in the field of sexuality studies is, in many ways, to miss its true
importance. It was -- and in many ways
still is – a “classic,” but also “the only one of its kind.” Bi Any Other Name remains one of the only
texts that situates bisexuals *speaking for themselves*within a rich
intellectual context. It models an
approach to bisexuality in particular, and sexuality in general, that has few
antecedents and fewer rivals. It is,
quite simply, an indispensable text.
Jonathan
Alexander, Ph.D., co-author, Finding Out:
An Introduction to LGBT Studies
The LGBTQ movement still fails to enlist the power, voice and
leadership of millions of bisexual people. This essential and compelling book
argues against erasure, and powerfully evokes the liberatory power of
bisexuality and bisexual activism through engaging stories, original theory,
vivid history and analysis. Bi Any Other Name presents moving testimony
from scores of bisexual organizers and innovators who remain the LGBTQ
movement’s most visionary leaders. This is a must-read book for anyone working
for social justice.
Urvashi Vaid, Irresistible Revolution: Confronting Race, Class and the
Assumptions of LGBT Politics.
Bi
Any Other Name is a must read for
those in and out of the bisexual community. The anthology is pertinent in a
time where bi voices are all but unheard in reflecting the diverse experiences
of the bisexual community.
Eliel Cruz, The
Advocate, Mic, and Religion News Service
This book is a touchstone,
a declaration, a call to (loving) arms, and a wake-up call. This is the book
you read from cover to cover, over and over, internalizing and savoring its
insights like fine wine: aged to perfection, transporting you back to the start
of the movement, and carrying you forward. This is history – on the move.
Gary North, Co-founder:
BiNet USA
As leaders in PFLAG for the past 25 years, the issues addressed in Bi Any Other Name have become
increasingly familiar to us and to our chapter members through our monthly
meetings. The timing of this new edition is excellent. The book
will be accessible to younger generations and their families with current,
important information.
Julia and Sam Thoron
While much has changed for LGBTQ youth over the past 25 years – their need
to connect and learn about others like
them has not. Bi Any Other Name is an amazing
resource to help bisexual youth – who
sometimes face challenges in finding a home in a community which tends to focus
on its gay and lesbian members – truly understand that they are not alone. Considering recent events and the reality
that there are still not nearly enough publications out there for bisexual
youth – an update to this book is both timely and helpful in our movement’s
efforts to support and engage LGBTQ youth.
Greg Varnum, Executive Director, National Youth Advocacy Coalition
In the two and a half
decades since Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual
People Speak Out was originally published; one of the most remarkable changes
has been the alignment of bisexuals and the transgender community. Yes, both
groups challenge gender/sexuality binaries, but we share something even more
basic: we refuse to give up parts of ourselves to make other people
comfortable. This is both our greatest
strength and what makes us most threatening to others: our existence reminds
people of what pieces of themselves and their loved ones that they may have
sacrificed, and asks them whether those sacrifices are worth it. Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out
shows both how far we have come in two decades, and how far we still have to
go.
Loree Cook-Daniels, FORGE, Transgender
Aging Network
Since 1991, Bi Any Other Name has been
part of the adventurous, exhilarating and exhausting life/lust/love trips of
many bisexuals around the world, including academics and activists. In 1991, I
was an Australian lecturer/student embarking on a PhD into cultural, gender and
sexual diversities. BAON dared to name and proclaim that all those identities
did co-exist, could mean multiple things to many, and were “hidden in plain
sight”. Since then, BAON has never left my Uni bookshelves, always ready
to be referenced in my own work and shared with students, and many more who
confidently proclaim their bisexuality.
Dr. Maria
Pallotta-Chiarolli
School of Health and Social Development
Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
Bi
Any Other Name continues to be
incredibly relevant, which is a testament to the thoughtfulness of the writers
and the breadth of material included by the editors. But it also reflects
how relatively little has been published about the lives of bisexual people in
the intervening years. The experiences of bisexuals continue to be ignored
or marginalized in many discussions of sexuality and gender. A growing
number of cisgender lesbian and gay activists and scholars have (finally) begun
to recognize the importance of including and acknowledging trans people in
their communities, movements, and research, but in the process, many have
skipped over the “B” in “LGBT.” BAON can again serve to challenge the
silencing of bisexual lives and be an inspiration for another generation of bi,
pan, and sexually fluid people.
Genny Beemyn, Ph.D.
Director, the Stonewall Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst:
For many of us, this anthology was the
first bi community we ever knew. This book saves and changes lives, and I
wholeheartedly recommend that you invite it into yours. Hutchins and Ka’ahumanu
are as insightful and honest today as when their groundbreaking Bi Bible first
appeared.
Margaret Robinson, PhD
Researcher in Residence in Indigenous Health
The Ontario HIV Treatment Network
Affiliate Research Scientist.
"Anthologies can change people's
lives. I know because they have changed mine. They provide us with
opportunities to have a symphony of experience wash over and through us,
saturating our every pore with wisdom born of lives, diverse and full. Bi
Any Other Name, published in 1991 is such an anthology. Now in ebook form
so that a new generation of readers can submerge and be the better for
it."
Dr. Herukhuti
Founder, Center for Culture, Sexuality
and Spirituality
Bi Any Other Name is a tremendously valuable book. I have used it with many
clients over the years, to help them clear their own sexual confusion. I am so
glad to see a new edition of this book, which I will use with many clients yet
to come.
Tina B. Tessina, PhD, LMFT, Gay Relationships: How to Find Them, How to
Improve Them, How to Make Them Last.
SELECTION OF
ORIGINAL 1991 BLURBS
"Young
voices speak next to old, lawyers next to factory workers, blacks next to
whites next to Asians; single people and people in group marriages are given
equal time. After reading even part of this thick book, bisexuality seems so
natural that the reader begins to wonder what all the fuss is about. And that's
the beauty of Bi Any Other Name." --Philadelphia
City Paper
“Rejected by both gay and straight
worlds, bisexuals have been a community in exile. With this rich and varied
collection, however, bisexual women and men step forward into their own
historical spotlight. The writing here, challenging and authentic, can only
deepen our discussions about passion and politics.”
Joan
Nestle, cofounder of the Lesbian Herstory
Archives, author of The Restricted
Country, editor of The Persistent
Desire
“These urgent testimonials lead us into
a sexually whole society where, with our varied queerness, we are welcome. This
is a necessary book.”
Judy
Grahn, author of Another Mother Tongue, and
Blood, Bread and Roses
“The authors debunk the concept that
people are either heterosexual or homosexual and that bisexual women and men
are fence sitters. Bi Any Other Name will help tremendously in securing for the
bisexual community its rightful place within the larger movement for genuine
progressive social change – a movement that will ultimately liberate us
all.”
Warren
J. Blumenfeld, coauthor of Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life, editor
of Homophobia, How We All Pay the Price
