On September 21st, 2023, MBN officially launched the two reports, "Bi The Way: A Guide to Bisexual+ Research” and “Intimate Partner Violence: Bi+ Inclusive Practice Report”, at an event with RMIT.

This was a combined virtual and in-person event that included a panel presentation (see below) with Juniper Muller, Ruby Mountford and Penny McKay from MBN as well as Amber Loomis from the Sydney Bi+ Network and Jade de Bondt.

This event was part of the Stand Bi Us, annual bi+ conference celebration of Bi Visibility Week.

Bi The Way: A Guide to Bisexual+ Research (Cavarra, R., Amos, N., & Muller, J. 2023).

• MBN worked with research staff at Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University (ARCSHS) to create a set of guidelines on Bi+ inclusive research, “Bi The Way”.

Intimate Partner Violence: Bi+ Inclusive Practice Report (Loomis, A, Mountford, R., Muller, J., McKay, P., & Grigg, M. 2023).

• This was the report of a collaboration with organisations working in violence prevention and response (Safe and Equal and Berry Street) to create bi+ inclusive practice resources, and to improve outcomes for bi+ women in their care.

Image by Briar Rolfe.

The purpose of this project was to collaborate with organisations working in violence prevention and response (Safe and Equal and Berry Street) to create bi+ inclusive practice resources, and to improve outcomes for bi+ women in their care.

Bi+ women experience high rates of IPV (intimate partner violence), are often failed by the health and justice systems and yet are largely invisible from current IPV frameworks and practice.

Misogyny and biphobia intersect to produce bimisogyny, which fetishizes and villainizes bisexuality, resulting in stereotypes and prejudices about bi+ women, including that they are promiscuous and deceitful, and that bisexuality is a temporary or unstable orientation. Bimisogyny is both a driver of violence against bi+ women and a barrier to bi+ women accessing appropriate support.

Significant work is needed to develop interventions which prevent and respond to these stereotypes to create safer communities for bi+ women.

The report contains five recommendations to address these issues.

Citation: Loomis, A, Mountford, R., Muller, J., McKay, P., & Grigg, M. (2023). Intimate Partner Violence: Bi+ Inclusive Practice Report. Melbourne Bisexual Network.

From our submission:

Being able to show accurate data and trends is crucial in being able to identify the extent of issues, track change over time, and target interventions for those most in need. Unfortunately, we often need to rely on international data to make ‘best guesses’ at Australian data, which while similar to countries like the US, Canada, UK, differs in important ways.

We humbly submit the recommendation that the ABS includes the following questions for the 2026 Census.

1. What is your sexuality?

1. Heterosexual

2. Gay/Lesbian

3. Bisexual+

4. Asexual

5. Nonspecified and not heterosexual (queer, etc.)

6. Don’t know

7. Prefer not to say

8. Specify_______

2. Are you sexually and/or romantically attracted to more than one gender? (regardless of use of label such as bisexual, pansexual, etc.)

1. Yes

2. No, I’m only attracted to one gender

We would also support recommendations from trans and gender diverse led organisations on wording for questions regarding gender which are inclusive of transgender people. This should allow people to express their trans identity/history, and for data to be used productively in Australian population data. This should NOT require additional steps for the participant such as applying for supplemental forms, as this data in the past was not usable due to the demands on the participant.

We suggest these two specific questions above because asking about sexual identity label does not accurately capture the experiences of multi gender attracted Australians. This is due to how many people experience multi gender attraction and will not use a label such as ‘bisexual’ because of societal stigma. This is a known issue in bisexual research, with differing populations according to identity/attraction/behaviour, and so we encourage the ABS to attend to this in practice. Asking both of these questions allows multi gender attracted people to be identified in the sample even if they would call their sexuality something otherwise as is often the case.

MBN worked with research staff at Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University (ARCSHS) to create an updated set of guidelines on Bi+ inclusive research, “Bi The Way: A Guide to Bisexual+ Research”.

This is the first guideline of its kind in Australia, and the first internationally in over 10 years. It was produced using one of the first and largest grants awarded for Bisexual specific projects from the Victorian government, run by a small volunteer group hitting above its weight to make an impact. Given the state of wellbeing for Bi+ people, it is crucial we improve research for this population, and we believe these guidelines will help.

Bisexual and multigender attracted people constitute the majority of non-exclusively heterosexual people by current best estimates. (Gallup, 2021) Yet research that meaningfully includes bi+ people in positive ways is relatively new, and funding for bi+ specific research is chronically low (Lawther et. al, 2022). Much of the research currently being published either does not include bisexuality as a separate category of sexual identity/experience, or when it does, misses key factors of context, language, or framing. Both of these oversights unfortunately contribute to biphobic myths, stigma, and discrimination, without substantially improving outcomes for bi+ people.

This set of guidelines aims to build upon these to support research into bi+ people and ensure this work more accurately represent the community, is inclusive of community needs, and relevant to important contemporary issues of sexual identity, attraction, and behaviour.

Citation: Cavarra, R., Amos, N., & Muller, J. (2023). Bi the Way: A Guide to Bisexual+ Research. Melbourne Bisexual Network.

View a recording of the panel presentation at the launch of the research reports at RMIT, in September 2023. This event formed part of the annual national bi+ conference, Stand Bi Us.

Melbourne Bisexual Network, in collaboration with RMIT, hosted a series of events in 2022 around community building, using a grant from the Victorian Government. This event, held 13th October 2022, was presenting Miles the Bisexual, discussing all things Bi+, from myths and stigma, to queer enough, and nonbinary sexualities!

Megan and Juniper (previously Josh) had the opportunity to talk all things Bisexuality on Bent TV Community television, broadcast live and on the internet. Please have a watch, and share with your friends!

In collaboration with Peter Moo at Rainbow Roo, MBN helped design 4 different Bi+ pride tees! Rainbow Roo will be donating 50% of the profits made from these tee-shirts to our volunteer org to help us in our work improving Bi+ wellbeing in Melbourne and beyond.

Click below to buy one for yourself and one for your Bi+ pal!

The Bi+ Community showed up in great numbers to Melbourne Pride March at Midsumma 2020 on 2nd February. Over 75 people joined our group, holding signs made together a couple weeks prior, giant banners, and of course many dressed to celebrate Bi and Pan colours! We were ecstatic to march near other fantastic community groups including Vixen Collective (Victoria’s peer only sex worker org) and Melbourne Aces. Year on year we’ve been growing in volume, so help us next year break 100!

Juniper Muller presented a session on nonbinary gender and sexuality, with the aim to empower Bisexual+ and Nonbinary activists and voices to lead movements of social change, and make space for people who don’t fit neatly in the boxes.

Ruby Mountford took part in a presentation and panel featuring bi+ activists and advocates from across Australia, and USA activist Robyn Ochs, sharing insight on new research findings, outcomes from community building efforts in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and practical solutions to the unique challenges faced by multi-gender attracted people, and identified over the last two Bi+ Caucus.

The Big Bi+ Bonanza is a Bi+ Visibility festival celebrating community and wellbeing through visual and performance art, with music, panels and a market!

Featuring performances by shOUT Youth Chorus, Mahla Bird/Themme Fatale, Cynthia Sobraty, Yasmin De Laine and Amao Leota Lu.

This event is being co-hosted by the Melbourne Bisexual Network and shOUT Youth Chorus..

BBB is free and unticketed, come and go as you please throughout the day.

All LGBTQIA+ folk and their allies are warmly welcomed!

Ruby Mountford, Josh/Juniper Muller and Jess Olivo presented a workshop at Better Together conference in January 2019, called - Being Bi+, Understanding & supporting Bi+ people with their mental health.

This included sharing research outcomes, professional knowledge, and anecdotal experience whilst facilitating discussion about the barriers bisexual people face when accessing health services.

This also included discussion of strategies to overcome these barriers and used case studies for participants to work through examples of drivers for mental health issues in bisexual+ people, and challange stereotypes that perpetuate internalised biphobia.