Gnome Pride!

I don’t blog often enough as it is, and I’m posting this almost a week later than I wanted to. Other things in life are often more important, and sometimes my urge to procrastinate just gets the best of me. But, better late &c.

On Tuesday, April 7, I read this Queers United blog entry, which discusses another article by Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, questioning—I might go so far as to say denying—the existence of bisexuality.

I couldn’t believe it.

No. Not true. I could, and still can, believe it. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before—from both ends of the sexuality spectrum, heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. It’s a minority view, I’m sure, but one that needs to be eradicated. I know for a fact bisexuals exist, because I am one.

I’m not going to get too riled up about this. As far as GLBTQ issues go, I’ve been spending my energy on things like the Observe and Report controversy and #amazonfail, and I’m about tapped. I just want to do two things here briefly.

First, I’d like to point out the obvious argument that little to nothing in this world is strictly polarized. On any spectrum, there’s room for something in between the extremes—and sometimes things don’t even fall on the spectrum. It’s true in politics and religion, and it’s true in the case of sexuality. There is room for everything. Those who deny the existence of bisexuality need to read a bit more. Decades of unbiased scientific research make it quite apparent that sexuality runs the gamut of the spectrum: from 100% straight to 100% gay. Some people are attracted to both sexes. Some of these are attracted to one sex more than the other; some are attracted to both equally. And this is only where male/female distinctions are involved. Don’t get me started on transgender issues and pansexuality.

Second, I wanted to share a personal anecdote. It’s one I pull out every time this issue comes up.

A few years ago, I was involved in a conversation with a friend who was trying to sort out her sexuality. Her boyfriend at the time told her she had to choose between straight or gay, because there just isn’t any such thing as bisexuality. As if the GLBTQ community isn’t already marginalized, now I was being marginalized within it. This, of course, grated on me, and I immediately responded to the effect of, “Don’t exist?! What are we? Fucking gnomes?”

From that point, “gnome” became my personal term of sexual identification. Some time later, in a poetry class I was auditing at the local college, I was given the assignment to write a poem using a metaphor. In mine, I used gnomes as a symbol for bisexuals.* It was well received, especially by a few bisexual/queer women in the class who began using the term themselves.

So, now I want to put a call out to all those who, like me, don’t fit into a nice little category at the extreme end of a spectrum. Let the world know that we do exist. We will not hide, and we will not be some of the most marginalized members of an already marginalized community. Stand up. Be proud to be a gnome!

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*I’d post the poem here, but, unfortunately, my filing system is a little disorganized at the moment and I can’t find it. When I do, this post will be updated.