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An Activist’s Life, by Thomas Leavitt » Blog Archive » History of the Bi-Angles

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June 9th, 2004
Queer

History of the Bi-Angles

[The document below was created at my request, after I discovered that no record of the origin of the bi-angles existed anywhere on the web. -Thomas]

History of the Bi-Angles
Liz Nania

In 1983 I was an active member of the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network. When
Lucy Friedland and I heard about the upcoming March on Washington for
Lesbian and Gay (sic) Rights, we decided a national bisexual contingent was
definitely needed. In the course of organizing, I realized we bisexuals
required an identifying button for visibility. Up until that time, I had
worn the only bi-identified button I could find, which read, “Half Gay”.
(”Which half?” was the inevitable response.) This button was rather
inadequate, but it represented a valiant attempt at outing ourselves.

So in the interest of positive visibility, being not half-anything but
wholly bisexual, I designed a simple button with “Bisexual Pride” written in
hand-lettering. As an artist and activist, I knew a strong symbol would be
at least as important as words to encourage visibility and community, so I
designed the Bi-Angles to be printed on the Bisexual Pride buttons. In 1983,
the pink triangle was the symbol most predominantly used in the lesbian and
gay communities; the rainbow theme had not yet been popularly adopted. I
liked the strong simplicity of the pink triangle, and I appreciated the
historical reminder of the roots of the symbol. I created pink and blue
triangles to represent our sexual orientation towards men and women, and
their overlapping into lavender to represent our wholeness as bisexuals. I
also liked the queer connotation of the lavender, as bisexuals have always
been members of the queer (LGBT) community.

I had a few hundred of these Bisexual Pride buttons printed up for the
march, and I hand-crafted a few pins with just the Bi-Angles symbol. (Years
later I became a jewelry designer, and even today, I’m still occasionally
hand-crafting bi pins!) I asked the Boston Bisexual Women’s Network if they
would like to use these as a fundraiser, which they did. Next came the
t-shirts; and the rest is herstory! And history.

Liz Nania
Boston
June 2004

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