Writer Maria Burnham describes in the Huffington Post how she grew up in a "conservative, Christian environment" and had a boyfriend and then realized she was bisexual.
She includes a detailed personal history, and some of the common misperceptions about bisexuals.
For example, the people who say, "You were lying to me" throughout your friendships. She writes:
But when I started dating a woman, I suddenly found myself barraged with accusations and questions from friends and family, everyone demanding an answer or an explanation. They wanted to know if I was now gay, or if I'd been lying to them all those years. I became adept at answering in a way that assuaged any fear or confusion they might have been experiencing. My most common response was, "No, I'm not gay. I just fell in love with my best friend, who happened to be a girl."
Then she started dating a man.
She does come up wtih one of the best definitions of bisexuality by going through her personal history.
Is it simply a matter of liking both sexes? And does "liking" mean sexual attraction, or emotional attraction, or both? Or more? I sent out an inquiry to my queer community and was surprised by the variety of responses. One thing most people agree on is that there is a scale, with gay on one end and straight on the other, and each person falls on a different part of the scale. According to some, "true" bisexuals are at the halfway mark, 50/50, smack dab in the middle. Others believe that falling anywhere other than at the two points on the end grants you the right to claim the bisexual label. And what about pansexuality? Some believe it to be interchangeable with bisexuality, while others say that it is less exclusive than bisexuality, truly open to everyone and not based on a two-gender binary. And if you end up in a monogamous relationship with someone of the same sex, does that mean you've graduated to gay status? If I end up marrying a man, does that give my friends the right to say, "I told you you were straight"?
This is one article where those "labels" fly out the window.
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