BiJou 26 - BiNe Bisexuelles Netzwerk eV

ights are shamelessly violated.”) He sees the
reason that the general public doesn’t get upset
over the human rights violations is because it
has too many problems of its own. The great poverty
still isn’t over.
Andrej is looking for a wife. He had already been
married once for 22 years and has a 24-year-old
son. He’s looking for a wife who will accept all
of his inclinations – even the one towards pantyhose.
So far he’s only gotten negative reactions.
Louis (*) on the other hand, is looking for a monogamous
relationship with a man and doesn’t
want his relationship, regardless with whom, to
be public. Piotr can imagine himself having a
relationship with either gender.
And Dimitij was married to a woman for five ye-
BiJou 26
20
ars and is now living together with a man. When
asked why he doesn’t just live heterosexually
since that would be much easier in Russia, he
replies, “For me simpler - to be myself.”
My wish for the Russian people is that they’ll be
able to free themselves from these corrupt and
anti-human rights forces the soonest possible,
so that they will become a genuine democracy,
people will be able to speak freely, and we will
rekindle the desire to travel to this country without
a stomach ache.
Frank
(*) names changed by the editor
More websites with information on the topic:
Gayrussia – Equal Rights. No Compromise. http://www.gayrussia.eu/en/
Gay.Ru – Together Center Project: http://english.gay.ru/
St. Petersburg Pride: http://www.spb-pride.ru/?lang=en
Russischer Bi-Movie – You I Love: http://www.youilove.profun.de/
Lesbiru (only available in Russian): http://lesbiru.com/
Scientific study shows that there is no link between paedophilia and homosexuality:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/94/1/4
BiCon 2012
August marked that time of the year again –
the UK‘s bisexual convention the BiCon was held,
this time in Bradford. It was preceded this year
by the BiReCon, the Bisexual Research Conference
which takes place every two years along
with the BiCon.
All in all around 283 participants (including
day guests) took part in the 60+ workshops and
lectures. At http://bicon2012.org.uk/programme/
you can find a complete overview. Therefore
I will forego a more detailed account.
This year I, as BiNe’s representative, delivered
a greeting at the opening session, which was received
with lively applause. After that we even
managed to welcome a new member into our
ranks. Someone who’s “been meaning to join for
years but had never gotten around to it”. For the
book table I brought a stack of BiJous and other
material, such as a special flyer in English.
What’s so special about this year is that BiNe
is celebrating its 20th anniversary and the BiCon
took place for the 30th time. There was a small
celebration with cake to thank the very first organisers.
After that the regular BiCon party, the “BiCon
Ball“ commenced. As was reported in BiJou 25
there once again were plenty of pretty people
in gothic dresses and other creative outfits to
look at.
Bradford University, entrance
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21
The Bisexual Research Conference (BiReCon),
which took place one day before the actual Bi-
Con, followed the theme “Bisexuality and Mental
Health“. The full programme can be viewed at
http://tinyurl.com/birecon2012.
At this point I would like to present
two books found at the event, which I
personally found very interesting:
1. Intersectionality, Sexuality and
Psychological Therapies – Working with
Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Diversity by
Roshan das Nair and Catherine Butler.
Dr. Roshan das Nair works as a psychologist
at Nottingham University
Hospitals NHS Trust, and the University
of Nottingham (http://www.gfmer.ch/
GFMER_members/Roshan-das-Nair.htm).
Dr. Catherine Butler works as an instructor
for family therapy at the University of
the West of England. (http://people.uwe.ac.uk/
Pages/person.aspx?accountname=campus%5Ccabutler)
In their book the authors deal with the question
what being lesbian, gay, or bisexual means
in contemporary Britain – taking into account