Comments on: Portland, Oregon: Bisexual capital of the world http://ohcomenow.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/portland-oregon-is-the-bisexual-capital-of-the-world/ Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:35:13 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Sven http://ohcomenow.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/portland-oregon-is-the-bisexual-capital-of-the-world/#comment-127 Sven Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:35:13 +0000 http://ohcomenow.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/portland-oregon-is-the-bisexual-capital-of-the-world/#comment-127 The Portland Bisexual Alliance ran from 1995-2002, and I was on the board for six of those years. We did just about everything that a bi organization *can* do... * Every month: a bi themed panel or workshop, a bi community orientation night, and bringing in a guest speaker from an outside organization. * Bi 101 education workshops. * An annual "Bi Day" rally, with ~15 bi speakers, bi musicians, even bi ASL providers. * At Pride we had a "famous bisexuals" exhibit and gave out thousands of free bi pins. * We ran two statewide bi conferences. * We published a monthly newsletter and a calendar of events for the seven Oregon bi organizations that we were in contact with. * We had representation at countless queer community political meetings... We even played a small part in putting Multnomah County's sexual orientation non-discrimination policy in place. ...And so, ultimately, those of us who were running the organization burnt out. It was a phenomenal time commitment, with once-a-week board meetings -- and sometimes three meetings a week when we were hosting an event, or political events were afoot. A cursory google search suggests that Portland Bisexual Women is still around... They've been going for 16+ years now. If you want to connect with what the state of things is now, they'd be the first folks I'd talk to. File this under "where are they now?", I suppose. The Portland Bisexual Alliance ran from 1995-2002, and I was on the board for six of those years.

We did just about everything that a bi organization *can* do…

* Every month: a bi themed panel or workshop, a bi community orientation night, and bringing in a guest speaker from an outside organization.

* Bi 101 education workshops.

* An annual “Bi Day” rally, with ~15 bi speakers, bi musicians, even bi ASL providers.

* At Pride we had a “famous bisexuals” exhibit and gave out thousands of free bi pins.

* We ran two statewide bi conferences.

* We published a monthly newsletter and a calendar of events for the seven Oregon bi organizations that we were in contact with.

* We had representation at countless queer community political meetings… We even played a small part in putting Multnomah County’s sexual orientation non-discrimination policy in place.

…And so, ultimately, those of us who were running the organization burnt out. It was a phenomenal time commitment, with once-a-week board meetings — and sometimes three meetings a week when we were hosting an event, or political events were afoot.

A cursory google search suggests that Portland Bisexual Women is still around… They’ve been going for 16+ years now. If you want to connect with what the state of things is now, they’d be the first folks I’d talk to.

File this under “where are they now?”, I suppose.

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