< RETURN TO bi, pan, & m-spec nonfiction
AUTHOR: Kata Orndorff (editor)
PUBLISHER: See Sharp Press
LANGUAGE:English
DATE: 1999
PRINTING: First
PAGES: 247
ISBN: 1884365094
Bi Lives: Bisexual Women Tell Their Stories
edited by Kata Orndorff
Bi Lives contains 18 in-depth, revealing interviews with bisexual women. Some of them are in relationships with women, some with men, some with both, and some are single. Some are monogamous; some are non-monogamous. All of their stories are compelling.
The women range in age from 21 to 57. They are of different classes and races, with vastly different life experiences. They include bisexual political organizers, such as Lani Ka’ahumanu; women who identified as lesbians; disabled women; nurse-midwives; visual and performance artists; and an HIV-positive woman.
The book also includes safer sex guidelines, by Rowan Frost, and a bisexual resource list by Robyn Ochs, editor of Bisexual Resource Guide 2000.
Bi Lives is a candid glimpse into the world of bisexual women, and is “must reading” for bisexual women, those who love them, and those concerned with women’s freedom to express their sexuality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Introduction
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Dannielle a 27-year-old drugstore clerk who lives in San Francisco. She is a “peer safer sex educator” and has been involved with the queer youth movement. Her mother is Lani Ka’ahumanu whose interview also appears in this book.
- Anuhea, a 44-year-old who lives in San Francisco. She works in the AIDS field, particularly with women and children who are HIV infected.
- Margarita a 32-year-old painter and hair-dresser who lives in San Francisco. She is of German descent and has a blue-collar background; both of her parents worked in a factory.
- Peg, a 40-year old woman who lives in Arizona with her female partner, Brandie. She provides office support services for a therapeutic amssage center.
- Sonya, a 41-year-old legal worker who lives in San Francisco. She has two children.
- Rosa, a 30-year-old Latina performance artist who works in a woman-owned retail sex store, and lives in San Francisco.
- Mary, a 42-year-old, HIV-positive woman who lives in Southern California. She is self-employed. Her husband died of AIDS.
- Lani, Lani Ka’ahumanu is a bisexual activist who lives in San Francisco. With Loraine Hutchins, she edited the book Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out. At the time of this interview, she was 50 years old and working as the coordinator of an HIV-prevention project targeting high risk lesbian and bisexual women; she was also serving on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gender Advisory Committee to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. She is of mixed heritage: Hawaiian, Japanese, Irish, and Polish-Jew.
- Susan, a 43-year-old mother and social worker who lives in Marin County,California.
- Vidya, a 45-year-old “out” bisexual woman, living and working in Santa Barbara, California. She is half-Jewish/half-WASP and was raised in working-class poverty by a single mom in Los Angeles.
- Rachel, a 28-year-old white student from a wealthy background who lives in San Francisco.
- Judy, a 57-year-old disabled writer who lives in Oakland, California.
- Carol, a 36-year-old Caucasian woman who lives in Berkeley, California. She is an editorial assistant for a magazine and also works in an art center.
- Michelle, a 42-year-old nurse-midwife who lives in the Northwest. She is in a polyfidelitous relationship of ten years duration with Casey (whose interview follows this) and Casey’s husband, Doug, and has one child.
- Casey, a 42-year-old nurse-midwife with two children who lives i the Northwest. She is involved in a triad with her husband, Doug, and with Michelle, whose interview precedes this. Michelle makes some comments during the course of this interview.
- Pamela, a 33-year-old massage therapist and libertarian activist who lives in San Francisco.
- Revi a a 21-year-old white student and women’s health worker active in the queer women’s community, who lives in San Francisco Her mother is a lesbian.
- Diana, a 30-year-old research scientist who lives in San Francisco. Her family background is white Southern working class. She began this interview by talking about her coming-out experience.
- Appendices
- A. Safer Sex by Rowan Frost
- B. Resources for Bisexual Women by Robyn Ochs
- C. Additional Resources
QUOTES
ll
SUGGEST A QUOTE:
Similar Titles
Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution
Life Isn’t Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between book