Panel discusses fact, fiction, views about bisexuality

By Rachael Conley
Assistant Campus Editor

Bisexuality is the cool thing to do in Chicago, according to at least one Purdue student.

"Bisexuality is like all the rage in Chicago," said Jori Ford, a junior in the School of Science who said she is heterosexual and originally from Chicago.

A forum entitled "Bisexuality: Fact or Fiction?" was held Wednesday night in the Stewart Center and consisted of a discussion between an audience of around 40 people and a panel of six people from the gay, straight and bisexual communities.

The atmosphere of the forum was relaxed as people, mostly students, related their views on bisexuality.

Donovan Grose, a graduate student who said he was a gay man, spoke on the panel.

Grose said he doesn't truly believe in bisexuality because he has yet to see a man claim bisexuality for more than a year. He said the only bisexual men he has seen are gay men first coming out of the closet.

A member of the audience said he felt that bisexuals have to prove themselves by going out on dates with both sexes.

Grose said, "It's a way of identifying between a gay man coming out and a (bisexual) man."

The forum also discussed levels of sexuality. It was said that most people weren't completely heterosexual or completely homosexual. Most remain somewhere in the middle and this is where bisexuals are defined, they are the exact center of the scale.

The definition of bisexuality itself is a confusing one. Jessica Barron, a member of the panel who said she was bisexual and a senior in the School of Liberal Arts, said bisexuality is "the absence of labeling the people you date."

Later in the discussion trisexuality and pansexuality were both brought up as well. All of these, bisexuality, trisexuality and pansexuality, create their own definition of the person that identifies with them. Instead of being male or female, some of these people see themselves as just people; not a man or a woman, but simply, a person.

One member of the panel said it's looking past gender to who they are and appreciating that.

"We're all fighting for the same cause. We're all at the bottom fighting against the majority, which is people who don't accept other people," said panelist Felecia Reedus, a senior in the School of Health Sciences, who said she was heterosexual.

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Campus editor: Kelsey VanArsdall

Assistant Campus editors: Rachael Conley, Matt Lindner

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