Date: Wed, 15 Feb 1995 14:33:07 -0600 (CST) From: LesBiGay Services of Kansas Subject: Bionic first meeting a success! Hello o groovy queerfolk 'n' allies! Just wanted to let you know that we had our first meeting of Bionic, our new bi group we talked a little about at the NGLTF conference, last night and it was *great*! We were expecting maybe 5 to 8 people, and 16 showed up - and many of them were peoplewe had never met before who have up to now not been involved in our campus organization. I really wasn't expecting much interest from people outside of LesBiGayS-OK at all! It was almost all male (12 men, 4 women, including myself), another surprise since I thought it would be about even - but hey, I'm bi so it didn't bother me one bit. We even had one gay but bifriendly man come to it. We told him he was just confused. (: (Just kidding!!) Anyways, we did a little icebreaker where everyone was given a piece of paper and pencil and had to write down one thing that's cool about being bi, one thing that's crappy about being bi, and name 3 famous or historical bi people. The first two items kind of gave everyone a chance to unload a little bit about the kind of biphobic stuff they come up against and the last proved to be really challenging for everyone and sparked a lot of conversation. We passed out info on BiNet USA and subscription info on Anything That Moves, and we had copies of Anything That Moves and the last couple of BiNet USA newsletters for them all to look at. One guy used to live in San Francisco and has been a member of BiNet USA and BiPol for a while, but almost all the others didn't even know there was a national bi movement and they were really enthusiastic about the information they got. We talked a little about BiNEt USA, told them about how you're going to be here during LesBiGay Awareness Week (and passed around my very dogeared copy of _Bi Any Other Name_), and talked about what to do as our first political action (we're going to work on our campus newspaper as well as the regional lesbian and gay - but NOT bi - newspaper to be more inclusive of us in their language). We also asked the people who came what THEY want the organization to be - social, political, support? - and they were really excited and said all of the above! So I am very, very excited about the possibilities for us. I do a weekly column for the campus newspaper, and while I've been fairly frank about my queerness in it so far, I think the next one will deal directly with biphobia and what coming out was like for me. I'm looking at setting up a workshop for the Bionic group with Lani Ka'ahumanu on bi visibility and activism during her stay for LesBiGay Awareness Week. And I'm going to send information on Bionic in to the BiNet USA newsletter. We will look at having regular meetings the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Location and other info will be sent out to you all within the next 2 weeks or so. Thanks to those of you who came, and those of you who didn't are still MORE than welcome for next time. If you want any more information, you can email me at this address or John Bennett (he and I are the co-coordinators of Bionic) at rawgoat@falcon.cc.ukans.edu any time. Bi bi! Peace, Luv, and Hairgrease, Chris Hampton LesBiGayS-OK Official Email Coordinatrix ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Services of Kansas ~ ~ The University of Kansas ~ ~ Director: Eric O. Moore * Email Coordinator: Chris Hampton ~ ~ lbgsok@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu ~ ~ 400 Kansas Union Box 13 * Lawrence, KS 66045 * (913) 864-3091 ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____ "Every act of visibility is an act of resistance." ~ \ / - Suzanne Pharr ~ \/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~