Lambda Raises Awareness Bi the Day

The world is not as black and white as we once thought it was. Since the onset of American culture various groups have striven for social justice and change, blending our black and white culture into various shades of grey. Today, we saw pink, purple, and blue added to the mix in honor of Bisexuality Awareness Week.

Bisexuality Awareness Week exists to create visibility and inform people of bisexuality and confirm its existence in the spectrum of sexuality. On Wednesday at around noon, Lambda Alliance set up a table in front of the library in honor of Celebrate Bisexuality Day. To show that people acknowledge and accept students who fall under this spectrum Lambda used the student’s replies from their tabling event last week to make the bisexual flag

The flag they made was not a traditional one-piece flag, but rather a motley of colored construction paper with words of inspiration and celebration such as: “love is equal”, “stay true to who you are” and “my sexuality is not a choice”. To complement the flag, students who passed by the table got to make creative hashtags to show their support. Strewn across the table there were many hashtags that showed how many supporters there are with phrases like: #love is love, #not a phase, and #equality.

“This event is to celebrate bisexual visibility, so to promote pride among the bisexual community, and raise awareness,”  said Belen Ramirez-Negrete, third year student and member of Lambda. “We would like to counter a lot of these (negative) myths and show that bisexuality is an identity and that we do support it.”

Lambda Alliance is a multipurpose organization providing education, recreational, social, and support services to UC Merced’s LGBT+ and Ally community. By building a vocal body, Lambda works toward spreading awareness to the public on topics of equality. As of now, Labmda Alliance is UC Merced’s only organization focused on LGBT+ culture and heritage. Regularly they host events such as this.

“We have had people come up to our table during this event and they were so excited that the Bisexual community is being recognized,” said Ramirez-Negrete

The goal of the event was to celebrate the bisexual community by breaking stereotypes and prejudices about Bisexuality to show that it is real, that it is something people can be and experience, and that it’s not wrong.

“Be yourself, learn to love yourself, and it doesn’t matter what other people say,” said third year Misael Bolainez. “Be you…at the end of the day that’s what matters.”

Lambda Alliance also put together a Bisexuality Awareness video with the help of ASUCM and UCM faculty. You can view the video here.

View our preview article, Lambda Raises Awareness With “Celebrating Bisexuality Day” here!

 

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Anjeliko Garcia
Staff Writer
agarcia333@ucmerced.edu

Rachel Bryan
Staff Photographer
rbryan3@ucmerced.edu

 

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