The Eurovision Song Contest final is less than 48 hours away and following the second semi-final, there’s at least one bi contestant still in the running. Lithuania’s Silvester Belt (above) is openly bisexual and through to the final. An ‘ex-bi’ who now prefers the label queer, Belgium‘s Mustii (below) got knocked out of the contest on Tuesday. Eurovision 2023 winner Loreen Last year Loreen won for Sweden for her second Eurovision trophy – and her first since coming out as bisexual. Will the title stay in bi hands? Other likely contenders include a popular performance in the semis from Switz ..read more

The United Methodist Church has taken a step into the modern age. The church’s General Conference in the USA has voted to allow bi people (and other LGBTs) to be ordained into the clergy, which had been banned at the church’s 1984 conference. The measures were passed by a huge margin without any futher debate, after forty years of arguing. It was backed by attendees by 692 votes to 51. A neutral stance was agreed on same-sex weddings: none shall be obliged to conduct them, and no one shall face penalty for conducting them. Further a section 28 style bar on use of church funds in ways deemed to ..read more

GLAAD, the US’ biggest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organisation, has just released the 19th edition of the annual Where We Are On TV study, which maps the presence of LGBTQ characters for the 2023-24 television season. And to the chagrin of BiMediaWatch, there’s a notable fall in bi representation. GLAAD has tracked LGBTQ regular and recurring characters on original primetime scripted programming for nearly three decades, since the 1996-97 TV season. Comparing first tally in 1996, to this year’s study, GLAAD has found a +1276% growth or 13.7x more LGBTQ ..read more

The Lambda Literary Awards shortlists are out – and among them are some of the best bi books published last year. The organisers have announced finalists in 26 categories for the 36th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. The finalists were selected by a panel of more than 70 readers, critics, and literary professionals from more than 1,300 submissions. Best Bi Fiction All-Night Pharmacy: A Novel // Ruth Madievsky (Catapult) Endpapers // Jennifer Savran Kelly (Algonquin Books) Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen // Sarah James (Sourcebooks) Natural Beauty // Ling Ling Huang (Penguin Random House / D ..read more

We mostly cover the “big stuff” in BCN – like bi events, changes to law that particularly affect bi people, new research and so forth. But a lot of bi news is not “real news” but gossip or social media comments from people in the public eye. Those don’t change laws but they do, albeit not as often as we might like, change hearts and minds. Or give us public statements we can really relate to and that help educate others. Richard Gadd, star of new Netflix comedy Baby Reindeer, talked about being bi with Attitude. He observes that “I realised quite early on that I used to say, ‘Oh, you have to b ..read more

Iraq has clamped down on same-sex relationships – and much more besides. The government there has voted through a new ‘morality’ law, amending an existing law about sex work. It will mean those convicted of same-sex sexual relations may face 10 to 15 years imprisonment, and up to three years for people who have gender reassignment surgery or for surgeons who perform such surgeries. It also bans any organisation from promoting ‘sexual deviance’ – with seven years imprisonment and fines of around £6,000 awaiting anyone running an LGBT support group. Unusually the legislation does not only attack ..read more

New research from the USA suggests bi women die younger than lesbians, and lesbians die younger than heterosexual women. It’s released by the JAMA research journal, in a paper entitled Disparities in Mortality by Sexual Orientation in a Large, Prospective Cohort of Female Nurses, authored by McKetta, Hoatson, Hughes et al. The paper looks at women working in nursing – but it would seem likely the outcomes are similar for women across the wider population. The researchers found that bisexual and lesbian participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II died an estimated 37% and 20% sooner, respective ..read more

The Scottish coalition government has come to an abrupt end. The Nationalist-Green arrangement at Holyrood had been signed in August 2021 as a five-year plan but has fallen apart at half time. It was a deal struck due to a hung parliament: at the time the SNP had 64 MSPs, one short of a majority. That tally has fallen by one in the interim. In part the split is about policy: SNP ministers had renounced the coalition’s environmental targets, and were seen to be retreating on measures like gender recognition reform and outlawing so-called conversion therapy. Both parties are split on the latter ..read more

A minor league baseball umpire is taking the MLB to court after he was fired – citing biphobia as a reason he was let go. Brandon Cooper claims to have faced repeated verbal abuse over his sexual orientation from a fellow umpire, and that when he complained about this internally he was dismissed because MLB are illegally focusing on improving gender and racial diversity among the roster of umpires. The claimed abuse was from a woman umpire, who Cooper says told him she was invulnerable to complaints no matter what she did as “MLB has to hire females, they won’t get rid of me unless I quit.” He ..read more

A Canadian court will hear a case challenging the country’s new sperm donation rules. Canada’s health authorities recently announced changes to rules on sperm and ova donation, following similar changes to blood donation rules. Those changes mirrored steps in the UK that allowed many more bi and gay men, and their partners, to donate blood. The new rules are meant to ensure no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. They however ask questions about whether sperm donors have had anal sex or sex with multiple partners, and whether egg donors have had sex with a man who has sex with me ..read more