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

London’s annual Bi Pride festival is moving out west – though only to west London, not Birmingham as their teaser campaign this week made some speculate. The University of West London, Ealing Campus, will play host to the event on Saturday 31st August 2024. Attendees will be treated to a variety of entertainment on the Main Stage, while discussion panels on a wide variety of bi+ topics will take place on the I Am Proud Stage. Stalls will fill the community hub, with various food and drink options being available for people of all dietary needs. This year’s host also holds a special connection ..read more

The Australian High Court will rule tomorrow on the case of a bi asylum seeker. His anonymity is being preserved in the media by referring to him as ASF17. He came to Australia from Iran to seek asylum, but his case is in part challenged by the authorities’ claim that he did not mention his sexual orientation as a reason he could not safely return to Iran until the start of proceedings to remove him from the country. If he is allowed to remain, the Australian Solicitor General argues that this will open the door to other bisexual asylum seekers having a constitutional claim to remain regardles ..read more

Dating app Grindr is set to find itself in court over claims it leaked private data about users. Grindr is mainly used by bi and gay men, with a focus on hookups over relationships. The legal action is being brought by class action specialist law firm Austen Hays. They claim the app misused “private information of thousands of affected UK Grindr users, including highly sensitive information about their HIV status and latest tested date”. Without users opting into that happening the case alleges this would be a breach of UK data protection laws for sharing sensitive data to third parties for co ..read more

Bi Pride is teasing us with where its 2024 festival will be held. In a social media post they promise to announce the venue soon – but offer a poem as clue “Can you guess from this silly little rhyme? We’ll be in a place where students spend their time. Find us in a direction that rhymes with best, Does the phrase ‘electric fish’ help with our test? You’ll find us in a place known for education, Not too far from Northfield station! “ Now there are two stations with names like that in the UK. Northfield (which is what the graphic and accessibility-text says) is just outside Birmingham ..read more

Our online archive of BCN back numbers is complete! Over the past couple of years we have been filling in the gaps in the online collection of Bi Community News articles going right back to the start in 1995. Some of those have required OCRing or retyping from scratch as the original digital files have been lost. This week we have added issues 44 and 45, from the summer of the year 2000. Back then the community was focused on an upcoming International Conference on Bisexuality in Manchester, while down south London’s main Pride festival was going by the name Mardi Gras. They were the final two ..read more

Prime Video has set a date for the new season of superhero drama The Boys. The fourth run of the show drops onto the Amazon streaming service on June 13th. The Boys is based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson and is an often-bleak, often-funny take on how superhero life would pan out in the barely-restrained capitalism of the modern USA. In season four, the world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lo ..read more