My green t-shirt arrived saying bisexuality rocks, and to be honest I thought why on earth had I signed up to do this.At the time I was staying in a small village in the North East of Scotland and although there are many nice people there, LGBT communities do not have such a presence. Nevertheless, I wore the t-shirt for a day, just around my village, to the local coffee morning, shopping and at a friend’s later. Partly due to the temperature and partly due to wearing it making me feel uncomfortable I ended up having to put a layer on top, not because I did not want to support bi people but because I know there are a lot of people uncomfortable with the topic there. Anyway I discussed it with my parents and brother over lunch and although they said they were all for diversity, they could not bring themselves to say the word bisexual, in the same way they can never say gay or lesbian, they just say diversity is good. Since I felt I had not truly worn the t-shirt out in public I wore it for a day once I moved to Edinburgh also, where I felt more relaxed supporting the motto. It happened to be Halloween so I wore it around town during the day and out with friends to a few pubs at night. I incorporated it into a poor zombie runner costume.
How comfortable I was wearing the message in different parts of Scotland has really highlighted to me just how there is some way to go for awareness of all LGBT topics in Scotland still. Also despite my experience of wearing the t-shirt, all be it to not being to very exciting places, I still think it got a few conversations about the topic started. Finally, I am glad I took part because although wearing a label in a way was uncomfortable, I could take it off. The topic of bisexuality and the fact there are lots of bisexual people out there is something which can’t be taken of and needs to become more accepted in my opinion, which I am sure in the future will be the case.
