Celebrate Bisexuality Day is observed on September 23 every year and is also known as Bisexual Pride Day, Bi Visibility Day, and CBD. It’s a day on which people are called to recognize and support bisexual individuals, as well as a day to celebrate the bisexual community and its history.

It’s a day that’s observed by different people in various ways, but some of the more common ways to celebrate it include parties, concerts, picnics, poetry readings, or teach-ins, among other events.

The History of Celebrate Bisexuality Day

Celebrate Bisexuality Day was officially started in 1999 by three bisexual rights advocates, but it’s an offshoot from an older bisexual observance day created by BiNet USA in 1990. The first conference of this organization was organized and held in San Francisco that year and attracted over 450 people from twenty different states and five different countries.

The mayor of San Francisco declared September 23, 1990, as Bisexual Pride Day. Wendy Curry, Michael Page, and Gigi Raven Wilbur officially observed Bisexuality Day at the International Lesbian and Gay Association Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Currently, many different organizations refer to this observance day as Bisexuality+ Day to include members of the broader bi+ community, who prefer to use labels such as omnisexual, pansexual, polysexual, or queer to describe their sexual orientation.

Facts About Being Bisexual+

Below are some facts about the bisexual+ community that are not generally known by most people. The following bullet points illustrate that bisexual individuals experience higher rates of societal rejection, discrimination, and societal invisibility—sometimes at rates higher than those of their lesbian and gay peers.

• Almost 60% of bisexual individuals are exposed to biphobic jokes at work.
• Over 30% of bisexual individuals have been sexually harassed at work due to their sexual orientation.
• Bisexual individuals are more likely to live on less than $30,000 a year.
• Almost 60% of bisexual women live with mood and anxiety disorders—double the number of heterosexual women.
• Approximately 25-30% of Millennials and Generation X identify as neither completely heterosexual nor homosexual.
• Approximately 40% of bisexual high school students have considered suicide.
• A third of bisexual high school students have attempted suicide.
• Bisexual men and women experience higher rates of domestic violence than their gay or heterosexual peers.
• The bisexual community is one of the most diverse communities around.

Observing Celebrate Bisexuality Day

There is an almost endless array of ways for people to observe and celebrate this observance day. People can choose to use the day for a party, BBQ, or other events; they can attend a teach-in, conferences on bisexuality, or use their voice to support and uplift the bisexual community. They can also use the hashtag #CelebrateBisexualityDay to show their support for the community.