More than 100 people marched yesterday up Robertson Boulevard and along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood’s Boystown gay nightlife area in what was billed as the world’s first bisexual pride event.
Bi Pride was co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood, the L.A. branch of the Human Rights Campaign and amBi LA, an organization of bisexual men and women in Los Angeles.
In addition to the parade, there was an event at West Hollywood Auditorium at which Mayor John Duran proclaimed the day as “Bisexual Celebration Day” and where artists Irene Suico Soriano and Torrey Mercer performed. Today is the 20th annual BiVisibility Day, aa worldwide celebration of bisexuality.
West Hollywood, where nearly 40% of the population is said to be composed of gay men, for many years has been home to the annual L.A. Pride parade and festival. Billed as an LGBT event, its events have focused largely on the gay community, with an increasing emphasis over the years on the lesbian and transgender communities.
The decades-long struggle for same-sex rights has seen the gay and lesbian communities band together and in recent years embrace the transgender community. The bisexual community has been less well-organized because it hasn’t faced government bias, although bisexual people do complain that they are treated with disdain by gay men. Bisexuals are people who have or are open to having sex with people of their own sex as well as people of the opposite sex.
