Test yourself. What do you think is the largest population lurking in the letters: LGBTQIA+? Which category holds the most people as they identify themselves?
Did you guess? You were wrong unless you answered “Bisexual.” Whenever sociologists conduct surveys attempting to break down the letters by percentage, BISEXUAL always comes out by far as the largest group, again and again. Surprised? That is because, even though it is the largest identification, it receives the least attention. Why are these things so?
The fact of Bisexual identification preponderance bespeaks more fluidity. LGB reduces so often to Bi- because God’s gracious gift of covenant-lovemaking contains redundancy in its complexity. Actually, under the right conditions, people can find other pathways to arousal than what has come to feel natural for them. If they are religiously motivated, this is especially true.
The Bible bears witness to this by presuming to command physical “delighting” and “being intoxicated” in a given direction (Proverbs 5:18-19). We are not so hard-wired sexually that nothing else is possible and, if you look, you may find abundant testimony to this fact. Just check out the growing Changed movement, for example, under the able leadership of Ken Williams and Elizabeth Woning. Bi- captures the actual experience of people better and so it is always the greater identification. The other letters after the “+” often collapse to Bi- also.
Why then does it get no attention? Because it does not fit the cultural narrative of an immutable “orientation.” So Bi- is barred. The uneasy alliance that has always existed between the letters thereby loses the experience of so many. Yet, our sexuality is more fluid than the powers want to admit.
Furthermore, there are now established pathways to dispense people into the LGBT camp through Bi-ness. Here is one of them: Most of the Bisexual category turn out to be women. How does this come about? The educational machine now instructs girls to experiment early, right at the time when they are geared to form close—very close—bonds with other girls. In this now rushed pubescent period, a girl can easily interpret her “best friend forever!” feelings as lesbianism. Indeed her culture demands it. Then, later, as she develops in her attraction to guys, she puzzles, “What am I?” The solution? “I must be Bi-!” That’s the common progression.
Talking about Bisexual identification, really talking about it, might lead inquirers to question the very idea of “orientation” and the helpfulness of these categories. But can we afford not to?