BiWorld International News

Switzerland

BiNe can be contacted via Email: bine@planetd.ch

Each Wednesday, you can phone BiNe between 18.00 and 20.00. Phone: 031-3729040

You can find more information on www.bine.ch

Bisexuality in Switzerland

There are about eight bisexual groups in Switzerland. One, called BiNe, was founded after the International Bisexual Conference in Berlin. It’s goal was to unite all the other bi groups as well as trying to give bisexuality better social recognition. With the exception of one, these groups are non-mixed and are not a part of the gay community. Some of these groups are really discrete, are not easy to find and seem perfectly satisfied in being so.

The group that we are an active part of is the only one in the french-speaking part. It’s part of a gay and lesbian association called VoGay. It was our conscious choice in creating this group to give information about bisexuality to both homosexual and heterosexual communities. We were warmly welcomed and had no problems integrating ourselves into this association. There is also a club for bisexual women here who seem to have had a good success. We're presently working in collaboration with them . For the moment, bisexuality here in Switzerland is basically considered to be a fashion statement. People gawk at us as if we were exotic zoo animals. However, contrary to homosexuality, which has just now obtained social recognition, bisexuality is still considered to be a sexual « delicacy » and not at all as an identity nor as a social movement.

Except for books dealing with psychiatry and/or ancient Greece, the only book that was available about bisexuality in French two years ago was « Bissexualité » by C. Woolf published in ‘85. So, really, the public on a whole doesn't know what bisexuality really is. We are often subject to fascination or rejection and of course, for many people, we don't even exist at all.

People that are openly bi here are extremely rare and those that are militant about it are even more scarce (like, we're talking 7 people!) Some of these brave people have been interviewed by two important newspapers about their own bisexuality. The first article was published in an important weekly newspaper in the german-speaking part. This article talked about coming out in the bisexual community. It was interesting but it put to much emphasis on the sex. The second was published in the french part in a respectable but very right wing daily newspaper (which we found to be particularly amusing, by the way). We've been asked to do a televised interview that we've recently declined to do since we want to avoid media hype until we are stronger as a community.

On a political note, gays and lesbians are trying to gain equal rights by being inscribed in the Federal Constitution as a sexual minority that ought to be protected just like any other minority. However, the idea is questionable since, in all reality, everybody is entitled to equal rights, not just segregated communities! At present, we still don't have the right to have same-sex marriages nor are same sex couples recognized legally.

For the Bisexual Group of VoGay
Sandrine Pache & Maria Costello
Lausanne, the 30th of March, 1998

Email: vogay@worldcom.ch