Bisexuality and School Culture: School as a Prime Site for Bi-Intervention

Bisexuality has been a neglected topic in U.S. schools. This is not entirely surprising given bisexuality's marginal positionality in U.S. society. Before exploring how, and to what degree, bisexuality gets treated in schools, this article sets the larger context by beginning with a brief description and analysis of societal attitudes about bisexuality in general. Then, an examination of the status of bisexuality in schools with particular foci on the curricular (e.g., the sexuality education and general curriculum) and extracurricular (e.g., Gay-Straight Alliances) components is undertaken. Finally, reasons are offered about why bisexuality should be genuinely and fully included in sexuality education and other courses across the curriculum and in extracurricular settings. The main arguments advanced are that there has been widespread binegativity in U.S. society that not only has been harmful to bisexuals, but also has reified and reproduced binary, dichotomous thinking about sexual and gender matters, rendering bisexuality invisible in most circumstances in schools. Another critical point is that though schools are well positioned to eradicate binegativity and use teaching about bisexuality as a way of doing positive cultural work surrounding sexuality and gender, major school reform-including structural changes to the curricular and extracurricular aspects of schooling-needs to occur.