Drawing Bisexuality Back into the Picture: How Bisexuality Fits into LGBT Legal Strategy Ten Years After Bisexual Erasure

Authors

Heron Greenesmith, Family Equality Counsel

Abstract

The article argues that bisexuality remains legally invisible, both in legal culture and jurisprudence, due to its inherent complexity and the reliance of legal arguments on a binary understanding of sexual orientation. It extends Kenji Yoshino's theory of bisexual erasure into the legal context, proposing that bisexuality is not just socially invisible but also legally inconspicuous. The analysis focuses on two main hypotheses: first, that bisexuality is inherently invisible to the law beyond deliberate erasure, and second, that where bisexuality is legally relevant, it complicates legal arguments that depend on the binary of sexuality. The article concludes by advocating for the inclusion of bisexuality and other non-binary sexualities in legal frameworks to strengthen LGBT civil rights strategies.

Disciplines

Civil Rights and Discrimination | Fourteenth Amendment | Jurisprudence | Law | Law and Society | Sexuality and the Law

Recommended Citation

Heron Greenesmith, Drawing Bisexuality Back into the Picture: How Bisexuality Fits into LGBT Legal Strategy Ten Years After Bisexual Erasure, 17 Cardozo J. Equal Rts. & Soc. Just. 65 (2010).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cardozoersj/vol17/iss1/5