To mark Bi+ Visibility Day on 23 September, Sing Out staged two protest performances in central Brussels to demand greater respect for the bi+ community.
After similar events for Transgender Day of Visibility in 2023 and Lesbian Visibility Day in 2024, Sing Out has wanted to mark Bi+ Visibility Day for some time. This was important to us not only as bi+ people are often marginalised within the LGBTQI+ community, but also because our annual end-of-season surveys have revealed we have a large number of bi+ singers in the choir. Bi+ encompasses not just bisexual people, but also includes identities such as biromantic, pan and omni.
There was just one hiccup: the timing. 23 September is just a few weeks into our season when we’re usually busy welcoming new members and getting stuck into new repertoire. It also leaves little time after the summer break to plan, organise and rehearse in advance.
This year, though, we had a trick up our sleeves that made all the difference: a passionate, commited group of bi+ superstar volunteers determined to make it happen! Arsinoë, Martin, Maya & Zoé got to work through a zoom call in late August, sketching out a concept for the event and determining what message we wanted our protest to convey.
The team decided to organise two street performances in central Brussels. We would sing once at the Mont des arts, to convey our message to the general public, and once on the Rue au Marché au Charbon (known affectionately as Gay Street), to ensure our message was heard by the Brussels LGBTQI+ community, too. We chose to first sing Sexual Revolution by Army of Lovers, changing the lyrics to bi-sexual revolution. We then followed up with Anonhi’s You Are My Sister, to express the allyship we hoped to inspire within the queer community. In collaboration with Cédric from JT Communication, both performances would be filmed and combined with interviews with bi+ members of the choir to create a social media post to boost the reach of our action.
Once the necessary permissions had been granted by the City of Brussels local authorities, Arsinoë took on the (literally) huge task of making sure passersby would know why we were singing. They spent a whole Saturday afternoon painting around ten placards with various punny slogans before creating their pièce de résistance: an 8-metre banner reading ‘STOP INVISI-BI-LITY’.
The performances were a great success and a really lovely way to kick off Sing Out’s ninth season.