Bi-Visibility Day 2025

Bi-Visibility Day (Bi-Vis Day), marked nationally since 1999, is a chance for the bisexual community and their allies to recognise and celebrate bisexuality, bisexual history, community and culture, and all the bisexual people in their lives. This includes the wider umbrella of sexual orientations encompassing people who experience attraction beyond the gender binary such as those identifying as pansexual, queer, omnisexual and others. 

OurUniversity has supported Bi-Vis Day since 2012,and you can get involved this year by: 

• Becoming a BeeProud Ally: You’ll carry out training in how to support LGBTQ+ colleagues and students, and become part of a thriving ally colleague network.  
• Reading our Celebrate Bisexuality: Check out our collection of books on the topic, which you can read online for free.  
• Joining our group of volunteers from the Bee Proud Network who are committed to developing initiatives to increase the visibility of the Bisexual+ communities. Email lgbt@manchester.ac.uk  to join. 

Why does it matter? 

The University of Manchester has a significant bisexual population. In our March 2024 Equality Information Report, 4.1% of our colleagues and 11.3% of our students declared their sexual orientation as ‘bisexual’; that translates to around 4972 students and 524 colleagues.  The actual numbers are likely to be higher than this as, according to the 2020 report from Stonewall, 2 in 5 bi people are not out at work.  

Many bisexual people hide their identity due to the negative stereotypes, incorrect assumptions and discrimination that they face.  Stonewall’s report states that, only 1 in 5 bisexual people (20%) are out to all their family compared to 3 in 5 gay men and lesbians (63%).

Other ways to support Bi-Visibility Day

• Visit Stonewall’s Bi Visibility Hub to learn more about how you can be a supportive ally 

• Familiarise yourself with our LGBT+ Guidance for managers 

• Read up on Bi+ Life in Manchester, Bi+ Mental Health and Coming out as Bi+ on Biphoria 

• Read about and support BiPride 

• Read more widely about LGBTQ+ experience using our ‘Queer as Folk’ Reading List 

• Explore profiles of some of our bi+ members on our BeeProud Profile Pages or listen to our It Gets Better podcast 

• Be familiar with terminology and definitions of ‘bi’, ‘pan’ and ‘queer’ 

• Check and update your equality details in MyView and encourage others to do the same 

• Read all about The Kinsey Scale which describes a person's sexual orientation 

Please contact the EDI Team with any questions: equalityanddiversity@manchester.ac.uk