Local Bi History
As we have been here since 1994 and prior bi groups in the city for about six years before that, we've seen or been part of a lot of bi 'stuff' in the city over the years.
Here are some of the places and dates we remember. Could you add more?
Groups in Manchester
1986: Manchester Bi Men's Group launches. It was intended to be an
all-genders bi group, but Manchester City Council policies of the time
meant that groups seeking to provide support to bi women could not
recieve funding or other support. As such the organisers described it as
a men's group on publicity.
1988: The Men's Group moves its meetings to the new Manchester Gay Centre on Sidney Street. A parallel Bi Women's Group starts.
1994: The Men's and Women's groups meet and agree on a plan for a new mixed gender group, BiPhoria. This would be open both to people involved in the men's and women's groups and also to non-binary people or others who felt uncomfortable in a strongly gendered space. It's still running more than 30 years later.
1995: In response to several bars in Manchester's Gay Village operating "no bisexuals" door policies, and Manchester City Council's bi-exclusionary policies including service monitoring, recruitment and equalities policies that only cover heterosexuals, gay men and lesbians, Bisexual Action is formed as a political action group.
1996: BiPhoria launches a website. For about two years, thanks to great SEO if you typed "bisexuals" into Google and hit the "I feel lucky" button, it was the page you were taken to. Eventually the dictionary definition of the word ousted us from the top spot.
1997: In response to transphobia at a London bi group and from the local Pankhurst Centre, BiPhoria adds trans ally messages to its website and publicity.
1998: Manchester's Men's and Women's bi groups close down due to a mix of lack of volunteers and poor attendance. BiPhoria continues.
2007: Bisexual Action surveys 28 venues in the Gay Village about bisexual inclusion. Only two offer unequivocal welcome to bi customers.
2020: In response to the covid pandemic lockdown, BiPhoria runs daily bi zoom dropins Monday-Friday for five months, stopping when demand drops off as lockdown start to be unwound.
Wider Bi History: Legislation
In law bisexuality hardly ever appears - but bi people are very often affected by laws targeting lesbians and gay men.
1967: The Sexual Offences Act provides limited decriminalisation of sex between men - with a discriminatory age of consent of 21 (for mixed-sex couples it was and remains 16) and only applying to England & Wales. It's brought forward by a Labour MP Leo Abse, having been previously proposed by Humphrey Berkeley, a Conservative who lost his seat in the snap 1966 General Election. It also affects bi men as it is targeted to behaviour not orientation.
1980 & 1982: The Sexual Offences Act's decriminalisation is extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Conservatives are in power at the time, but this is done by European Court orders, not the kindness of MPs.
1988: Section 28 is a law brought forward by a Conservative backbench MP - and given both Conservative and Labour support - to limit provision of information and support both to and about lesbian & gay people. Bi people are caught up in this as information about bisexuality is claimed to be enabling and encouraging straight people to become gay.
1994: Age of consent for sex between men lowered to 18, and anal sex between men and women decriminalised also at 18, by Conservative backbencher Edwina Currie. An attempt in the same day's parliamentary business to equalise the age of consent at 16 is defeated by just 27 votes. Some reactionaries claim this means there is now equality - one age for vaginal intercourse, another for anal intercourse.
1997: The Labour government loses a European court case where it was defending the unequal age of consent. It is given 3 years to legislate equalising the age of consent.
1999: The Labour government loses a European court case where it was defending the ban on lesbians, gay men and bisexual people serving in the Armed Forces. The court orders this to be changed to allow people to serve regardless of sexual orientation. This is enacted quickly, though redress for those whose careers were cut short by the policy takes much longer.
2000: Two and three quarter years after the Labour government was ordered to equalise the age of consent within three years by the European courts, it is at last equalised.
2000: In forming a coalition government in Scotland, the Lib Dems made abolishing Section 28 one of the terms of the agreement. As a result, it gets scrapped 3 years earlier than in England and Wales.
2002: The Labour government's Adoption and Children Act allows same-sex couples to be recognised as joint adoptive parents for the first time, as well as unmarried couples. It only applies in England and Wales - similar measures don't pass in Scotland until 2007. The bill follows a 2001 court ruling. For bi people it means their chances of forstering or adopting children are no longer determined by the gender of a current partner.
2002: A proposal to introduce Civil Partnerships is brought forward by Lib Dem peer Lord Lester. He withdraws in on a promise that the Labour government will bring forward equivalent legislation and give it adequate parliamentary time. When this is unveiled it has had the mixed-sex option for civil partnerships removed; while the legislation passed in 2004 it would take fifteen years for mixed-gender civil partnerships to be legalised as well.
2003: Section 28 is abolished in England & Wales when Lib Dem MP Ed Davey moves an amendment which attracts enough cross-party support to pass. After 15 years the clause at last no longer applies.
2003: Labour's Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations come into force, ending the right of employers to summarily dismiss employees on the grounds of being bisexual or gay. This was the first time bisexuality was specifically acknowledged in UK law. The regulations defined sexual orientation thus:
In these Regulations, “sexual orientation” means a sexual orientation towards—
(a) persons of the same sex;
(b) persons of the opposite sex; or
(c) persons of the same sex and of the opposite sex.
2004: The Gender Recognition Act was a response to the Labour government losing court cases about trans people's human rights. In parliament, it started as another motion in the Lords from Lord Lester, and again was picked up by the government. The final version gave significantly less power over their identity to the trans person than the original draft, enabling scaremongering and whipping up of transphobic hate more than a decade later when that started to be addressed. Trans people are more likely than the average person to identify as bi, perhaps because they spend more time thinking about the possibilities.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 allowed two women the same access to fertility treatment as mixed-sex couples. This is another step in making relationships equal regardless of gender for bi people.
2011: Liberal ministers in the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition government propose the ending of the blood donation ban on men who have sex with men (and their female partners) which has been in place since the 1980s. This starts with a change from a lifetime ban to a 12-month ban, then moves in steps through shorter bans to equalisation, and means bi and gay men and those who date them will not be 'outed' when work or social groups go to donate blood together and they are no longer turned away.
Same-sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales in 2013 by the coalition government having been put forward by equalities minister Lynne Featherstone. This was followed rapidly by the SNP bringing forward similar legislation in the Scottish Parliament . This is a step toward giving most bi people equal recognition of their relationships regardless of the gender of their partner. However Conservative and Labour MPs blocked reform of Civil Partnership legislation, which was limited to same-sex couples.
2018: Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May announces a ban on 'conversion therapy', quack treatment that coerces bi and gay people to pretend to be heterosexual and trans people to pretend to be cis through physical harm and emotional abuse. As of 2025, despite two General Elections and five Prime Ministers it has yet to be legislated.
2019: Mixed sex civil partnerships are legalised at last, a decade and a half after the same-sex equivalent.
2020: Same-sex marriage introduced in Northern Ireland. The Stormont assembly had voted for it five years earlier, but it was blocked by the DUP.
2021: The UK census for the first time asks about sexual orientation, including counting bi and pan people. The number is likely an underestimate as the census is often filled in by another member of a household who may have bias or be unaware of someone's private identity. However it found across Greater Manchester 31,638 bi people, 2,355 pan, and 45,446 lesbians and gay men. Of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs Manchester has the greatest proportion bi (2.69%) and pan (0.19%). That compares to a national average of 1.22% and 0.09% respectively.
Further Reading
Want to learn more about our bi past and the stories that built things like BiPhoria?
The Bisexual History Project posts daily "on this day in history" nuggets of our collective bi story.
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