Equality in local government - but do bisexuals get a fair deal?
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:30:00 GMT
Recent figures have shown that bisexual people are more likely to experience substance and alcohol abuse and suffer from poorer mental health than gay men, lesbians and straight people.
Studies have also found a lack of understanding surrounding bisexuality within the workplace is leaving bisexual people largely invisible.
Although this October brings the Equality Act 2010 aimed at simplifying and strengthening the previous legislation, recent financial cuts in government mean there is still a danger that equality issues will fall off the agenda as local authorities desperately try to keep basic services running.
Dr Surya Monro, Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, has recently completed a research project about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) Equalities and Local Government in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Newcastle (funded by the ESRC). The project is led by Professor Diane Richardson.
The study revealed that a lack of awareness regarding bisexuality has resulted in many local authorities only addressing gay and lesbian people in their equality policies or just tagging bisexuality onto the end of gay and lesbian issues. And as Dr Monro highlights: "There are some issues which are only specific to bisexuals that people don't realise or think about."
Dr Monro does believe things are moving in the right direction, but due to a lack of resources within authorities, prejudice and hostility towards bisexuals is still apparent.
"I already had an interest around the politics which surround LGBT equality," said Dr Monro, "and my PhD was about transgender, so it was partly what I was interested in and partly a commitment to social justice.
"We had this idea for a research project looking at how things have moved on. Following legislation passed under New Labour, which was really supportive of LGBT becoming more included in society, we thought it was time to see if things actually had changed on a local level."
