Bisexuals are not a cheap punchline

In his column “Starvation issues in universities? The real college problem is obesity,” James Bovard used this serious issue to unconscionably and irresponsibly demean lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people — and especially bisexual students. Bovard’s misguided views, served up with a troubling flippancy, only serve to harm an already vulnerable community.

What Bovard doesn’t understand is that poverty, and its attendant food in- security, affects members of the bisexual community at higher rates than their gay, lesbian and straight peers, according to UCLA’s Williams Institute. People who identify as bisexual also face higher rates of mood disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders, cancer and other health disparities.

The explanation for these inequalities? The discrimination and stigmatization that the bisexual community faces every day. Bovard’s cheap swipe at our community doubles down on harmful stereotypes and disparages an al- ready at-risk population.

With views like Bovard’s still so casually expressed — and printed in a major national publication — it’s no wonder that bisexual people are less likely to live openly. And that makes it more difficult to address the very real and sometimes life-threatening barriers faced by bisexuals. We are not a punchline, Mr. Bovard.

Allison Turner, Madeleine Roberts Human Rights Campaign’s Bisexual Employee Resource Group Washington, D.C.

I am not in a position to determine the merits of either the original report or James Bovard’s rebuttal. But I do know this: One can offer dissenting opinions without the kind of inflammatory language the author has chosen to use.

There is no place for rhetoric of this nature in what should be a civil discourse of issues. Thom Villing

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