User:BiPrideUK/sandbox

Bi Pride UK is a charity representing those who are attracted to more than one gender, including bisexuality and pansexual. The organisation was founded in 2017 in response to the recognition that bi people were not given visibility in LGBT Pride spaces.

Bi Pride UK achieved charity status in February 2018 and is entirely run by volunteers. The organisation currently works in three main areas: delivering bi orientated physical Pride spaces, including a flagship Pride event ; working with local Prides, national and local LGBT organisations, and local and national bi groups and organisations to improve bi inclusion at Prides across the UK; and creating virtual spaces for bi people to engage and celebrate with their community.

History
Bi Pride UK first publicly participated in a Pride march for Pride in London 2017, leading the UK Prides section of the parade, with 50 people, after it had been highlighted by bi activists that there was no bi-specific group in the parade that year.

The organisation was registered as a charity in February 2018, the first bi-specific organisation in the UK to achieve this status.

In September 2019 the charity ran its first flagship Pride event which made history as the biggest bi-specific event ever to take place across the world at that time attended by 1,300 people.

Early in 2020, following the re-launched of the website the organisation launched its own online magazine, Unicorn. The first bi arts and culture magazine in the world, with content submitted from almost every continent and more than 15 locations around the world. Later that year in response to a need to cancel all 2020 events due to Covid-19, the charity switched to hosting a virtual pride event BiFi, which will become a staple of the organisation's virtual activities to increase accessibility and tackle geographic inequality.

Current Work
Bi Pride UK’s work includes the robust representation of bisexuals in pride spaces and events across the UK, this included attendance at 4 Prides in England in 2017, 27 Prides in England, Wales and Scotland in 2018, and 30 Prides in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2019. Due to Covid-19, only one physical Pride, Student Pride, was attended in 2020. Attendance at Prides has included a combination of marching in the parades, running a stall in the community areas, running workshops, and speaking on the main stage at a few Prides. According to the bi-monthly magazine Bi Community News, the organisations reach in 2018 made that year the largest active bi presence at Prides across the UK ever seen.

The organisation has worked with the UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON) from it outset, participating at conferences attended by Prides from around the UK, contributing information on bi inclusion to resources prepared by UKPON, and delivering two workshops on bi inclusion at Pride at the April 2019 conference in London, and delivering both a workshop and a whole-conference plenary session at the October 2019 conference in Doncaster.

The chairy also performs outreach work in many other settings, including engaging with youth groups in several cities (particularly successfully in Bath and Bristol). We have also contributed to consultation work carried out by Stonewall, contributed to resources being produced by Stonewall and by the HEAR Equality Network, delivered bi inclusion training to a number of corporates and businesses, and spoken on numerous panels organised by groups such as the Albert Kennedy Trust, the London Bi Network, and Queer Question Time.

Finally the pride seeks to create virtual spaces for bi people such as the creation of BiFi the virtual Pride event created initially in response to the Covid 19 pandemic, but which will become a regular part of the organization's activities as an answer to how we it engage those who can't attend its flagship event, the Bi Pride Local events, or a local Prides that its attending.

Unicorn
Unicorn Magazine was created as a new project by Bi Pride UK in 2019, founded by Lev Alexander. The aim of the Magazine was to disrupt LGBTQ+ publications on perceptions of how bi stories need to be reported, specifically to have bi stories hero each issue in proportion to actual bi population within the LGBTQ+ community. The first issue launched on January 3rd 2020 and was praised by Stonewall, LGBT Foundation, and many more LGBTQ+ organisations as an exciting project. Within a year the completely volunteer-run project had published 5 issues with content from 15 countries championing the bi umbrella. Notable cover stars included Scaredy Kat (RuPaul's Drag Race), ComeCurious, and Jordan Gray (Comedy Central). During 2021 the magazine has evolved to include wider identities and sexualities, however still exists as a protest magazine to change bi perceptions around the world.

Bi Pride UK in the Media
In 2018, Bi Pride UK was approached by BBC documentary journalists who wanted the organisation to centre in a documentary about some of the key issues the bi community faces. Joining at Prides and volunteer meetings for 6 months, they gathered footage, as well as interviewing other people from the community about different topics. The documentary, ‘Battling To Be Bi', launched on BBC iPlayer in March 2019.

Awards
In 2020 the charity won the Johnson & Johnson – Charity or Community Initiative at the 2020 British LGBT Awards.