ABOUT
THE PROBLEM
Bi+ people make up the majority of the LGBTQ+ community. Yet, from the screens we grow up watching to the headlines that shape public opinion, bi+ people are told, again and again, that we don’t quite exist. Or worse: that when we do exist, we are dangerous, confused, hypersexual, or disposable. This has profound real-world impacts.
We confront anti-bisexuality at its root.
Film & TV.
Erasure in Film & TV
For decades, film and television have shaped public understanding of bisexuality—often by denying its existence altogether. Rewrite the BiLine’s original research found that bi+ characters are overwhelmingly misrepresented in 10 recurring tropes.
Some of the most common include:
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The Punchline, where bisexuality is used just for a laugh
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The Sex Object, where a bi+ character is treated as a fantasy
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The Plot Device, where a bi+ character exists only to advance a non-bi character’s storyline before disappearing
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The Villain, where a character's bisexuality is treated as evidence that they’re untrustworthy, dangerous, betrayers, murderers, cheaters, and deceivers
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The Tragic Ending, where bi+ people meet an untimely (often gruesome) death
Rarely do we see bi+ characters with fully realized inner lives, agency, or futures.
The Numbers Tell the Same Story
The lack of authentic representation isn’t just anecdotal. It’s measurable.
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From 2014–2022, there were only 55 bi+ speaking characters out of 38,726 speaking characters in top-grossing films—just 0.14%.
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In the most recent year with available data, there were only 8 bi+ characters in film.
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In television, representation is shrinking—from 149 bi+ TV characters in 2023 to 98 in 2024.
News Media.
Erasure doesn’t stop with entertainment media. Rewrite the BiLine’s inaugural Bi+ Censorship in the News report examines three decades of print newspaper coverage to understand how bi+ people and issues are reported—and who gets to tell those stories.
Our Findings Show
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Bi+ issues are consistently underreported
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Coverage remains biased and stereotype-driven
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Bi+ people are rarely given a platform to speak for themselves
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News media at the intersection of race and LGBTQ+ issues is limited, and it is nearly non-existent on bi+ issues and race
Health & Economic Inequities.
The stigma bi+ people face in the media directly impacts our health, our economic opportunity, our safety, and our ability to thrive.
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Bi+ people experience anxiety at higher rates than gay, lesbian and straight people.
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Bi+ women are less likely to seek cervical and breast cancer screenings, leading to higher rates of cancers than straight and lesbian women.
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Studies show bi+ people experience "double discrimination"--stigma and minority stress from both within and beyond LGBTQ+ communities--contributing to poorer health outcomes for bi+ people.
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Over 60% of bi+ women have been raped, assaulted, or stalked.
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Nearly half of bi+ men will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes compared to 40 percent of gay men and 20 percent of straight men.
Bi+ People Face Health Inequities.
Bi+ People Face a Harsh Economic Reality.
The Data Is Clear.
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Bi+ people are paid less than gay, lesbian, and straight people.
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Bi+ people are more likely to live below the federal poverty level than gay, lesbian and straight people. In fact, nearly 1 in 3 (29.4%) cisgender bi+ women and trans people fall below the federal poverty threshold.
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Because bi+ people are more likely to rely on public benefits, cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP can exacerbate economic insecurity and widen health disparities.
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These disparities can be compounded by other intersecting identities. While many bi+ people are monogamous, bi+ people are more likely to be polyamorous than other sexual orientation groups, and research shows that polyamorous individuals are more likely than those in monogamous relationships to have annual incomes below $40,000.
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Bi+ people of color fare far worse than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts in employment, income level, food insecurity, and healthcare access.
Vital Funding Gap.
LGBTQ+ founders received just 0.5% of the $2.1 trillion in U.S. startup funding between 2000–2022—despite making up more than 7% of the population. Investments in the ideas of bi+ leaders are so minimal, they're not even tracked separately.
On the philanthropic side, total U.S. foundation funding for LGBTQ+ communities was $178 million in 2024—less than 1% of all giving.
Of that, less than 1 percent of all domestic grant dollars awarded to LGBTQ+ communities and issues went toward bi+ communities and issues.