ABOUT
THE PROBLEM
Although bi+ people make up the majority of the LGBTQ+ community, the bi+ community is consistently overlooked in film, television, and the news. This invisibility has devestating real-world implications.
Film & TV.
Rewrite the BiLine confronts anti-bisexuality at its root by changing how bi+ people are represented, reported on, and ultimately, resourced.
Bisexual+ people make up the majority of the LGBTQ+ community. Yet, our stories are the ones most often ignored, distorted, or erased. 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.
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 Villain, where bisexuality is framed as moral corruption (Frank Underwood in House of Cards, Camilla in Empire).
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The Oversexualized Betrayer, whose desire is treated as excess and whose loyalty is always suspect (Max in the Gossip Girl reboot).
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The Plot Device, where a bi+ character exists only to advance a non-bi character’s storyline before disappearing.
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
Media Narratives Don’t Exist in a Vacuum
The stigma bi+ people face on screen and in headlines fuels real-world inequities:
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Bi+ people are paid less than gay, lesbian, and straight people.
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Bi+ people have higher rates of poverty and experience anxiety at higher rates than gay, lesbian and straight 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.
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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.
Funding &
Philanthropy.
That stigma extends into funding and philanthropy.
Investing in LGBTQ+ Leaders
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.
When funded, LGBTQ+-led companies and creative projects outperform peers:
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Creating 36% more jobs
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Generating 114% more patents
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Achieving 44% more exits
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Earning a staggering 29% more revenue at the box office than movies with no LGBTQ+ content
Philanthropic Support for LGBTQ+ Issues
Total U.S. foundation funding for LGBTQ+ communities was $209 million in 2023—less than 1% of all giving. And this funding has been on the decline.
Less than 1 percent of all domestic grant dollars awarded to LGBTQ+ communities and issues goes toward bi+ communities and issues. That amounted to only $96,500 of funding awarded to bi+ people and causes across the entire United States last year!
This lack of investment stalls innovation and starves bi+ communities of life-changing resources. Rewrite the BiLine is working to change that.