Myth

Bisexual people can’t be satisfied by a single partner, so they will cheat.

Reality

A bisexual person has the potential to be attracted to a person of any sex / gender. They are not more likely to want to be with more than one person at a time. Whether someone cheats on their partner is not related to their sexual orientation.

Bisexuality ≠ promiscuity

Bisexual people (the B in LGBT) are often stigmatized in both straight and queer communities, even though they outnumber all other queer identities. Defined as those who like people of more than one gender, they’re regularly seen as indecisive, impossible-to-satisfy cheaters.

That’s not the case.

Imagine a woman considering a relationship with a bisexual man. She might think “since he also likes men, he’ll never be fully satisfied with a woman and will eventually cheat with a man.” (This is sadly a very common, and very misguided, thought process.)

First off, straight and gay people cheat too, so bisexuality is not the culprit. Secondly, that’s like saying “if a man likes both short and tall women, then he’ll never be truly satisfied with a short woman and will cheat with a tall one.”

It sounds absurd because it is.


Stop for a minute and think about all the different things you find attractive in a person. … Are you always attracted to people of the same weight, height, race? With the same eye colour, hair colour, accent? No? Does that mean you can’t make your mind up? Or that you don’t know what you want? No.

— Source: stonewall.org.uk


Resources

  • Why We Hate Bi Men on YouTube (20 min) — TL;DR: Bi men were portrayed as “bridges” for AIDS during the peak of the pandemic. Sensationalized articles, depicting them in the worst possible light, were being published extensively. The media of that time significantly influenced the perspective of the generation, and this viewpoint has been passed down to subsequent generations.