|
|
WElCOME TO THE PINK AND BLUE PAGE: ROBYN OCHS as BISEXUAL TRAILBLAZER
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution"
Emma Goldman
by Carole Trainor
I was surprised to see that Robyn Ochs actually responded to my request to have her and her works be the first featured on my PINK and BLUE page of Bisexuals Without Borders Site. I would have thought her high ranking status as a pioneer in the field of Bisexuality [second educator, ever, teach a university course on Bisexuality] and her appearances on Donahue and Maury to have earned her some degree of stonewalling privileges. My faith in humanity was renewed, however, by her very gracious response.
I've always believed that those who break ground in any field tend to go highly under acknowledged and under paid, however much we tend to want to memorize and restate their names over a few times. But for those few brave souls who came out early into the field of Bisexuality, (which wasn't, back then, considered enough of anything to even constitute a "field") these pioneers deserve Kudos, to the power of a thousand, to have survived and defied what must have appeared to be, at the time, insurmountable odds. For those of us who can say, ever so (relatively) quickly and unapologetically, today, "I'm a bisexual, mum." we owe people like Robyn Ochs a whole lot. Ochs, is literally, one of our history's pioneers responsible for putting Bisexuality on the map.
Having grown up in a highly tolerant family in New York; having been born into a long line of strong Feminist minded women, Robyn's proclivity for social activism and social justice work came to her, rather naturally. Her mother was an avid advocate for social st active in the 1970s in the peace movement, the civil rights movement, and in helping to start the first day care center in her home town, and currently involved with a number of projects and organizations, from folk music festival and concert production, to Habitat for Humanity.. In addition to this, Robyn grew up around various forms of tolerances and philosophies that encouraged her to embrace the world's differences as a matter of living.
It was no surprise to Robyn's mother when she came out as Bisexual. But like many of us bisexuals, Ochs remains perplexed to this day as to how her mother, on having claimed to have known of Robyn's orientation all along, never broached the topic, while Robyn struggled to make sense of herself. (More than a few of us can relate to this, I think.)
Robyn remembers having intense childhood crushes on both boys and girls, but like many bisexual children, she did not know that it was possible to be anything other than heterosexual. And then when she realized that it was possible to have same-sex attractions, it felt as though gay and straight were the only acceptable identities.
Robyn moved to Boston in 1982 from Far Rockaway (a community in southern New York City) A few weeks into her adjustment to the community, she came across an announcement in a local publication called, " Equal Times." The publication spoke of an all woman's chat session that would address the issue of Bisexuality. As Robyn remembers it, she was in paint clothes painting her new apartment when she read the announcement. As she tells it, she quickly cleaned up and rushed her way over to a Boston location only to find herself among 20 other bisexually identified women. (or was it nineteen; one of the women being Lesbian?) It was here she would experience that very necessary moment that every Bisexual person must experience before being able to move forward with confidence: " Wait a minute: You too?!...You mean, I'm really not alone?!....Then, maybe I'm not really crazy, after all!" Robyn would feel, through this meeting of other bisexual women, that, at long last, she were not alone as a person capable of desiring both men and women.
The group would soon come together to form what was then called, "The Bivocals." Nine months following this, Robyn would attend the first National conference on Bisexuality hosted by The University of Connecticut's School of Social Work. As the group began to evolve and grow into it's more notorious title, known as "The Boston Bisexual Women's Network," they would join forces with others to organize the 2nd East Coast Conference on Bisexuality out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then help to found, in 1985, "The East Coast Bisexual Network, -- now called the Bisexual Resource Center.
Robyn herself would help to found the Boston Bisexual Women's Network as well as The East Coast Bisexual Women's Network. She would become, as well, the editor of the work for which she continues to be best known: "The BISEXUAL RESOURCE GUIDE." (now considered one of the "bibles" on Bisexuality for those seeking much needed support, information and resources).
The first edition of THE BISEXUAL RESOURCE GUIDE was comprised of a mere 4 sheets of paper, back to back, stapled and folded. It's most recent edition is, today, a 300 page book containing 2, 100 groups listed as supporting the cause of Bisexuality and supporting the needs of the Bisexually identified. Robyn has expressed wanting to spare others the painful process of coming out as Bisexual only to find little to no resources or information that could assist them to make sense of their sexual identity. She is noble in purpose. (no two ways around it)
Such books as The Bisexual Option and Bisexuality: The Psychology and Politics of an Invisible Minority were just not available to Robyn as they (and others) are to those of now coming out to a brand new world that freely offers us the genius of Fritz Klein, Marjorie Garber and Robyn Ochs herself. We, the Bisexually queer, are offered, through the keyboard, generous instruction as to how to access various 'zines showcasing bisexually queer creative works, via the web, in lieu of what academia has yet to offer us through it's highly gendered and heterosexist research and educational methodologies and practices. These were not resources available to the first public minded Bisexuals.
Susan Carlton taught the first, ever, course on Bisexuality at U.C. Berkeley, and Robyn, the second at Tufts University, MA. Robyn continues to work as part time administrator (where she has worked since 1985) at The Romance Languages and Literatures Department of Harvard University, Cambridge, and keeps busy with her political activism, which includes teaching at Tufts University, and traveling around the US and sometimes beyond to give talks and conduct workshops on bisexuality, labels and identity, and homophobia. Robyn continues to remind us all that our communities need the full time work of Bisexual activists and thinkers and that funding is something that communities ought to be seriously considering for this area of research and compassionate community work.
Robyn lives with her (equally as high profile ) partner, Peg Preble. "Peg" often referred to as Robyn Ochs partner, returns the favour on those days Robyn is referred to as Peg Preble's partner.
( It all works out in the end, she wants us to know) While Robyn maintains her bisexual identity (and therefore her integrity) Peg maintains her integrity as Lesbian. The two are monogomous, and in love (sigh). As a result of the recent decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, they are planning to get married (to each other!) sometime in 2004.
Like all true trailblazers, Robyn Ochs made good on her devotion to herself, and to her convictions. - Not to mention, of course, how good she made on changing the gendered and heterosexist world that did not reflect the reality of her - breaking ground for so many of us around the globe who might not have realized without her, that it's ok to be whole in a broken world.
In this month of December, Canada celebrates the brilliant; the beautiful: (educator, activist, pioneer) Ms. Robyn Ochs (... who, by the way, likes to reinstate the words of Emma Goldman: " If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution," by which she means that she views her activism as a lifelong commitment, and understands that to be a good activist she must also remember to make time to live, love and enjoy the wonders of life. We're with you on that one, Ms. Ochs )
|
|
This page created using the webpage creation facilities of Webspawner.
Copyright © 2004 . All Rights Reserved. |
|
ROBYN OCHS: PINK and BLUE PAGE
