Erasing Bisexual Identity: The Visibility and Invisibility of Bisexuality as a Sexual Identity in the Dutch Homosexual Movement, 1946-1972

Abstract

Scholars of bisexuality commonly agree that bisexuality as a distinct sexual identity remained invisible for epistemic reasons until the 1970s. This article examines this dominant explanation for the late invention of bisexual identity by discussing how bisexuality functioned in the homosexual movement in the Netherlands from 1946 to the early 1970s. This historical case study shows that in the Netherlands bisexuality as an identity existed in the movement in the first postwar decades and was erased in the late 1960s, not only for epistemic reasons but also for tactical ones. The article aims to contribute to a better insight into the history of bisexuality and the politics in the Dutch postwar homosexual movement.

Keywords: 1950s; 1960s; 1970s; bisexual identity; bisexuality; history; homosexual movement; politics; sexual identity; the Netherlands.