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Andrea Miller
American University, Washington DC
636-399-4589
ANYTHING BUT STRAIGHT: BISEXUAL VOICES ON “PASSING”
This paper considers whether self-identified bisexuals possess “heterosexual privilege”
or, more specifically, “passing” privileges. Using open-ended interviews with 48 self-identified
bisexual women and men, this research problem investigates whether my respondents were
accused of “passing for straight,” therefore accruing social privileges that are commonly
afforded only to heterosexuals. I am especially interested in the social (and sometimes
emotional) costs of “passing” and how my informants negotiated their sense of self as bisexuals
within the context of heteronormativity. To be sure, respondents candidly talked about
accusations that they could “pass for straight.” Keep in mind, however, that, even though
informants were oftentimes met with such accusations, they defended their bisexual identity
under the knowledge that their personal bisexual identities were distinct and separate from their
social bisexual identities, or how my respondents presented their social bisexual identities within
the social landscape for others to interpret.
Goffman situates his analysis of “passing” within the discourse of visibility. In other
words, Goffman (1963:48, emphasis mine) contends that “the question of passing” parallels the
visibility of one’s stigma: “Since it is through our sense of sight that the stigma of others most
frequently becomes evident, the term visibility is perhaps not too misleading.” What, then, of the
question of the invisibility of a particular stigma, in this, case, a bisexual identity? Goffman
(1963) accounts for invisibility by asserting that only the person who possesses it will know the
invisible stigma and, thus, passing is an issue of “minor concern.” This declaration that
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