Bisexuality+ Activism in Israel
Noam Mizrahi (she/they) is a bi+ researcher and activist in Israel and a board member of Israel's LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation, Hoshen, and also works as a researcher in The Israeli Gender and LGBT Research Center.
Noam Mizrahi (she/they) is a bi+ researcher and activist in Israel. She is a board member of Israel's LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation, Hoshen, and alongside her MA at Tel Aviv University, also works as a researcher in The Israeli Gender and LGBT Research Center. There, Noam focuses on making the bi+ community heard, and gathering applicable data to demand better treatment from LGBT organisations. In the past year, Noam has done both quantitative and qualitative research, organised focus groups, workshops, and other community events for the local bi+ community, addressing bi+ people's dire need for community, self-knowledge, and being heard.
What is the nature of your work?
1. Focus groups with bi+ individuals helped show our shared experiences and struggles, and thus shape the actionable items bi+ activism needs to address.
2. A survey, with over 600 responses, detailing bi+ people's experiences with biphobia and minority stress, showing strong correlations between dire mental and physical health, biphobia, and IPV. This is ongoing research, and will be shaped into reports and spread throughout the different LGBT orgs and appropriate governmental support systems.
3. A historical research, interviewing local bi+ activists from the 90s all the way up to the last decade. There have been 3 bi+ organisations in Israel in the past, all lasting only a short number of years before succumbing to burnout. Feeling that I was next in line as a leader of bi+ activism in Israel, I wanted to know the giants whose shoulders I stand on, and learn how to create a more sustainable environment for myself and those who would join me.
Tell us more about the nature of your work.
1. Focus groups with bi+ individuals helped show our shared experiences and struggles, and thus shape the actionable items bi+ activism needs to address.
2. A survey, with over 600 responses, detailing bi+ people's experiences with biphobia and minority stress, showing strong correlations between dire mental and physical health, biphobia, and IPV. This is ongoing research, and will be shaped into reports and spread throughout the different LGBT orgs and appropriate governmental support systems.
3. A historical research, interviewing local bi+ activists from the 90s all the way up to the last decade. There have been 3 bi+ organisations in Israel in the past, all lasting only a short number of years before succumbing to burnout. Feeling that I was next in line as a leader of bi+ activism in Israel, I wanted to know the giants whose shoulders I stand on, and learn how to create a more sustainable environment for myself and those who would join me.
What is the most interesting thing you have learned about bisexuality+ from your research?
Our common denominator is never feeling enough for any community. The only way to make a good bi+ community is to make it inclusive, and make sure people feel at home there. Bi+ men in exclusive relationships with women feel so, so alone, and have very little resources.
What do you think are the most pressing issues within the bisexuality community today?
Mainstream understanding of bisexuality as a source of minority stress, due to lack of acceptance in hetero *and* gay spaces.
Acquiring funding from larger LGBTQ+ orgs that are not giving us the space or support we need.
Creating sustainable bi+ activism and maintaining knowledge across generations of bi+ people.
Are you bi?
Yes, Bi/pan for the past 12 years.
Learn more about Noam Mizrahi here.