Post submitted by former HRC Digital Media Manager Helen Parshall

Pride can be a hard time for those who fall within the bisexual, pansexual, queer and sexually fluid community.

Studies show that bi people make up nearly 50% of the LGBTQ community, but too often it can feel like we’re all alone, walking a line between being “too queer” or “not queer enough.”

Bisexual people often face skepticism, harmful stereotypes and can be ignored and excluded from LGBTQ spaces. Bi people are often invisible to each other -- all things that can make going to your first Pride feel incredibly daunting.

As a bisexual person, this Pride Month, I want you to know that your experiences are valid and that you are queer enough.

People frequently make assumptions about our identities based on the gender of our past or current partners, and we often find ourselves having to come out over and over again to correct those assumptions. Pride can sometimes feel like the center of all this erasure and invisibility.

Wherever you are in your journey with bisexuality is exactly where you’re supposed to be -- and Pride is a celebration of your identity, too.

I attended my first Pride when I was 22. It was just weeks after I had come out as bisexual to my family, and I was planning to celebrate with other queer and bisexual friends, who then couldn’t make it because of bad weather.

My father knew I was disappointed and asked if he could borrow one of my HRC T-shirts and go with me to the festival. We ended up having an incredible time, and he’s one of my biggest champions to this day.

Part of empowering ourselves as bisexual people this Pride Month starts by building a community around us of people who accept us exactly as we are -- whether it’s friends, family or a chosen community.

Whether you’re wearing a bisexual or pansexual flag as a cape, Pride is a celebration for you, too. Bisexual people come from all backgrounds, racial and ethnic groups, faith communities, socioeconomic levels and gender identities. Together, our visibility helps us find each other.

After all, Brenda Howard, the “mother of Pride,” credited for organizing the 1970 Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, was actually bisexual. With iconic bisexual figures like Howard and others, the bisexual community has and continues to make signifcant contributions to LGBTQ history.

Bring your visibility and find HRC at a Pride near you by visiting hrc.org/Pride.