The following is the transcript of a brief presentation given at 'Spring Out,' early 2003, a one day event of presentations and workshops for the LGB community in Sheffield.

In preparing the presentation the individuals involved with Bi-Weekly stated the information, impressions and statements that they wished to be communicated and one person then took that away and created the following presentation:

"Hi I'd like to tell you a little about Bi-Weekly, a group set up specifically for bi individuals and which is just about to celebrate its first birthday.

It was just over a year ago when I was accessing some of the one on one support through the Sheffield Centre for HIV, (the centre offers a range of services and training promoting health in the LGB community) looking to find further mechanisms by which I could work out my issues in regard to my own bisexual nature; a nature of which I have been self aware for the last 26 years and have only been dealing with for the past 4.

By a circuitous route I'd come across the work of Fritz Klein, especially his book 'The Bisexual Option' and also the book of anthologies, 'Bi Any Other Name.'

The things that impacted me particularly in reading about people like me for the first time were:

· Bi support groups have been going since at least the 1970's in America.

· 'Hiding' out as I had done in a heterosexual lifestyle and my refusal to 'pretend' to be gay and the converse were commonplace in the bi sphere of experience.

· For anyone to become fully congruent with whom they are, it is necessary to be able to access a community that fully supports and provides space for the exploration of that identity.

· Bisexuality within many areas of our culture is denied as a valid identity, even denounced and reviled by the very groups that have their own non-heterosexual identities denounced and reviled.

· So, often, we hide out in either heterosexual or gay identities because our identity frequently denied validity and therefore, for the most part, no supportive community exists to provide space to explore and express ourselves.

So, I got to thinking, and I got to be indignant about the fact that here we were in the year 2002, in Britain, one of the most developed and richest nations on earth, and in South Yorkshire which I guess contains a couple of million people or so, and there was not one group dedicated to bisexuals, not one group that could help me in my journey. (Imagine my shock when I discovered that there were only 6 such groups around the country.)

So I decided to set one up.

Fortunately I had considerable help form the Sheffield Centre for HIV. I'd only expected guidance on how to set the group up but the centre decided there was a need for such a group and made available funding for 4 hours professional support work per month. It was like manna falling from heaven.

I've worked professionally in the voluntary sector and I'm a therapist so I know how demanding it can be for voluntary groups to sustain without professional support. I personally did not want to set up a group where instead of being in a supportive environment, I was yet again putting my own needs to one side and supporting others (although that of course happens some of the time.) It was also important that the group did not seem to belong to any individual or clique of individuals so having professional support workers of facilitators covered these angles very appropriately.

So, the group was set up to meet on the 2nd Friday of every month socially and the last Friday of every month between 7-30 and 9-30 with a male and female support worker.

The first meeting had 6 people there. Myself, a friend, the 2 workers and 2 people from the Bi group in Manchester over to check it out.

We now have a core of approximately 15 people with usually 6 to 8 people turning up. Here are some of the comments that the group members would like to share with you:

· Bi-Weekly is a bisexual support group for women and men meeting twice a month. It aims to provide space where bisexuals can meet together to explore their bisexual identity in a safe, supportive and confidential environment.

· We feel it important to have this space free of bi-phobia. Some of us have experienced homophobia from both the straight and gay communities including within support groups that say they are for gay, lesbian AND bisexuals.

· It's somewhere where we fit in, where people do not try to compartmentalise us for their own agendas and do not try to cram us into pre-prepared boxes where; if we keep quit; and don't move too much; we should just have enough space to breath.

· It's about being with like minded people, where there's safety, confidentiality for sharing and discussion, NOT just for pulling.

· It's very welcoming.

· It allows a validation of identity without the fascism of being told we are confused or in 'transition.' (Although it's perfectly fine if any of us are.)

· The group is organic, evolutionary, shifting and growing as each individual brings what they have to the group.

· It's about our health and recovering from the effects of internalised oppression, from the effects of it not being safe to be us.

· And it's about being accepted as sometimes feeling more straight, and sometimes more gay, and sometimes just feeling like a nice cup of tea."