Activist, author to speak at University about bisexuality on Thursday, Friday

After four years of traveling to nine nations and more than 300 universities, internationally known speaker, teacher, writer and gay-rights advocate Robyn Ochs will speak at IU for the first time this week.\nIU’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services, with assistance from the organizations OUT, Bi-Chat and Girls Like Us, will host Ochs’ presentation at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Collins Living-Learning Center Coffeehouse.\nThe lecture, titled “Bisexuality: Myths and Realities,” is a discussion open to all University students and faculty members about the facts and fictions of bisexuality, as well as gay, lesbian and heterosexual stereotypes.\n“Most of us have not been given good information about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people,” Ochs said in an e-mail. “There is far too much misinformation and silence, and the purpose of my work is to break that silence, to provide information and resources and to start conversations that will make this world a safer place for everyone.”\nOchs, who taught classes about bisexuality and the politics of gender equality, taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for one year, Tufts University for 11 years and Johnson State College for one year. According to her Web site, Ochs has taken a break from teaching since 2003 so she can fight for marriage equality.\nDan Coleman, an IU graduate student and programming coordinator at GLBTSSS, said he has seen Ochs speak before. \n“I chose her because she is not only quite an expert, but she is such a great person who helps to bring out the best energy in those who come in contact with her,” Coleman said. “(Her stories) are breathtaking and inspiring. She has the power to make an entire room cry with the story of her and her partner’s marriage.”\nOchs and her longtime partner, Peg Preble, wed in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004, the day same-sex marriages became legal in the state.\nOchs’ presentation Thursday will feature an interactive discussion on the definition of bisexuality and whether it exists as well as “biphobia” within communities of all sexual orientations.\n“Students will leave this program with a much clearer understanding of what bisexuality is and isn’t,” Ochs said. “I will do this in part by getting people to think about identity and labels in a much broader context. We humans are complicated, and the task of deciding how, or whether, to label ourselves is not a simple one.”\nOchs will be presenting another lecture called “I Now Pronounce You Equal” at 10:30 a.m. Friday in Ballantine Hall 006. This discussion will discuss the battle for same-sex marriage, including an extended question-and-answer session after the lecture.