Bisexual Cape Town: History, Visibility, Community and Belonging

Bisexuality is not confusion, indecision or an unfinished step towards being gay or straight. It is a valid sexual orientation: attraction to more than one gender can take different forms, need not be equal or simultaneous, and is not determined by the person someone happens to be dating. Cape Town has a remarkable place in that history. In 1992, the Association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians ABIGALE formed in the city. The organisation helped create Cape Town's first Pride march in 1993. Bisexual people were explicitly named in an organisation central to the city's early Pride movement—not added as an afterthought. This guide moves from the origins of the word bisexual and the struggle for visibility to that local history, the people who shaped bisexual recognition, and the ways to discover community in Cape Town today. Bisexuality is a real identity, not a phase Bisexuality generally describes the capacity for romantic, emotional or sexual attraction to more than one gender. Attraction need not be evenly divided, experienced at the same time or expressed through relationships. Being single, monogamous, married, questioning or in a relationship with someone of one gender does not invalidate bisexual identity. The assumption that bisexual people are merely confused can be especially hurtful because it refuses to accept what someone says about their own life. A bisexual woman dating a man is not automatically straight; a bisexual man dating a man is not automatically gay. A person does not have to disclose their history or prove their attractions to deserve respect. Some people use labels such as pansexual, queer or no label at all. Those choices need not compete. The important thing is to respect how people describe themselves. For someone exploring their identity, there is no deadline for finding the right language. For parents, friends and partners, listening without treating bisexuality as a problem to be solved is a useful beginning. And for people who have been openly bisexual for years, the history below offers recognition beyond the familiar explanations. Attraction before the modern label People have experienced relationships and attraction across gender boundaries throughout recorded history. In ancient Greek and Roman societies, for example, surviving records describe relationships that do not map neatly onto today's heterosexual and homosexual categories. But it would be misleading to assign the modern identity bisexual automatically to people who lived under very different social understandings of sexuality. Historical experience and a contemporary identity label are related questions, not the same thing. The word itself has changed. Nineteenth-century uses of bisexuality concerned anatomical or biological characteristics, rather than the sexual orientation described today. Its attraction-related meaning emerged through later sexological writing and was subsequently reshaped by people organising and speaking for themselves. That distinction matters: bisexuality did not suddenly begin when someone invented a word for it. What evolved was the language, public recognition and capacity to form visible communities around the experience. How bisexual visibility found its own voice By the late twentieth century, bisexual people were building organisations and challenging a movement vocabulary that often named only gay men and lesbians. The London Bisexual Group formed in 1981. The East Coast Bisexual Network, later associated with the Bisexual Resource Center, began in 1985. In 1991, Loraine Hutchins and Lani Kaʻahumanu co-edited Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out , giving bisexual writers and advocates a platform in their own words. Lani Kaʻahumanu was also prominent in the campaign for explicit bisexual inclusion in the 1993 March on Washington's name. Brenda Howard, an openly bisexual activist, was involved in early organising around commemorations of the Stonewall uprising that developed into the Pride tradition in New York. These histories challenge the idea that bisexual visibility arrived late to LGBTQ+ politics. Bisexual organisers were part of building the movements themselves. The pink, purple and blue bisexual pride flag was introduced by activist Michael Page in 1998. ! Bisexual Pride flag with three horizontal stripes in pink, purple and blue https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Bisexual%20Pride%20Flag.svg Bisexual Pride flag, designed by Michael Page in 1998. Image: Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bisexual Pride Flag.svg , public domain. Celebrate Bisexuality Day, now commonly called Bi Visibility Day , began in 1999 and is observed annually on 23 September. Its early history has a connection to the 1999 ILGA gathering in Johannesburg. These milestones are reminders that recognition takes work—not because bisexual identity needs to be justified, but because communities deserve to be named and seen. Cape Town's bisexual history was there from the start ABIGALE is one of the most distinctive stories in Cape Town's queer history. GALA Queer Archive documents the Association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians , established in 1992, as a space shaped largely by urban, working-class Black and Coloured LGBTQ+ people. Many faced exclusion from established gay social spaces that were predominantly white and middle class. ABIGALE combined opportunities to meet and support one another with direct political organising. Its members challenged discriminatory admissions practices at local venues, including the gay club Strawbs. They also organised workshops, social activities and protest. The organisation's history brings together race, class, sexuality and the demand for spaces where people could belong on their own terms. In December 1993, ABIGALE helped organise Cape Town's first Pride march . The march was a political act during South Africa's democratic transition, and it drew on solidarity with organisers elsewhere in the country. Members had attended Johannesburg Pride, while GLOW activists offered support in Cape Town. The name matters. Cape Town's early Pride did not come from a group that subsequently remembered to include bisexual people. Bisexuals were named in ABIGALE from its beginning. The history is preserved in GALA's archival collections, including photographs, organisational records and Pride material. GALA preserves important visual evidence of Cape Town’s early Pride, including material from ABIGALE’s organising. To explore the city's wider story, visit LGBTQ+ History and Rights in Cape Town /south-africa/cape-town/guides/lgbtq-history-rights-cape-town . For the national context, read Gay South Africa: The History of Pride, Resistance and Belonging /south-africa/guides/gay-south-africa-pride-history . Why bisexual visibility still matters Even within LGBTQ+ spaces, bisexual people can encounter assumptions that they are unwilling to come out fully, cannot be trusted in relationships, or will eventually choose a different identity. In heterosexual settings, attraction to the same gender may be ignored, hidden or condemned. This can create a double stigma: feeling invisible or questioned in more than one community. South African researchers and writers have documented that tension. Research by Z. Khuzwayo examined narratives of bisexual women in Johannesburg and the pressure to fit into a heterosexual/homosexual divide. The participants' experiences illuminate the problem but do not establish how common it is across all South Africans. The OUT LGBT Well-being Love Not Hate survey also included bisexual respondents who reported fear of discrimination. Its online recruitment and sample composition mean its results should not be mistaken for a national estimate of bisexual prevalence. Bisexual men may encounter their own stereotype: the assertion that their attraction to men reveals a supposedly hidden gay identity, while attraction to women is dismissed as cover. That treats other people's expectations as more authoritative than the person's own account. A useful response to erasure is not simply to repeat stereotypes. It is to centre bisexual people's own stories, relationships, contributions and joy. Visibility can mean no longer having to edit your identity according to the person beside you. People who changed the conversation Bisexual history is also cultural history. Brenda Fassie , born in Langa, Cape Town, became one of South Africa's defining popular musicians. South African historical writing discusses her public bisexual visibility. Her significance extends far beyond sexuality: her music, performance and public life left a lasting cultural legacy. Her story belongs within Cape Town’s musical and LGBTQ+ cultural history. Lani Kaʻahumanu helped insist that bisexual people be named in political organising. Brenda Howard connected bisexual activism to the foundations of contemporary Pride. Robyn Ochs , an activist, educator and writer, has contributed to public discussions about bisexual identity and inclusive language. ! Robyn Ochs, bisexual rights activist, pictured at the University of Illinois in 2008 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Robyn%20Ochs%20Front.jpg Robyn Ochs, 2008. Photo: Perardi / Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robyn Ochs Front.jpg , CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ . Unmodified image. Michael Page gave the community a highly recognisable flag. Closer to home, South African journalists and scholars—including Nompilo Gwala and Cheryl Stobie—have contributed perspectives on identity, representation and belonging. Their work matters even though writing about bisexuality is not itself evidence of a writer's personal sexual orientation. These people should not be reduced to an identity label or used as an excuse to speculate about private lives. Their work and achievements are what make their stories worth exploring. From Cape Town's first Pride to WorldPride 2028 Cape Town's first Pride took place amid a national struggle for equality. South Africa's Constitution would later explicitly prohibit unfair discrimination on grounds including sexual orientation, while the Civil Union Act of 2006 established a legal route to marriage or civil partnership for same-sex couples. Legal recognition, however, does not automatically eliminate prejudice or create accessible community spaces. Cape Town is also preparing to host WorldPride 2028 , the first WorldPride on the African continent. That future gathering connects a remarkable historical arc: from ABIGALE's explicitly bisexual-inclusive organising in 1992–1993 to a city preparing for a global Pride event. Explore South African Pride coverage /south-africa/pride for the wider story and relevant events. Finding community in Cape Town today The research for this guide did not identify a permanent Cape Town venue or organisation that should be described as exclusively bisexual. That is not evidence that bisexual community life is absent. It means we should describe real opportunities accurately rather than invent a separate scene. Explicitly bi-inclusive gatherings: CTL Queer Book Club's published welcome has included bisexual and pansexual women, alongside other sapphic, queer, trans and non-binary readers. The Lesbian and WLW events page /south-africa/cape-town/events/lesbian-wlw can help people who identify with those gatherings find relevant opportunities. Wider LGBTQ+ culture: Book clubs, performances, Pride events, discussion groups and social activities can be meaningful places to connect. Explore the Cape Town events calendar /south-africa/cape-town/events for current listings and the Cape Town destination page /south-africa/cape-town for broader discovery. Read the individual organiser's audience and access information rather than assuming all events have the same format. Community and support: Triangle Project's published work includes bisexual people and the wider LGBTQ+ community in the Western Cape. Infogaytion's South Africa support directory /south-africa/support provides an entry point to organisations; check the particular programme and its current availability. Some readers are looking for Pride and a night out. Others want a supportive conversation or simply a shared interest that makes meeting people easier. Bisexuality does not prescribe a social life, and being part of a community does not require disclosing personal relationships to strangers. Questions people often ask Is bisexuality just confusion or a stage? No. Bisexuality is a valid orientation in its own right. Someone's understanding of their identity may develop, but that does not make bisexuality inherently temporary or less real than other orientations. Does bisexuality mean being equally attracted to men and women? No. Attraction need not be equal, simultaneous or limited to a simple gender binary. Can someone be bisexual while in a long-term monogamous relationship? Yes. Relationship status does not determine orientation. Was bisexuality part of early Cape Town Pride? Yes. ABIGALE—the Association of Bisexuals, Gays and Lesbians—was central to organising Cape Town's first Pride in 1993. Is there somewhere specifically bisexual to go in Cape Town? The current research did not verify a permanently bi-specific venue. Start with explicitly inclusive listings and broader LGBTQ+ cultural and social programmes, checking individual event information. Continue exploring on Infogaytion Follow the city's Pride and historical coverage, explore community events, discover Lesbian Cape Town /south-africa/cape-town/guides/lesbian-cape-town-community-guide and Transgender Cape Town /south-africa/cape-town/guides/transgender-cape-town-community-guide , or return to the wider Cape Town guide. Bisexual people have always been part of wider community histories. In Cape Town, the evidence is literally in the name of an organisation that helped bring Pride to the streets. That is history worth knowing—and a community worth recognising today.