Here’s the latest in the series of email interviews with bisexual people over 50.
There will be a short break between the publication of this interview and any others – I want to write a couple of more general posts that feature my own thoughts on bisexuality and ageing.
As before, the questions in bold are written by me, everything else by the interviewee concerned.
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Call me Butch.
However, there’re a few things that I hope are improved on. All parties involved are aware of each other's presence. You are not defective," he said. My husband remains my primary partner and I am devoted to him.
As I aged, it became impossible for me to suppress my version of bisexuality (in which there are two partners of differing genders), and both my physical and mental health eroded severely.
We are not even close to there, yet. Our app is designed with your privacy and safety in mind, providing a secure space to connect and share. I think it wasn't until I was dating a guy in my mid-twenties that she felt comfortable around me. To the world, she and I present merely as very good friends. She is 81 and has dementia.
Those were very dark days of my life. But now I have a secondary relationship with a queer woman who is also hetero-married. If you stand up as an example of bisexual pride, it will give others the courage to stand up, too. "It's a place of death and sadness."
McCrea's story reflects the impact of policies like the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which was in effect from 1994 to 2011 and forced many service members to hide their sexual identities.
After the policy's repeal, McCrea found the courage to come out at 47, though the journey wasn't easy, especially with his children.
In order to stay a sane and a productive member of society, and to hold at bay the overwhelming depression that was pervading my life, I opened up my personal ethics to include limited polyamory. That is the perceived dirty little secret about being bisexual - the ability to love two people of differing genders at the same time. I am attracted to female-bodied queer women, and male-bodied hetero men.
I think that many in the bisexual community regard the existence of polyamorous bisexuals as counterproductive to the task of giving legitimacy and respect to the term "bisexual," but I'm not the only one out here in the world.
Has this changed over the years, and if so how?
I was strictly monogamous when I was younger.
I am 51 years old. Yes. But society is not yet ready to openly accept polyamory, even in this very liberal part of the country.
What do other people in your life know about your bisexuality and how do they react?
When folks meet me, I'm sure it is pretty obvious that I am not straight. I live in the New England region of the USA, and have been married to a hetero cis-male for 18 years.
