July 4, 2024
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Esther (she/her), chair of Bi+ Nederland executive board, talks about the beginning of this Dutch national bi+ organisation, what the organisation has grown into and works on, and what she considers to be some of the best practices of the organisation.
In 2016, around 250 people came together in Amsterdam for the EuroBicon, a European conference about bisexuality. After multiple days of learning, connecting and exchanging, a small group of participants from the Netherlands decided that they wanted to put all they had learned into action. They started the Onafhankelijke Bi Denktank (red. Independent Bi Think Tank). During theme evenings they spoke about bi+ and sexual diversity. There was a need for more and more positive attention on bi+ people and topics, and more space for bi+ people. However, they realized that it was difficult to work on creating a bi+ inclusive society with a think tank. After a lot of hard work, the foundation Bi+ Nederland was created in August of 2019.
Starting with a handful of people with expertise in lgbtqi+ activism, policy making and research, their first success was being taken seriously by the national Equality Department of the national government and to be granted a three-year, small project-based funding in 2020. While this budget was limited, it provided a kickstart and gave the organisation credibility with other lgbtqi+ organisations. Since then, Bi+ Nederland has since grown into the Dutch equality organisation for bi+ people and bi+ inclusion, working with around five paid employees and around thirty volunteers in 2025.
When starting the organisation, a big focus was on finding and pushing for scientific research as a basis for the work. Bi+ Nederland worked on forming clear vocabulary and goals to grow their reach and impact. Their vision is that in 2030 bi+ is seen as a self-evident, positive and equal sexual orientation in the Netherlands.
Achieving a bi+ inclusive society requires attention to three norms that can be limiting for bi+ people:
Focusing on community, knowledge, advocacy and communication, they work on creating a bi+ inclusive society.
After working with a relatively small budget and a lot of voluntary hours for the first 3,5 years, Bi+ Nederland had the position and opportunity to join an lgbtqi+ alliance financed by the national government in 2023. This meant that they could hire their first paid employees and grow their projects and outreach. This meant undergoing major professionalization, which Esther is very proud of: “When there is a budget available and you can hire people, that creates a more professional dynamic. This gives us more impact than relying solely on volunteers, who are often already on the verge of burnout while still trying to contribute to the community”. Even though Bi+ Nederland still relies on multiple sources of income, the better (financial) support by the national government gives Bi+ Nederland an extremely unique and privileged position.
Recent research shows there are about 1,7 million bi+ people in the Netherlands, making up about 11% of the adult population. However, bi+ people are often still invisible and many do not identify as bi, pan or bi+. This makes it challenging to reach bi+ people and build the community. Moreover, the bi+ community is extremely diverse, ranging from different political standpoints, educational backgrounds, genders, ages, et cetera. Esther therefore stresses the importance of both using scientific, factual information as the basis for their work, but also communicating in more accessible language and platforms: “I think it is important to use the words we know from scientific research correctly, but also translate them well for a wider audience.”Bi+ Nederland works on growing their outreach, both through communication on social media and sometimes mainstream media, but also by hosting multiple online and in-person events. Two large, annual events that Esther considers great successes are the Bi+ Boat during Pride Amsterdam and the Bi+ Day, organised by Bi+ Nederland. The Bi+ Boat is an important event as it is creating more positive attention and visibility of bi+ people, both in wider society and mainstream media as in lgbtqia+ spaces such as Pride. During the annual Bi+ Day, a community event organised by Bi+ Nederland, bi+ people come together for an empowering day filled with different kinds of workshops focused on exchanging experiences, learning, fun and community building. According to Esther, attending the Bi+ Day for the first time made her realize that she is not alone in her feelings and experiences. ‘This is where my people have been all this time?!’, thought Esther, giving her a great sense of recognition.
In their advocacy work Bi+ Nederland focuses on making bi+ people more visible in policies and other important places. Invisibility of bi+ people poses some challenges as policy makers and politicians can question why they need to ‘add another letter’. Esther states: “In our advocacy we are still focused on bringing people along with our vocabulary and narrative - on sharing what we know from science about this group, particularly the challenges they face. We also highlight how politics can help improve their lives, leading to greater well-being, fewer health problems, and increased safety in society, which ultimately benefits everyone. After all, it is a large group, and if their situation improves, society as a whole will spend far less on addressing social issues.”
In changing political landscapes, pressing challenges arise, such as online safety and sustainability of financial support by the government. Esther hopes that, at some point, the organisation has created such a large outreach that financial support by the government is no longer necessary to finance their work. Their focus has shifted towards working more on finding and creating other sources of income, to promote a more sustainable future for bi+ equality, whilst working hard to keep creating safe(r) space both online and in-person for bi+ people to connect.Even though their vision is set on 2030, Esther realizes that the work will most likely be far from done by that point. In 2025, bi+ is still relatively unknown among a lot of people. Communication therefore still often has to start with explaining what bi+ is, or even that bi+ orientations exist, and what shared experiences of bi+ people are. It takes a lot of time and effort to reach a large public and raise awareness about bi+ people and issues, but Esther’s hope for the next 5 years is that by then about 80% of people in the Netherlands can explain what bi+ is. As a bi+ inclusive society requires way more than that, Esther hopes that 5-10 years from now, Bi+ Nederland is still able to exist in a similar or even larger size, to continue working on bi+ equality.
Website: www.biplus.nl with international page www.biplus.nl/international
Instagram: @biplusnl
Email: info@biplus.nl
