BiCon 2019 takes inclusion of and respect for racial, ethnic and cultural diversity very seriously.
We recognise that there have been issues around including and respecting racial, ethnic and cultural diversity in previous years. Many people have been working hard on improving this recently. In 2011, cultural diversity training was provided for bi activists (including BiCon organisers) and in 2012, the programme started to include cultural diversity more, and a workshop was run entitled “Let’s talk about race at BiCon”. Since then, we have continued to welcome workshops that discuss race and ethnicity, as well as having Safe Space workshops for minority ethnic people. Additions have been made to our guidelines to continually improve our standards and ensure that BiCon is an accessible place for everyone, including people from marginalised ethnic groups.
However, as you know, the efforts of the few take time to impact on the many. There are still many changes that need to be made before negative experiences related to racism or cultural insensitivity are drastically reduced. As a team, we aim to continue to address these issues, and aim to be as accountable as possible.
We plan to work alongside groups of LGBTQ people who are of ethnic minorities, and are happy to discuss suggestions for continually improving this. We welcome suggestions at 2019@bicon.org.uk on how we can improve BiCon for minority ethnic people.