Author(s): Michael Amherst

LGBTI & Queer Studies | Bisexuality

Michael Amherst makes a powerful argument that the enforcement of strict categories of sexuality, even when intended to be liberating, is restrictive and othering.

At a time when half of all young people in the UK identify as not exclusively straight, Go the Way Your Blood Beats is a timely exploration of how we talk about love and desire.

Discussions of sexual and gender fluidity are increasingly common and nuanced in the public sphere. Yet we still so often insist on fitting people’s experiences into one of, at best, three categories – gay, bi or straight.

In fact, even bisexuality is often dismissed as an experimental phase, or a stopping point on the way to coming out as gay – an erasure that comes from gay as well as straight communities. Should we then refuse labels? Or with sectors of society (most recently the Birmingham LGBT education controversy) still insisting sexuality should be kept behind closed doors, is it important to claim them?

March 2018