BiCon 2013 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, and in 2010 the Bis of Colour workshop provided a safer space for People of Colour and Black and Minority Ethnic bisexual people, and has run every BiCon since. In 2011, cultural diversity training was provided for bi activists (including BiCon organisers). In 2012, the programme started to include cultural diversity more, and a workshop was run entitled “Let’s talk about race at BiCon”.

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, but we can honestly say that we have received a lot of support and encouragement from many BiCon delegates and previous BiCon organisers to continue to address these issues, and we will keep working on this in consultation with Bis of Colour activists.

We will be looking at how to make our programme more inclusive, working with Black Queer groups, and making it easier for people to report issues.

We are happy to discuss suggestions for continually improving this with anyone but are particularly eager to hear from People of Colour and Black and Minority Ethnic bisexual people. Please contact email address removed if you have any suggestions for how we can make our BiCon better.