Robyn Ochs
Encyclopedia
Robyn Ochs is an American
bisexual and LGBT rights
activist who helped found the Boston Bisexual Network in 1983, and the Bisexual Resource Center
in 1985.
She is the editor of the Bisexual Resource Guide and the anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
http://www.biresource.org/133. Ochs is on the staff of Harvard University
and has taught courses at Tufts'
Experimental College
. She is a professional speaker and workshop leader. Her primary fields of interest are identity and coalition building. In 2004 and in 2007, she keynoted the Midwest Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Campus Conference, the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student conference in the United States.
Ochs has appeared on a number of television talk shows
, including Donahue
, Rolanda, Maury Povich
, Women Aloud, Real Personal, Hour Magazine
and The Shirley Show, to discuss issues relating to bisexuality. She has also been in Seventeen
and Newsweek
.
In 2009 at the Creating Change Conference the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force awarded Ochs the Susan J. Hyde Activism Award for Longevity in the Movement. As she presented the award Creating Change Director Sue Hyde told Ochs: “We hear your clear voice, we see your staunch advocacy and we respond to your loving insistence that our movement includes all of us.”
Robyn is a co-founder of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Group at Harvard University
and served as co-chair in 2008-2009.
She has served on the Board of Directors of MassEquality, Massachusetts's statewide equality organization, since 2004.
Ochs teaches courses on topics including LGBT
history & politics in the United States
, the politics of sexual orientation
, and the experiences of those who transgress the binary categories of gay/straight, masculine/feminine, black/white and/or male/female. Her writings have been published in numerous bisexual, women's studies
, multicultural and LGBT anthologies.
On 17 May 2004, the first day it was legal for same sex couples to marry
anywhere in the United States, Ochs and her long-time partner Peg Preble were among the first same-sex couples to get legally married (A Carefully Considered Rush to the Altar). Ironically, in an example of exactly the type of bisexual erasure
she has spent much of her life fighting against, Ochs was publicly misidentified in the press as a lesbian
.
Ochs is the niece of late folk singer
Phil Ochs
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
bisexual and LGBT rights
LGBT social movements
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender social movements share inter-related goals of social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies have a long history of campaigning for what is generally called LGBT rights, also called gay...
activist who helped found the Boston Bisexual Network in 1983, and the Bisexual Resource Center
Bisexual Resource Center
Bisexual Resource Center is a 501 non-profit educational organization that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as the East Coast Bisexual Network, the BRC is headquartered in Boston MA and provides education about bisexual and progressive issues and support for bisexual...
in 1985.
She is the editor of the Bisexual Resource Guide and the anthology Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World
Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World is an english language anthology edited by Robyn Ochs and Sarah E Rowley. It is an important book in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement and appears on numerous Bisexual/general LGBT reading lists.The book is composed of short essays...
http://www.biresource.org/133. Ochs is on the staff of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and has taught courses at Tufts'
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
Experimental College
Experimental College
The Experimental College at Tufts University , is located in Medford, Massachusetts. The college was founded in 1964, to expand the offerings of the undergraduate course curriculum, and has remained an integral part of the university ever since.The Experimental College expands the boundaries of the...
. She is a professional speaker and workshop leader. Her primary fields of interest are identity and coalition building. In 2004 and in 2007, she keynoted the Midwest Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Campus Conference, the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student conference in the United States.
Ochs has appeared on a number of television talk shows
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
, including Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
, Rolanda, Maury Povich
Maury Povich
Maurice Richard "Maury" Povich is an American TV talk show host who currently hosts his self-titled talk show Maury.-Personal background:...
, Women Aloud, Real Personal, Hour Magazine
Hour Magazine
Hour Magazine may refer to:* Hour , a weekly entertainment newspaper published in Montreal* Hour Magazine , a syndicated talk show hosted by Gary Collins, which aired from 1980 to 1988...
and The Shirley Show, to discuss issues relating to bisexuality. She has also been in Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
and Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
.
In 2009 at the Creating Change Conference the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force awarded Ochs the Susan J. Hyde Activism Award for Longevity in the Movement. As she presented the award Creating Change Director Sue Hyde told Ochs: “We hear your clear voice, we see your staunch advocacy and we respond to your loving insistence that our movement includes all of us.”
Robyn is a co-founder of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Faculty and Staff Group at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and served as co-chair in 2008-2009.
She has served on the Board of Directors of MassEquality, Massachusetts's statewide equality organization, since 2004.
Ochs teaches courses on topics including LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
history & politics in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the politics of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, and the experiences of those who transgress the binary categories of gay/straight, masculine/feminine, black/white and/or male/female. Her writings have been published in numerous bisexual, women's studies
Women's studies
Women's studies, also known as feminist studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field which explores politics, society and history from an intersectional, multicultural women's perspective...
, multicultural and LGBT anthologies.
On 17 May 2004, the first day it was legal for same sex couples to marry
Same-sex marriage in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution to allow only heterosexual couples to marry...
anywhere in the United States, Ochs and her long-time partner Peg Preble were among the first same-sex couples to get legally married (A Carefully Considered Rush to the Altar). Ironically, in an example of exactly the type of bisexual erasure
Bisexual erasure
Bisexual erasure is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources...
she has spent much of her life fighting against, Ochs was publicly misidentified in the press as a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
.
Ochs is the niece of late folk singer
Folk Singer
Folk Singer is a 1964 album by Muddy Waters. Waters plays acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar...
Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
.
See also
- Bisexual CommunityBisexual communityBisexual community is a term used to describe members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, "fluid", and queer-identified, as well as their allies...
- Bisexual Resource CenterBisexual Resource CenterBisexual Resource Center is a 501 non-profit educational organization that has served the bisexual community since 1985. Originally known as the East Coast Bisexual Network, the BRC is headquartered in Boston MA and provides education about bisexual and progressive issues and support for bisexual...
- Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the WorldGetting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the WorldGetting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World is an english language anthology edited by Robyn Ochs and Sarah E Rowley. It is an important book in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement and appears on numerous Bisexual/general LGBT reading lists.The book is composed of short essays...
Anthologies
- Becoming Visible: Counseling Bisexuals Across the Lifespan (Firestein, ed.)
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1555831745Bi Any Other Name: Bisexuals Speak Out (KaahumanuLani Ka'ahumanuLani Ka'ahumanu is a bisexual and feminist writer and activist. She is openly bisexual and writes and speaks on sexuality issues frequently.She is the co-editor with Loraine Hutchins of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out ....
& HutchinsLoraine HutchinsLoraine Hutchins is an American bisexual and feminist author, activist, and sex educator.She is the co-editor with Lani Ka'ahumanu of the anthology, Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out...
, ed.)] - Closer to Home: Bisexuality & Feminism (Weise, ed.)
- Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Blumenfeld, ed.)
- Bisexuality: The Identity and Politics of an Invisible Minority (Firestein, ed.)
- Women: Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology (Kesselman, McNair, & Schniedewind, eds.)
- Lesbian Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (Zimmerman, ed.)
- Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (ed. Adams, et al.)
External links
- Robyn Ochs' website
- Robyn Ochs' MySpace page
- Robyn Ochs Famous GLTB People
- Fighting Prejudice with Education by Sasha Hnatkovich The Pulse September 2005
- Unstoppable and Always Learning:Robyn Ochs by Jon Pressick bisexual.com Apr 23, 2007
- Robyn Ochs: Activist/Pioneer: Local leader to keynote second North American conference on bisexuality, by Ethan Jacobs in Bay Windows, 7/24/03
- Bisexuality and the Space Between Binary Categories, by John Townsend in Lavender Magazine, June 2008