Myth #54: Bisexual is the Middle Ground Between Gay and Straight with Nina Carbone

On this week’s episode, Christine and Shannon are joined by Nina Carbone to discuss their research on bi-erasure and specific stigma around multisexuality. 

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Transcript

UNKNOWN: 0:00

Music.

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Hi, this is Sex Ed Debunked, a cross-generational podcast hosted by mother-daughter duo Christine and Shannon Curley. Every episode, we tackle a new myth about sex, sexuality, and pleasure and use research and expert insights to debunk stereotypes and misinformation from the bedroom and beyond. In 2022, we won the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists Award for Best Podcast and also managed to not totally freak out our family and friends along the way. We believe in healthy, sex-positive, pleasure-focused sex education backed by Hi, welcome to Sex Ed Debunked, a cross-generational podcast about sex positivity, sexual health, and the Backstreet Boys' queer anthem, Bye Bye Bye. You said that last time we did the bisexuality episode. That's because I'm really joining up this trending as a fact that it's actually about bisexuals. You do you, Shannon. I mean, yeah. It is Masturbation May. Stop it. That's not today's topic. Today's topic is not Masturbation May. Today's topic is a subject we have talked about before, identity. But today we're talking specifically about bisexual and multisexual identity, which is a term that I'm really curious to explore because it seems to be a new term in academia right now. Yeah, I haven't heard of it. So the cool thing is that we have brought in some help for our discussion, as we love to do when we are not, in fact, experts on the topics we're talking about. So we are excited to welcome back Nina Carbone, who some of you may remember from our episode on non-binary identities and experiences. So welcome back to the show, Nina. Hi, it's good to be here. Good to have you back. And you and Christine have some history, right? Well, Nina was a student of mine, one of my most excellent students, actually, in our research methods. And we talked a lot about your potential research in that class. And it's really exciting to know that you have taken it and literally run with these topics and have now decided to do an honors thesis and probably go on to graduate school. So good on you, Nina. Thank you. Yeah. So the reason why we got on this topic to talk about Being scholars and being students is actually that one of Christine's students brought up this question or concern about bisexual identity and the, I guess, multisexual, and that was what we're using. But tell us a little bit about how that came up. Well, the student was using the term bisexual, and I'm sure we'll get into breaking down the changing terminology around this multisexuality sexual orientation. But the student in my class was actually... expressing an experience that I think is quite familiar with individuals who identify as bisexual. The experience being that when she had a boyfriend, she had everyone saying, oh, you're straight now. And then when she reached a point where she broke up with the boyfriend and started dating a woman, heard, hey, you're gay now. But the other piece that she really relayed was that When she was dating her boyfriend, she felt really rejected by the queer community because she wasn't queer enough anymore. So she asked if we could have an episode on bi erasure and the idea that some people think that your bisexuality is just a placeholder until you choose size, something of that nature. But she was really struggling because she felt her identity very strongly as someone who was bisexual and felt No matter who she was dating, she wasn't being her authentic self or was not treated like an authentic self, whatever that means. Which intersects beautifully with your line of research, Nina, which you obviously mentioned briefly on the last episode you were on. But as promised, I said we were going to ask you more about it. So can you tell us a little bit, first of all, just about your academic program that you're involved in and then also your areas of focus? And then we'll jump more into your research.

SPEAKER_00: 4:13

Yeah, sure. So right now I'm at Rhode Island College. I'm about to go into my final year. I'm getting my bachelor's in psychology and I also have a minor in behavioral neuroscience and queer studies. And right now I'm doing my honors thesis on multisexuality, specifically about the effects of relationship presentation and connection to the LGBTQ plus community on the relationship quality of monogamous multisexuals.

UNKNOWN: 4:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:44

It's a little wordy, but we'll go with

SPEAKER_01: 4:47

it. Well, that's academia for you, right? And that's part of why we have this podcast, to take the nerdy and the wordy and break it down and make it mainstream, which leads us to our first question. Okay, so very first, as we've learned in research methods, Dina, we need to operationalize the terms we're using. And multisexual is a new term I'm seeing in the research, and I'm not entirely clear How that's evolved and how that's different from bisexual or even pansexual.

SPEAKER_00: 5:18

Yeah. So, I mean, multisexual can be a sexual orientation label all within itself. But the way I'm using it in my research is an umbrella term to encompass anybody who's attracted to more than one gender. So that's bisexual people, pansexual people, omnisexual, polysexual people. plurisexual, any label that falls under this umbrella of I am attracted to more than one gender, doesn't matter if it's all genders or just a few, you have to be attracted to more than one gender, and that's what multisexual it is. So it's basically the opposite of monosexual, which are people who are attracted to one gender. Multisexual is anybody who's attracted to more than one gender. That makes sense, actually. That makes a lot of sense. It sounds like

SPEAKER_01: 6:01

it's similar to the term queer, but maybe operationalized and a little more academic. Yeah, queer falls under the umbrella, too. So how is the how is the term multisexual different from omnisexual, pansexual or plurisexual?

SPEAKER_00: 6:17

I mean, honestly, they all have such similar definitions that they're basically the same thing. But I would say it's a matter of preference on what people want to use. But academically, they are so closely related that they could fall under the same term terminology.

SPEAKER_01: 6:36

You know, and I kind of agree with what you implicitly said is that academia needs to kind of settle on some terms for this stuff. You know, we struggle, as you know, some of my research is looking at consensual non-monogamy and in academia, it's consensual non-monogamy. Out in the world, it's ethical non-monogamy. And so it suffers from that same, you know, too many words that kind of mean the same thing. So I kind of like this multisexual aspect because it's, It takes away the piece of, so tell me which gender you like. And the answer is more than one. Yeah, one. Yeah. And I appreciate the way that you described it as being the opposite of monosexual, because I think that makes it easier as much as we don't like a binary sometimes is. I mean, that's why the binary exists, right? Is because our brains work in a way that we like to understand what's on one side and what's on the other. So in terms of academics and you've found in your research that multisexual individuals are making up the majority of the LGBTQ community,

SPEAKER_00: 7:38

right? Yeah. So I found doing my literature review that a Gallup poll from last year in 2022 found that multisexual people make up the majority of the community. I think it was something like 7%. Like one in 10 millennials would consider themselves multisexual and one in five Gen Z individuals would consider themselves multisexual. So yeah, they definitely make up the majority of of the community now, but they do face, I mean, the LGBTQ community as a whole faces discrimination, but these multisexual individuals face a very unique type of discrimination, both from general heterosexual quote unquote society and within the queer community because of this, the fluidity of their sexuality and the erasure that you guys talked about within the context of specifically monogamous relationships.

SPEAKER_01: 8:35

Yeah, so talk a little bit about that idea, because we've talked a little bit about bi erasure before and identity erasure, but let's explain more what we mean by that. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 8:49

so within the context of monogamy, when I say my research is focusing on relationship presentation, what that means is, is the relationship queer passing or is it straight passing? Yeah. you know, this can happen in non-monogamous relationships as well, but I'm specifically looking at this very unique phenomenon within monogamy. So if a multisexual person, uh, finds themselves within a queer passing relationship, they could be considered gay. And it's like, you're not attracting more than one gender because, you know, let's say a, a bisexual woman is dating a woman, then she's considered a lesbian, but if she dates a man, she's considered straight. And that's what, um, I mean, when I say when I talk about multisexual erasure or bi erasure and a word that's used a lot in the literature on this topic is invisibilization and that their identities are invisibilized, invisibilized, made invisible, made invisible. So many times within my paper and I still can't pronounce it. There's a lot of consonants at work. Like there's a lot happening. So we just say erasure. It's easier. But, but the interesting thing is, is that when these people are in queer passing relationships, that they are really accepted by the queer community, but they're, very much discriminated against in general society. And it's like the flip side with a straight relationship, straight passing relationship that they are accepted by general heterosexual society, but within the queer community, they're more discriminated against.

SPEAKER_01: 10:33

Yeah. And I've definitely seen that in my experience. Like, you know, I have a few friends who identify as bisexual and they've expressed, you know, Sometimes it's patronizing within the queer community. Like, I have a friend who, you know, very much identifies as bisexual, has dated men, has dated women, but there are people in the community that still refer to her as a quote-unquote baby gay. Yeah. call her a baby gay. And there is a lot of that. The queer community is as guilty in many ways as the straight community is of doing that erasure, doing that invisibilization. And so you're basically saying that the person, the individual becomes defined by the relationship they're in as opposed to the person that they actually are. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think that's important because One of the things that when me and Shannon were talking about this episode is to really explain to the quote, the straight world, why this is so important and to realize that if something similar happened in, so me and Shannon always like to do sports analogies, right? So if you were playing, if you were a tennis player and a soccer player, but now you're playing tennis, Does that mean you're no longer a soccer player? Exactly, yeah. No. Just because you're playing one sport this season doesn't erase the other attraction, the other love you have for another sport, how you identify. And I think we need to explain to the broader world that this is something that is really critical to who a person is. And this idea of erasure... is really a serious, has a serious mental health components to not have your identity recognized simply because you choose to date one person or another.

SPEAKER_00: 12:40

Exactly. And one of the psychological consequences that we're seeing within this community is that when they're Identity is erased socially. It makes them start to question if they are actually this sexual orientation and they begin to doubt themselves and they're like, well, maybe I'm not attracted to this gender and maybe I am straight or maybe I'm gay or, you know, and they start to really doubt themselves and make some very. And this group of people within the community have a really high level of depression and anxiety and suicidal ideation because they're like constantly being doubted by other people and internally doubting themselves so much. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:28

And so that's sort of the base of your research, right? Is that unique stressor. So yeah, let's talk a little more about that because that's really fascinating. And again, to Christine's point, I think is part of why this conversation is so important to be heard by both the straight and the queer community is there are unique stressors associated.

SPEAKER_00: 13:44

Yeah. Yeah. It is a very unique phenomenon. And so what I'm looking at is what the a relationship presentation, queer passing or straight passing, how that impacts a multisexual individual's connection to a larger queer community. And if it makes them feel more connected or less connected, how can that make them, how does that affect the relationship quality and sexual quality with their partner? Yeah. So we have internal stressors, which are the anxiety, the depression, self-doubt, insecurity. And then we have the external stressor, which is anything from anybody else. So it's violence or discrimination or verbal abuse or anything like that. And so are both those internal stressors and external stressors impacting how they feel connected to their community? And subsequently, how does that impact their relationship with their partner, both romantically and sexually? Interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 14:47

So are you looking, Nina, then at the... It sounds like you're looking at a number of different outcomes in terms of looking at both impact on community and impact on the individual relationship, the partnership that somebody's in, and how those different stressors are positive or negative. And I'm assuming most of them are going to be negative. Yeah. So... Are you looking at things like anticipated stigma? Are you looking more at like actual acts of discrimination?

SPEAKER_00: 15:19

So we're looking mostly at actual acts. I mean, in the measures that we're using, some of the questions that we are asking are like, do you, you know, Like one of the questions we asked, like if you and your partner are traveling, do you have to think about where you're going to travel to for any anticipated like discrimination you might experience? But mostly what we're looking at is how do how does one feel about their queer identity? Do they feel connected to themselves and do they feel comfortable calling themselves a queer person or multisexual person? We're asking about their relationship quality with their partner specifically. Specifically using Rustbolt's investment model, which I love, and I learned that in your class, Christine. Wait, you got to tell us what that means, because not all of our listeners know the

SPEAKER_01: 16:12

model. Not all of the listeners got to take that class. Only my students

SPEAKER_00: 16:17

know. I mean, the investment model is a great model looking at relationship satisfaction and commitment using four variables of satisfaction commitment investment and quality of alternatives and we're specifically looking at satisfaction and quality of alternatives a quality of alternatives specifically being interesting because um with in relation to um like queerness because we're asking like if you know let's take this hypothetical bisexual woman again if she's dating um a man and she's being perceived as a straight woman, does she feel that if she was in a relationship with another woman, would her queer identity be more accepted? Would that help her feel more connected to the queer community? So is she looking for alternative relationships in order to feel more connected to her identity and to her community? So we're using that measure. We're also using a We're looking at quality of sex and we're using another great measure called the couple level minority scale, which is we're only look, we're not asking couples, we're asking individuals, but we're asking these individuals, like, how do you and your partner move about in the world? And do you have as a queer person? couple, or at least one person who's queer, and how does the relationship presentation affect the way you move around the world as a couple? So that measure looks at that. And then we're also asking about their connectedness to the LGBTQ community, and if they do feel connected or if they don't.

SPEAKER_01: 18:00

So are you trying to recruit participants? And we can certainly, once you get this study up and running, we can definitely share your link on the podcast. Yeah. Are you looking for participants, some who are in lesbian, gay relationships and some that are in straight relationships? And are you looking across genders as well? Well, straight presenting and queer presenting relationships, right?

SPEAKER_00: 18:25

So we are, our participants basically are only... criteria is that you know they have to be at least 18 they have to be in a monogamous relationship for at least a month and they have to be multisexual so it doesn't matter if um whether they're in a straight passing or a queer passing relationship um and if their gender doesn't matter um they can be men or women or non-binary or any other gender um but because the gender of the individuals in the relationship doesn't really matter it's how other people perceive them which i think is a really important

SPEAKER_01: 19:02

point to just sort of like reiterate with like our listeners and just like to understand that is it's about the presentation because a multisexual person is multisexual regardless of whether they are in a straight presenting or queer presenting relationship so we have to be really careful when we're talking about it because they're not in a straight relationship if they're multisexual they're innate straight presenting relationship thank you for that application but it's interesting too when you talk about you know community because i think you know if you identify as multisexual or queer it is really important to you to have that identity within the queer community it's you're not looking for the identity within the straight community that's sort of the default right but you still want that inclusion in the queer community and you know i imagine that that's incredibly difficult for someone who is in a straight passing relationship especially a long-term straight passing relationship to still want to feel like they have that community and camaraderie with other queer folks because they are still queer they are still multisexual regardless of their relationship status

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

yeah definitely exactly um and uh am i allowed to talk about the myths that we're talking about yes so you know talking about if this myth that bisexuality is, or multisexuality, is this middle ground between straight and gay, but it's not. It's its own very fluid, dynamic sexuality. It's not this middle point. I consider myself bisexual, but in the terms of using the historical definition from the Bisexual Manifesto in that I'm not just attracted to men and women, but I'm attracted to more than one gender. And for me, that includes all genders. So that is very similar to the pansexual definition, but I like to use the term bisexual. And so it's mainly a preference thing. And I find myself equally attracted to all genders. But even though my attraction levels are very equal, it doesn't mean I'm still in this midpoint. Because some bisexual people could be bisexual, but very attracted to one gender more than another, but it doesn't mean they're, you know, monosexual. It just means they have, it's kind of like a spectrum of attraction. I find myself in the middle of that spectrum, but not everybody does. And it shouldn't be considered a middle ground between straight and gay.

SPEAKER_01: 21:25

Right. And it's, it's not even necessarily that you're quote unquote at the middle. It's almost that you're like equally distributed. That's a much better, right?

UNKNOWN: 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

I guess it's fair to say that part of the reason you got involved in this research was because of your own personal experience.

SPEAKER_00: 21:47

Yeah, definitely. Um, as I've told your listeners before, I'm non-binary and I am, but I'm femme presenting and I often get mistaken for a woman and it doesn't make me any less non-binary, but it's something I acknowledge and accept. But, um, When I've been in relationships with men or masculine presenting people in the past in monogamous relationships, I've just found my bisexual identity completely erased. And my queer friends or queer community have similarly called me like a baby gay or not as experienced within the queer community, even though I've been out for over 10 years and have had a multitude of experiences of experiences with people of multiple genders but when i you know all of a sudden i'm with a man so that means i'm heterosexual even though i'm not you know and so um and i in you know in my mind i knew i wasn't the only one to ever experience this but i really wanted to take a look at it from a more research focused academic point to and when i was looking at it i i The research exists, but it's limited. And so I wanted to add on to it. And I specifically wanted to look at this, how it is the connection to the larger queer community affecting people's internal psychological mindsets, and how is that affecting their relationship with their partner? I wanted to look at that part of it.

SPEAKER_01: 23:18

One of the things I'm curious about, Nina, too, is does the relationship... change a prior connection. Like if you had a really strong support network in the queer community, how that person is impacted if they see that switch. You know, I think it's going to feel more detrimental to someone who is active in the community or has you know, use the community for some support. And then all of a sudden feels, you know, being told they're a baby gay simply because they've made this choice to be in a straight presenting relationship. I almost wonder how much of it is, is about to change rather than, you know, something else.

SPEAKER_00: 24:01

Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, uh, yeah, I'm sure we'll find as, I mean, you haven't collected our data yet. That's the next step, but, um, i'm sure we will see some insight into that it's something i've experienced personally and i know a lot of my other bisexual friends have experienced that you know they're single or they're with someone of a similar same gender and but then they find themselves in a straight passing relationship and it's like it's a switch um and it can be really disorienting um and really isolating and that you know the erasure of your identity that you've Especially if someone's really proud of their identity, but then everybody starts to say, oh, you're not that person. It can be really hard to wrap your head around that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:49

Well, and we talk so much on this show in... basically every episode where we've ever talked about LGBTQ identity, we've talked about the importance of community. So how devastating to, you know, find a connection with someone in a straight passing relationship and then lose a community that is a really huge part of queer identity. Um, and it's something that I think like, like I'm involved in a lot of queer groups and it's something that we have to like check ourselves on is like, Everyone is just as valid. Every identity in the group is just as valid. And you don't get to tell anyone else what their identity is or how they get to live and experience their authentic life. Yeah. Well, especially since the numbers and the trends that I'm seeing in the academic research and surveys is like you said, Nina, the bisexual percentage or the multisexual percentage is actually a lot larger than, you know, quote unquote, just gay, just lesbian. Yeah. Like we are talking about a community that, a bisexual and multisexual community that's growing. And I'm seeing it in all of the research I'm doing of undergraduate and graduate students. Every time, we just had a series of mass testing surveys, data of over 4,000 students. And the students that are identifying as bisexual are far, are double or triple the amount that are identifying as gay

SPEAKER_00: 26:13

or lesbian. Yeah, I mean- this statistic that I used earlier, like 7%, like it's, that's like the increase over the last decade. Like it's huge, you know? And I think as, you know, we have a long way to go as a community, but as sexual fluidity and acceptance of queer people becomes more, you know, I hate the word, but mainstream, I guess it's, and people start to explore their sexualities more comfortably, especially at a young age, We have to be able to be open to sexual orientations as sexuality changing over time. Because, I mean, I've been bisexual for 10 years or out as bisexual for 10 years, but sexuality is always changing. And I think it's okay for people to think they're one thing at one point of their life and feel differently later down the road. And... And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I don't see myself ever coming out as straight, but for whatever reason, like, you know, I could feel attracted to some gender later in my life more than I am now. And it's, and that'd be fine, you know, because it's, everything's fluid. Gender is fluid. Sexuality is fluid. And I think as people, young people are becoming more accepting of exploring their sexuality, we have to be, welcome them with open arms and tell them it's okay for your, Your sexuality can be confusing and fluid, and it's fine, and it's okay. And whoever you date doesn't dictate your sexuality either. Your sexual orientation is yours, and you get to decide what it is. And who you date does not dictate who you are, even if the world likes to say that. Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_01: 28:03

And that, I guess, brings up the question that I have, which is just sort of a general question, but... since your research is focusing specifically on monogamous relationships and multisexual identifying people, what can a supportive partner do to be supportive of someone's multisexual identity in either capacity in a straight passing or a queer passing relationship?

SPEAKER_00: 28:27

Yeah. I've been in monogamous relationships in the past. I know at this point in my life, I don't really consider myself monogamous or non-monogamous. I'm very open to either in the fluidity of it all. But I've, something I wished for in the past in my monogamous relationships was that as a bisexual person was the acknowledgement that, you know, there's this stereotype that bisexual people will, monogamous bisexual people will cheat on their partners because they're attracted to more than one gender. And that's, I mean, I'm sure that can happen, but that can happen in any relationship. Yeah, any relationship is not safe for much. But that misconception that just because we're attracted to more than one gender doesn't mean that we aren't good partners or that we're not loyal or that we're not kind to our partners. And I was always upfront with my partners that I am attracted to more than one gender, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna try to seek out someone That's not you. I'm going to work within the boundaries of our relationship, whatever they may be. And I think there can be these, and the literature supports us, there can be these fears of especially straight people. Well, no, I won't even say that. Monosexual people going into relationships with multisexual people that they are, well, they have... They will have more STIs or STDs or that they're going to cheat on them, that they are unkind. And that's just not true. All relationships have, no matter the sexual orientations of any of the people involved, have their downfalls. And it's just the most important thing is to do is to be communicative with your partner and to work out the boundaries that work for the people involved and to trust and trust. Be kind to one another. And just because there's these stereotypes and misconceptions about multisexual people doesn't mean those people are actually going to enact those. And I think that also and I think just a general rule of thumb when you are dating a queer person is to educate yourself on the lives of the people within that community and to educate yourself. And whether you're queer or yourself or just an ally, you know, be involved in the community in whatever capacity you can. At least that's what I always hoped for from my partners in monogamous relationships, especially when I was dating straight people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:06

Yeah, I think that's a really important note, too, that being multisexual is not mutually exclusive from being committed and being loyal. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's a similar myth around consensual non-monogamy. That somehow you're less committed, you're more promiscuous, you engage in more... Cheating, unsafe sex, and it's really just the opposite. It's just a different type of a relationship orientation. Yeah, don't rely on stereotypes. Rely on your partner. That's a good way to put it, yeah. And I think, I'll say from my own experience, that another way to really validate your partner is to treat all of their identity as valid and equal. I definitely have had the experience of... using the bisexual label, using the queer label at different points in time. And my various partners saying, you know, well, if you're going to cheat on me, cheat on me with a girl because that's hot. Or I'm not worried about you cheating on me with a boy. I'm worried about you cheating on me with a girl because then I think it's more serious because you're dating me right now and I'm a girl. Which are really annoying and kind of immature examples, but it does continue to invalidate that identity if the person that you're with thinks that one part of how you identify is more threatening or more secure than another. So treat identity... and all parts of that identity as valid.

SPEAKER_00: 32:28

Exactly. And going off of that point, I mean, something that I've found in the literature is that not only within monogamous relationships, not only are they being erased by the community, but sometimes partners will also try to erase their identity that like, well, you know, going back to our lovely hypothetical bisexual woman, you know, she's getting a woman. She's like, well, you're going to call yourself a lesbian now. Right. Or she's getting a man. You're, you're straight now. Right. Because you're with me. That doesn't happen. As I said before, when you're dating, at least for multisexuals who you're dating, doesn't dictate their sexuality. They get to dictate what their sexual orientation is and nobody can change that. Nobody in the community or in general society or even their partner.

SPEAKER_01: 33:12

Well said. Good stuff. So I think we're ready to wrap this. So the myth that we... came up with prior to recording this episode that I think we really sussed out in our conversation here is that bisexual is the middle ground between gay and straight. It's not. Identity, sexual, gender, and otherwise exists on a spectrum and you don't have to pick one or the other. And even if you do for a short time period, does it mean you've picked one or the other? Right. It can change. Identities exist in multitudes and we all can and do claim multiple identities, whether that's soccer player and tennis player or sometimes into one gender and sometimes into another. Those identities, they can all coexist and they certainly don't erase the other parts of ourselves. And I think the last thing is to say, to honor all of them, honor all the identities that you have, that your partners have, that your friends have. And especially for the LGBTQ queer community, honor all the identities in your community too, because your friends need that love and support and acceptance, especially when they're, you know, when they choose to date who they date, they need that love and support and acceptance to continue no matter what. And I think that's messages that are important for the LGBTQ community and, of course, the community at large. Yeah, that's why we have the whole rainbow. That's it. All of it. We don't just get parts of the rainbow. We get the whole thing. And you can't just pick certain colors out of it. You have to love the whole rainbow. Legally. Legally. At least legally, according to queer code as dictated on this podcast. Nina's here as a witness, right? Exactly.

UNKNOWN: 34:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 34:55

So as we like to say on our show, Nina, we all try to say it together. That's another myth. Put to bed. I love it. That's awesome. So thank you, Nina, so much for being on the show again and sharing your research with us. We're definitely gonna have to do a follow up with you when you get the results of your research. Yeah, definitely. I'd love to come back. And give us the give us the link when it's live and we will share it and I will share it among my communities as well. And we can get this research move forward because it's certainly really important and necessary to keep our identities whole. Yeah. To fight back against erasure with representation and research.

SPEAKER_00: 35:37

Yeah. I love it.

SPEAKER_01: 35:40

We love it. All right. Thanks so much, Nina. And for all of our listeners, remember to tune in next week for another study session of Sex Ed Debunked. Also continue to submit the myths and topics you would like us to discuss. We want to know what you want to know. And for now, Have a great rest of May. All right. Masturbation May. Masturbation May. Go for it. Love alliteration. All right. Thanks. Bye. Thanks for tuning in for this week's episode of Sex Ed Debunked. During the course of our podcast, we have limited time together, which means that unfortunately many identities, groups, and movements may not be represented each week. The field of sexuality and gender orientations, identities, and behaviors are changing and growing rapidly, and we remain committed to being as inclusive as possible. Please remember that all of us, including us, are learning in this area and may occasionally slip up. We ask that we all continue to be kind to one another so that we can create a truly inclusive and accepting environment. As always, If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to us at Sex Ed Debunked on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Sex Ed Debunked is produced by Trailblaze Media in Providence, Rhode Island. Our sound producer is Ezra Winters with production assistance from Shea

SPEAKER_00: 36:59

Weintraub.