Lani Ka’ahumanu

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Lani Ka'ahumanu bigraphy, stories - Bisexual rights activist and feminist

Lani Ka’ahumanu : biography

October 5, 1943 –

Lani Ka’ahumanu is a bisexual and feminist writer and activist. She is openly bisexual and writes and speaks on sexuality issues frequently.

In 1983 in San Francisco, Lani Ka’ahumanu, Autumn Courtney, Arlene Krantz, David Lourea, Bill Mack, Alan Rockway, and Maggi Rubenstein founded BiPOL, the first and oldest bisexual political organization.http://www.binetusa.org/bihealth.html

In 1987 Lani Ka’ahumanu, Ann Justi and Maggi Rubenstein founded the Bay Area Bisexual Network.http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68259

Ka’ahumanu is the co-editor with Loraine Hutchins of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (Alyson, 1991). It is considered one of the seminal books in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement. After this anthology was forced to compete in the Lambda Literary Awards under the category Lesbian Anthology, BiNet USA led the bisexual community in a multi-year campaign eventually resulting in the addition of a Bisexual category, starting with the 2006 Awards.

From 1992 until 1994, Ka’ahumanu served as project coordinator for an American Foundation for AIDS Research grant awarded to Lyon-Martin Women’s Health Services. This was the first grant in U.S. history to target young high risk lesbian and bi women for HIV/AIDS prevention/education research. Ka’ahumanu also created “Peer Safer Sex Slut Team” with Cianna Stewart.

In 1993, Ka’ahumanu spoke at the rally of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.

In 1994, Ka’ahumanu, Elias Farajaje-Jones, Laura Perez, and Victor Raymond, all from The Indigenous Queers/Bisexual Caucus, presented “Preaching to the Perverted or Fluid Desire,” at the National HIV Prevention/Education Summit held by the Association of Physicians for Human Rights (now the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association).

In 1996, “What’s bisexuality got to do with it?” training was held in conjunction with California’s Lesbian, Gay and AIDS LIFE Lobby and Institute. It was coordinated by Ka’ahumanu, Stephanie Berger, Elias Farajaje-Jones, Felicia Park-Rogers, Brandon Taylor, Roland Sintos Coloma, and Cianna Stewart. Sheela Lambert produced a Bisexual Health Care Report for the NYC Dept. of Health examining barriers to service for bisexual people accessing health and mental health services. Two focus groups were conducted separately with bisexual men and bisexual women in NYC to identify issues.

In 1998, BiNet USA hosted a National Institute on Bisexuality HIV/AIDS Summit with the National Gay Lesbian Health Association Conference, along with Ka’ahumanu, Lynda Doll of the Center for Disease Control, and Elias Farajaje-Jones, Luigi Ferrer, Ron Fox, Dr. Fritz Klein, Marshall Miller, Cianna Stewart and Joe Wright.

In 1999, the Center for Disease Control/UCLA School of Nursing hosted a Bisexual People of Color HIV Prevention and Education Summit that was conceived by Bill Wedin and co-coordinated by Ka’ahumanu, with Elias Farajaje-Jones, Ron Fox, Karl Hamner, Dominique RosaNegra Leslie and Cianna Stewart.

In 2004, Ka’ahumanu, Bobbi Keppel and the Safer Sex Sluts presented the first Safer Sex Workshop given at a joint national conference with American Society on Aging and National Association on Aging.