Bisexual Resource Center records

The Bisexual Resource Center is a Boston-based non-profit organization founded in 1985 as the East Coast Bisexual Network, Inc. [ECBN.] After attending the first conference on bisexuality in the northeast in 1984, Boston-area bisexual activists, including Robyn Ochs, Laura Sachs and Scott Lewis, organized a second regional conference the following year. With the profits from this conference, the East Coast Bisexual Network was founded as an umbrella group to facilitate organizing among bisexual groups on the East Coast. The East Coast Bisexual Network was founded concurrently with the first groups devoted specifically to bisexual political activism. In the late 1980s, the East Coast Bisexual Network made HIV / AIDS education and activism a priority, as bisexual men and women were popularly accused of transferring the disease from gay males to lesbians and the straight population. In 1993, the organization expanded to include international bisexual organizations, and changed its name to the Bisexual Resource Center. During the 1990s, the organization worked to control misinformation as bisexuality gained visibility in the mainstream media. The Bisexual Resource Center continued to build alliances among, and combat biphobia within the gay, lesbian, and transgender communities. Shortly after its founding, the East Coast Bisexual Network began collecting materials created by bisexual and bisexual-friendly organizations, and materials about bisexuality that were produced by the mainstream media and the academic communities. When the organization broadened its mission to include the national and international bisexual community, efforts were made to expand and formalize these resources into an archives. These materials were collected for use by Bisexual Resource Center patrons. In 1989, the East Coast Bisexual Network opened an office in the Lesbian and Gay Community Center at 338 Newbury St. in Boston. The office served as headquarters for the East Coast Bisexual Network, provided affordable conference and meeting space for Boston's bisexual community, and housed the archives. In 1992, the office moved to 95 Berkeley St. after the Lesbian and Gay Community Center declared bankruptcy. In 2008, the office is located at 29 Stanhope St.