[NizeGie]

Here are a few thought on the double standard, and more general impressions, from a bi-sexual woman. No, not me, obviously -- this is stuff I garnered from a woman I know who's quite definitely bi-sexual (actively so) and pretty far to the "open-minded" end of the scale in general:

- She says the research shows that everyone is, to some degree, bi-sexual. I haven't studied the research myself, so I have no idea about the truth of her assertion, but it gives some context to her other impressions.

- Typically, straight women and men are more intrigued than put off by the girl-girl side of things. While there are some people walking around who are rigidly anti-same-sex coupling (usually on religious grounds), everyone else seems to take it in stride.

- On the other hand, most full-on lesbians are openly hostile to bi-sexual women, treating them like apostates. She compared it to the way that many straight men are hostile to gay men. That may be more a matter of hardcore radical feminism than lesbianism in itself. I don't know.

- Though she's pretty freewheeling when it comes to women and straight men, she steers well clear of bi men as sexual partners, for disease-risk reasons (especially AIDS) akin to what Brandye identifies.

- She's been with various multi-partner combinations (two other women, a man and a woman, even two other women and a man, I believe), but never with more than one man.