2024 Keynote Speaker

Robyn Ochs

Keynote: About the “B” in LGBTQ+: Addressing the Needs of Bi+ Older Adults

What is it like to identify as bi+ (bisexual, pansexual, fluid, etc.)? What unique challenges do bi+ older adults face? This keynote will provide tools to help professionals and care providers better meet the needs of bisexual older adults through increased awareness and suggested best practices for care.

Robyn Ochs is an educator, speaker, grassroots activist, and editor of Bi Women Quarterly and two anthologies: the 42-country collection Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World and RECOGNIZE: The Voices of Bisexual Men.

Her writings have been published in numerous bi, women’s studies, multicultural, and LGBTQ+ anthologies, and she has taught courses on LGBTQ+ history & politics in the United States and Canada, the politics of sexual orientation, & the experiences of those who transgress the binary categories of gay|straight, masculine|feminine, black|white &/or male|female.

Among other things, she crafted the definition of bisexuality that is used by many bi+ activists around the world: “I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge in myself the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.”

She was named by Teen Vogue as one of “9 Bisexual Women Who are Making History,” and she was chosen to represent Massachusetts on the Advocate‘s “50 States, 50 Heroes” list.

Robyn is deeply committed to intersectional and sustainable activism, to working with others to build coalitions across identities and across social movements, to supporting emerging leaders, and to learning and growing. She is particularly interested in bi+ health, the experiences of bi+ people in the workplace, the global bi+ movement, and bi and LGBTQIA+ youth. An activist for 50 years (so far), she is in it for the long haul.

She lives in Massachusetts and on May 17, 2004, the first day it was legal to do so, Robyn married Peg Preble.