Frequently Asked Questions

A: We use terms like “bi-coded” and “fluid” to describe expressed and documented patterns of desire, relationships, and living that don’t fit into rigid gay/straight or man/woman categories. We’re not claiming to know anyone’s internal identity. We’re analyzing and interpreting how they lived and what systems punished them for it.

“Bi-coded” is not:

  • Claiming someone “was bisexual” in the modern identity sense
  • Ignoring historical context, language limitations, rituals or practices
  • Projecting 21st-century categories onto people who couldn’t access them
  • Erasing other aspects of their identity (race, class, gender, disability)

“Bi-coded” is:

  • An analytical tool for translating historical complexity visible in 2026
  • A way to honor patterns that don’t fit gay/straight binaries
  • A framework that centers people’s own expressed experiences when available
  • A framework that acknowledges that agency, archives, and records did not prioritize Indigenous, Black and lives of people of color
  • Transparent about what we know, what we’re trying to interpret, and what remains unknown

A: No. We’re using primary sources—Congressional testimony, published writings, firsthand interviews. The “revision” happened when historians erased complexity to fit binary narratives. We’re translating what was always there.

A: Binary Bashers is a series on Embracing All of Me. Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between. In 2025, Gallup reported that 54.6% to 57.3% of U.S. LGBTQ+ adults identifying as bisexual. When someone’s life shows relationships with multiple genders, or their art and work express desire for multiple genders, or explicit rejection of categories, our goal is to name that to serve the broader, majority, bi+ community. The alternative is forcing them into “gay” or “straight” boxes that don’t fit. Binary Bashers is about honoring the mess, the in-between, the refusal to choose. In 2026, we know better, so we do better. Our goal is not to retroactively label. We intend to interpret and analyze to answer the questions, who benefits and who will feel seen in these stories.

A: Binary Bashers discusses historical violence, including sexual assault and state persecution. It’s intended for mature audiences. Parents should preview episodes to determine age-appropriateness for their families. Episodes are educational and informative still we encourage parents to make the best decision for their families.

A: We use primary archival sources, firsthand accounts captured in oral history, interviews, and the figures’ own works, peer-reviewed scholarship. Every Binary Bashers episode must clearly name the central binary in one plain sentence, no metaphor, no implication.

The script must then make the cost of that binary explicit, showing what the subject risked or lost by living within or against it.
There must be at least one concrete action where the subject actively chooses integrity over simplification, with real stakes attached.
Ambiguity alone is not enough; the tension must be structural and grounded in lived consequence.

If the binary, the cost, and the action cannot be identified cleanly

Every episode includes a sources appendix with citations. This is rigorous research made accessible.

Everyone isn’t gay. Everyone isn’t bisexual or “bi+.” Everyone’ isn’t straight. We’re documenting people who lived complex lives that defied the categories available, and language available in their time and in their own words. If that’s uncomfortable, ask yourself why complexity feels threatening.

Yes. AI was used for technical production (audio mixing and mastering, sound effects, voice over to enhance narrative, social media clips, image restoration for episode cover art, and episode description drafts). AI was not used in the hosts narration, fact checking, or the figures voice over, if included in the episode.