Research on bisexuality : a scoping review

Abstract

For years, the legitimacy of bisexuality as a sexual identity has been questioned and sexuality has always been conceived to be fixed, with homosexuality and heterosexuality perceived as the only two possible categories. This scoping review aims at shedding light on the nature and extent of the research on the bisexual experience as well as to identify any research gaps in scholarly literature especially in regard to the positive bisexual experience. This scoping review collates and analyses the literature pertaining to the bisexual experience found on the HyDi database, accessed through the University of Malta website. The results show that there is no gap in literature regarding the positive bisexual experience, however the findings are pointing towards issues which impact bisexual individuals’ lives such as intersectionality of identity, community experience, biphobia, relationships and health. Furthermore, the findings highlight the racial/ethnic, gender and age gaps present within the samples perused. This scoping review is of value to policy makers, educators as well as other stakeholders who work in the field of bisexuality.