If you have any other links or information you would like to be posted here, email them to (deleted)

• Self harm workshop
• Country/Homosexual Bingo

Below are the countries used for the "bingo" game ran during the Amnesty workshop listed beside the punishments for the "crimes"

Africa	Lesbian	Gay Male	Maximum Penalty
Algeria	Illegal	Illegal	3 years/fine
Angola	Illegal	Illegal	Unknown
Benin	Illegal	Illegal	Unknown
Botswana	Legal	Illegal	7 years
Burkina Faso	Legal	Legal	3 years
Burundi	Legal	Legal	Punishable as an "immoral act"
Cameroon	Illegal	Illegal	5 years/fine
Cape Verde	Illegal	Illegal	Bail
Central African Republic	Legal	Legal
Chad	Legal	Legal
Comoros	Legal	Legal
Congo	Legal	Legal
Djibouti	Illegal	Illegal	Unknown
Egypt	Illegal	Illegal	A variety of laws are applied
Equatorial Guinea	N/A	N/A	No information
Eritrea	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Ethiopia	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Gabon	Legal	Legal
Gambia	N/A	Illegal	14 years
Ghana	Legal	Illegal	Unknown
Guinea	Illegal	Illegal	3 years/fine
Guinea Bissau	Legal	Legal
Ivory Coast	Legal	Legal
Kenya	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Lesotho	Legal	Legal
Liberia	Illegal	Illegal	Misdemeanor
Libya	Illegal	Illegal	5 years
Madagascar	Legal	Legal
Malawi	Illegal	Illegal	Unknown
Mali	Legal	Legal	2 years/fine
Mauritania	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Mauritius	Illegal	Illegal	5 years
Morocco	Illegal	Illegal	3 years/fine
Mozambique	Legal	Illegal	3 years/hard labour
Namibia	Legal	Illegal	Unknown
Nigeria	Legal	Illegal	Death
Senegal	Illegal	Illegal	5 years/fine
Somalia	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Sudan	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Swaziland	Illegal	Illegal	Prison or fine
Tanzania	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Togo	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Tunisia	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Uganda	Legal	Illegal	Life
Zambia	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Zimbabwe	Legal	Illegal	3 years

Americas	Lesbian	Gay Male	Maximum Penalty
Barbados	Illegal	Illegal	Unknown
Cuba	Legal	Illegal	1 year
Grenada	Legal	Illegal	Unknown
Guyana	Legal	Illegal	Life
Jamaica	Legal	Illegal	10 years / hard labour
Nicaragua	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Illegal	N/A
Saint Lucia	Illegal	Illegal	25 years
Trinidad and Tobago	Illegal	Illegal	10 years

Asia-Pacific	Lesbian	Gay Male	Maximum Penalty
Afghanistan	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Australia	Legal	Legal
Bangladesh	Illegal	Illegal	Life
Bhutan	Illegal	Illegal	Life
Brunei	Illegal	Illegal	10 years
Burma/Myanmar	Illegal	Illegal	10 years/fine
Cook Islands (New Zealand Associated State)	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Fiji Islands	Legal	Illegal	14 years
India	Illegal	Illegal	Life
Kiribati	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Malaysia	Illegal	Illegal	20 years/caning and fine
Maldives	Legal	Illegal	Life
Marshall Islands	Legal	Illegal	10 years
Nepal	Illegal	Illegal	Life
Niue (New Zealand Associated State)	Legal	Illegal	10 years
Pakistan	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Papua New Guinea	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Singapore	Illegal	Illegal	Life
Solomon Islands	Illegal	Illegal	14 years
Sri Lanka	Legal	Illegal	12 years
Tokelau (New Zealand Associated State)	Legal	Illegal	10 years
Tonga	Legal	Illegal	10 years
Turkmenistan	Legal	Illegal	2 years
Tuvalu	Legal	Illegal	14 years
Uzbekistan	Legal	Illegal	3 years
Western Samoa	Illegal	Illegal	7 years

Middle East	Lesbian	Gay Male	Maximum Penalty
Bahrain	Illegal	Illegal	10 years
Iran	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Kuwait	Illegal	Illegal	7 years
Lebanon	Illegal	Illegal	1 year
Oman	Illegal	Illegal	3 years
Palestine	Illegal	Illegal	10 years
Qatar	Illegal	Illegal	5 years (some uncertainty)
Saudi Arabia	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Syria	Illegal	Illegal	1 year
United Arab Emirates	Illegal	Illegal	Death
Yemen	Illegal	Illegal	Death

Where to get help if you self harm or care for someone who does
Basement Project

This Project provides support groups for people who have been abused as children and for people who self-harm. It also offers training, supervision and consultation for workers in community and mental health services, undertakes research and offers a range of publications that are detailed on its website.

PO Box 5 Abergavenny
NP7 5XW
tel: 01873 856524
http://freespace.virgin.net/basement.project/default.htm
Bristol Crisis Service for Women

A national voluntary organisation supporting women with emotional problems, with a particular focus on self-harm. It supports self-help groups, offers training and produces a range of publications – a number of self-help leaflets or may be downloaded from the site. They also operate a national helpline that is available to women of all ages.

PO Box 654
Bristol
BS99 1XH
tel: 0117 925 1119. Open on Friday and Saturday evenings 9pm to 12.30 am and Sunday evenings, 6pm – 9pm.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/bcsw/
National Self-Harm Network

Organisation providing information and support to people who self-harm and their friends, families and carers. It also offers training for professionals on self-harm. The website includes details of its publications and a message board offering access to a number of forums where professionals as well as people who self-harm can share their experiences.

NSHN
PO Box 7264
Nottingham.
NG1 6WJ
http://www.nshn.co.uk/

You can find many other services by doing a Google search for self harm help or by visiting my website www.essbee.me.uk after Bicon where I will be writing up the workshop.

Remember counsellors are at hand during Bicon should you require someone to talk with.

It’s been a very successful long weekend, but to all things there must be an ending. This isn’t it for Bicon, just for Bicon2005. We’ll see you in Glasgow next year, or hopefully for events around the country such as BiFest or other such events. Look out for the team and be sure to say hi (hugs also accepted).

Before I completely collapse with lack of sleep, I’ll just add to keep looking out on the site, and the LJ Bicon community for further updates for post-event information on how it went, and some follow-ups to various sessions. If you have information you’d like us to post here, then drop me an email

Lost Property

While clearing up the venue at the end of BiCon we found various items, including clothing and a chequebook. Please contact email deleted if you’ve lost anything. Likewise if, when arriving home, you find that you’ve accidentally packed something which isn’t yours, let us know & we’ll do our best to reunite the items with their owners.

We’re here!

Its a little crazy here…. but normality will be resumed as soon as we figure out what normal is.

Also, back by popular request, is the badge’s colour-dot code.

blue: first timer
green: available (take me now!)
yellow: maybe available
red: not available
purple: polyamory
black: BDSM
teddy: likes hugs
:-): likes chatting – come and talk

Topbit.

People who have booked in advance for BiCon will be receiving an "Information booklet" before BiCon. We intend to post these out around 16 or 17 August, along with travel information and some other useful stuff.

However, if you aren’t booking in advance, or you want to see a copy before it arrives in the post, you may like to download the booklet from here as a PDF file.

The booklet includes practical info about the campus, the local area and the accommodation, an outline timetable, some background on BiCon, a few suggestions of things to bring and a section called "Find your BiCon feet".

If you just want to read it on screen, you’ll want the simple version where the pages appear in order of reading. This is 32 pages of A5, 234kb.

If you want to print it out and actually make it up into a booklet, you’re best off getting the following two files, which put the pages in a different order ready for folding and stapling:
Side A, 174kb
Side B, 163kb

(To make the booklet using those two files, you will need 8 pieces of A4 paper.

• Run all 8 pieces through your printer once, printing the "Side A" file.
• Flip each piece along the short edge and run them through again in the same order, printing "Side B" to give the second side of each sheet.
• The pages are numbered so you can see which way to fold the pages and put them together as a booklet.)

Either way, you will need a program which can read PDF files, of which the best known free one is Acrobat Reader.

The printed booklet also has a cover, not included here (mainly because it includes graphics and would be an enormous PDF). However, you may want to download the two maps which in the printed version appear (though not in colour there!) on the inside covers.
campus map in colour as PNG, 389kb
local map as PNG, 76kb
local map as PDF, 264kb

Happy reading!

Jennifer
(in charge of welcoming strategies for BiCon 2005)

It’s been a long time coming, we know! And some of this year’s plans are still to be finalised, but here are a few key elements:

Friday night will include a disco. If you’d like to contribute to the music, bring your favourite dance track on CD. If possible, copy this onto a separate CD, both for ease of playing & so that we can’t accidentally lose your original. There will probably be some kind of voting system to decide what gets played. It’s not the "DIY Disco" from previous years, but a variant thereof, & we hope you’ll like what we’ve come up with!

Saturday night will have the Time Travellers’ Ball, with music from the 1920s to the 1990s. Fancy dress is optional: possibe themes include any time in the past or future, or your favourite Dr Who character or monster.

Sunday night will have karaoke, and assorted other entertainment. Would you like a five or ten minute slot to do something? If so, let us know, email deleted. Or, if you’re already at BiCon, ask at BiCon reception.

If we can, we’ll put up a full list of available karaoke songs here beforehand.

Please be aware that all of the above ents will be staged in the Students’ Union building. Due to licensing restrictions security staff will be operating a strict "no U18s" policy. No smoking will be permitted anywhere in the building.

Bar opening times:
Thursday: 1800-2230
Friday: 1800-(0100 tbc)
Saturday: 1800-(0100 tbc)
Sunday: 1800-2230.

Alcohol-free evening space

We will also be providing quiet evening space in the main block, separate from the Students’ Union. Coffee & soft drinks will be available in the Staff Common Room, which will be reserved on Saturday & Sunday for our exclusive use. We also intend to use the area above BiCon reception for quiet conversation and/or board games.

This year, for the first time, we are scheduling a few workshop sessions in the evenings. These will not be "heavy discussions" but chosen to provide an alternative interest for those people who don’t necessarily wish to spend all evening in the bar. So if you have any ideas for low-key sessions to run in the evenings, let us know on the "sessions" page of this website.

As with everything at BiCon, none of the above is compulsory! Plenty of people either wander into town in the evenings, or just sit around in the quad (weather permitting) catching up with old friends & making new ones.

Five weeks left, and we are looking at putting the sessions together, but still time for you to volunteer your services. To help out, here’s some ideas, picked from the list at www.bicon2005.org.uk/sessions/list.session.php.

Bisexuality goes to the movies

Discussion and compiling of a list of Bisexual related films, or Films with Bi Characters.
– Don’t forget, we’re also planning a film spot for the evenings, and are looking for suggestions of what you want to see – add your comments/suggestions

Flirting

I’ve heard there was a very good flirting workshop a couple of years ago, before I started coming. Could it be run again? _(I’m looking forward to it as well – Topbit)_
– such a session has been thought of – but it’s not online in the database – consider this a prod to do so! (prod recieved! the Flirting workshop will be running.)

Bi Erotic writing workshop

Brief discussion on what is Bi Erotic writing, then practical aspects of writing short stories, ie aspects of writing narrative, plot etc and issues related to the writing of erotica per se.
– Is there a writer in the house? Or, is there a writer that doesn’t do HP Slash? OK, you can come too.

Bi Jukebox II – 'Hey DJ I can’t dance to that’

Fun Session where participants learn basic DJ skills, how the equipment works, and have a go at DJing, bring a couple of CD’s or Vinyl depending on equipment at BiCon.
Learn a dance routine for fun

I’d like someone to make up an extremely easy peasy dance routine (the same sort of level as the ones for the Macarena and Whigfield’s Saturday Night) and offer this as an open-to-anyone session, possibly to run in an evening slot and lead directly onto the dance floor afterwards 🙂
– how about running the DJ workshop at the same time? Just put Saturday Night on repeat 15 times!

Dancing Lesson

One or two experienced dance teachers to teach a particular type/types of dance to the group e.g. jive lesson for 50’s part of Time Travelers’ ball.
– That Latin beat of the Salsa, or Macarana!

Bi T-Shirts

Fun Session. Bring your Bi-T-Shirts along, also design a B-T-Shirt, designs could be displayed on the wall for people to see at BiCon and maybe with a competition, with the winner having their design made into a T-Shirt.

Bi Academic presentations

Brief overview of some of the work done by BRG Members, plus maybe an up to date reading list.

Coming out in later life.

Discussion Group for those who are coming out later on in life. Over 30’s only.

Love Counts More than Gender Panel debate.

A panel debate to discuss whether ‘Love Counts more than gender’ Those for and against.
– There was quite a discussion when this year’s slogan was announced – care to continue it?

Any old Tat

Fun session, where people show their Tattoo’s and maybe design tattoos, with a temporary tattoo making kit. Also opportunity for those who are interested in getting a tattoo to chat to people who have them about advice and guidance.

There’s more on the website but don’t let that limit you – Add what you would like to do, and then you’ve got more than a month to plan it!

We’ve had some great suggestions for sessions that would like the be run – but we still have plenty of time in the schedule for more ideas if you’d like to lead one.

Don’t forget, if you’d like to run a session, but are stuck for an idea, there’s also a list of ideas

Here’s a couple so far that have caught my eye:

CULT TV : With the recent interest in Doctor Who, particularly with the openly Bi Captain Jack, it’s a great time to have some cult-TV fun. Bicon is Green!

Amnesty and lgbt rights : Everyone has heard of Amnesty but not everyone knows how much Amnesty works for the rights of gay, lesbian, bi and trans people. Essbee80 wants to tell you more…

Bi- and Poly-(Sexual) Linguists : It’s it just about about pick-up phrases in a few languages.

Q1) Is it possible to pay for BiCon 2005 by instalments rather than in one lump sum?

Instalments are fine, give us something which is immediately cashable and the balance in clearly marked post dated cheques (best write NOT BEFORE X on the back for extra visibility). Banks pay no need at all to post-datedness on cheques these days so we need to be able to identify them. Please don’t give us more than one cheque per month to cash…

Q2) In addressing the cheque does it matter how BiCon is written for example "bicon", "BICON" or does it not matter?

Cheques are case-insensitive so "bicon" will do nicely as payee as will "BICON" or even "BiCon 2005" – but not "BiCon 2008" or "BiCon 1992" for hopefully obvious reasons.

Q3) Can someone tell me about accommodation for the conference this year

Our reception desk will open from 16:00 on Thursday 25th August and BiCon officially ends at lunchtime on Monday 29th Aug. The rooms are available from the Thursday after 16:00 till Monday 18:00 when university security will be checking the vacated rooms

Q4) What is the postcode/full address for the venue so I can find driving directions….

There’s a map link care of streetmap and the postcode is WR2 6AJ for directions care of the AA, RAC Route planner or Google Maps

We’ve also given detailed directions by road on the "getting there" page of this website.

Q5) Is there web access?

Yes. Attendees can get a username/password to use on the computers around the campus, or on a WiFi-enabled computer. Note, the wireless network does not extend into the accommodation block.

Q6) Will we be able to stay on-site at BiCon for longer than the actual weekend?

The current arrangement covers four nights – Thurs/Fri/Sat and Sun, leaving by 6pm Monday. However, BiCon attendees will be able to stay on in their rooms for additional nights by booking directly with University College Worcester before or during BiCon. Additional nights will be charged at the rate of £16.45 per room per night. We’re not expecting anyone to stay for more than one extra night, but UCW are happy to deal with requests on the condition that they don’t clash with other bookings.