Category: Activism
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1993: Sundays at Café Tabac, THAT Vanity Fair cover, Melissa Etheridge coming out… and my birth.
1993. It’s a “pivotal year in lesbian activism,” remembers Wanda Acosta, who co-hosted a weekly lesbian-focused event called No Day Like Sunday at Café Tabac. “[1993] included the first Dyke March, The Lesbian Avengers, LGBTQ March on Washington, as well as lesbian visibility in the arts, music, film and media.” “We saw the Vanity Fair…
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Battling for Lesbians: The Lesbian Information Service amid 1980s Homophobia in England
In 1987, I was employed as a Rural Youth Worker by Lancashire County Council (LCC). I made the mistake of coming out as lesbian at my first staff conference in 1982/3. My twelve-month probation period was extended by six months, and I could not understand why. Neither could I understand why, after applying for three…
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Homosexual boundaries do not abuse bisexual and transgender people
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is the biggest Pride event in Australia. Since 1978, when 53 gay and lesbian people were arrested for publicly celebrating homosexuality while it was illegal, the parade and surrounding festivities have attracted participants from around the world. As the name suggests, its focus is on gay and lesbian…
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Betty “Who?”: Lesbian and gay solidarity is back, baby!
As someone who has spent a lot of time and energy in feminist spaces, it never fails to amaze me when non-lesbian women try to draw a wedge between lesbians and gay men. But never being attracted to the reproductive sex you’re “supposed to be,” in a world where producing offspring is upheld as humanity’s…
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Every lesbian is born this way. Our sexual orientation is not fluid.
I had crushes on women and girls when I was a kid. My mum would take me to the local country town supermarket. While she shopped, I’d follow the same female worker around each time, just to bask in her essence. I would forget where I was. Forget about what junk food I wanted. I…
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Lesbian perspectives on “queer”
Being a lesbian is the least weird thing about me. An integral part of overcoming internalised homophobia many moons ago was recognising that homosexuality exists in many mammal species and throughout human history. Perhaps that’s why I started the lesbian_herstory Instagram in the first place: as a place to remind myself and other lesbians that…
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I was there: Canada’s Stonewall, the Brunswick Four
Women had fewer choices in 1974. We were excluded from the “trades” where you could actually make a decent wage. We couldn’t get bank loans to start businesses without a man’s signature. The courts were taking children away from their mothers because their mothers were lesbians… It wasn’t good, and we were making a fuss.…
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Off the Calendar: What does Trump’s billionaire boys’ club mean for lesbians?
I’m the first to admit that I find months dedicated to the classes I belong to, such as Pride month, performative and kind of cringe. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against Pride gatherings or even the odd parade here or there, so long as capitalists do not sponsor them. They don’t really give a…
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Lesbian fetishism is not lesbian acceptance!
Lesbian fetishism is a power move resulting from the tension of uncertainty between hatred and acceptance. A trained attack dog, running on conditioned hate, will chase blood in the enemy. But there’s a space between the attack and the dog lying on its back in acceptance of its surroundings. Lesbian fetishism, like the fetishism of…
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Flamboyance and Fortitude: Butch-Femme Relationships in 2024
Butch-Femme relationships play an important role in lesbian history. What does the Butch-Femme relationship mean today?