Tag Archives: lesbian visibility

ILD: the isolation of Israel’s ‘First Lesbians’

For a long time Hana Klein thought she was the only lesbian in Israel, and maybe in the whole world. She was born in 1951, grew up in Tel Aviv and at 11 realized that her feelings were a bit different from those of her girlfriends. But she didn’t know why. Klein says that in the Israel of the 1950s and ‘60s, “there were no words for it.”

The first hint that she wasn’t alone was at a kiosk selling porn magazines and newspapers; one journal caught her eye. “The cover photo was of two bare-breasted women touching each other, with the caption “Contemporary lesbians.” For the first time she realized that there was a word for what she was.

“People can’t imagine the feeling of something missing in conservative Israel at the time. The atmosphere was that there was nothing. For years I walked around in a desert …. Even when I learned what it was called, there was a feeling that nobody else was like me,” Klein says.

“Those were times without a computer, so you couldn’t Google things, there were no community organizations, there was no place to meet. I tried to bring up the subject with friends and see their reactions, and from them I realized that it wasn’t acceptable.”

Klein was one of the first activists in LGBTQ and feminist organizations in Israel. She started the country’s first organization for lesbians, Alef – an acronym for lesbian-feminist organization. She has often been called “Tel Aviv’s first lesbian.”

Continue reading at: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-first-lesbians-it-s-hurts-when-you-re-all-alone-in-the-world-1.9938401 (Source)

Spain: The cost of lesbian visibility

by Violeta Molina Gallardo, Efeminista| Madrid – April 26, 2021
Women who openly experience their homosexuality have to “pay a price” for their lesbian visibility : they are still penalized , discriminated against and have to fight twice as much to prove that they are “valid and normal.”

As explained by the historical activist Rosa Arauzo and the “influencer” Verónica Sánchez (@ oh.mamiblue), who, on the occasion of World Lesbian Visibility Day , speak with Efe about the importance of having references for the lesbian community , even when They recognize that there is still a high cost to pay for being on the front line.
(Translated)

as mujeres que viven abiertamente su homosexualidad han de “pagar un precio” por su visibilidad lésbica: aún son penalizadas, discriminadas y tienen que pelear el doble por demostrar que son “válidas y normales”.

Según explican la histórica activista Rosa Arauzo y la “influencer” Verónica Sánchez (@oh.mamiblue), que, con motivo del Día Mundial de la Visibilidad Lésbica, hablan con Efe de la importancia de que existan referentes para el colectivo lésbico, aun cuando reconocen que todavía hay que pagar un coste elevado por estar en primera línea.
(Original)

Continue reading at: https://www.efeminista.com/el-coste-de-la-visibilidad-lesbica/ (Source)

Nigeria: The filmmakers risking jail with lesbian movie Ife

Two Nigerian filmmakers face the prospect of imprisonment if they ignore the stern warning of the authorities and proceed with the release of a movie about a lesbian relationship. 

The dramatic face-off with the regulators – the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) – is worthy of a film itself. 

Producer Pamela Adie and director Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim are determined that Ife (meaning “love” in the Yoruba language) reaches a Nigerian audience, but the NFVCB says it will not be approved as it violates the country’s strict laws on homosexuality.

To get around this, the filmmakers are planning a surprise online release to catch the regulators off-guard. The NFVCB, however, is diligently monitoring all digital platforms to prevent the movie from getting out.According to NFVCB boss Adebayo Thomas, Adie and Ikpe-Etim could be jailed for promoting homosexuality in a country where same-sex relationships are forbidden and can carry a 14-year sentence.

They are organising a private screening in the commercial capital, Lagos, at the end of the month, for which they believe they do not need to get permission. 

Ife will also get an international premiere in Canada in October.

Adie said the aim of the film was to show an accurate picture of lesbian and bisexual women in Nigerian movies.

If a lesbian woman does appear in a standard Nollywood movie they are often portrayed as being possessed, influenced by bad friends or forced into homosexuality and always needing “saving”, she told the BBC.

“You rarely see stories about LGBT people, especially about queer [sic] women that speak to the realities of our lives. 

“Ife was made to bridge the gap and to get the conversation going in Nigeria.”

Continue reading: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54070446 (source)

Spinifex Press: Celebrating Radical Lesbian Publishing

Sue_and_Renate Spinifex Press

by Claire Heuchan

AfterEllen.com

Spinifex was founded in March of 1991 by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein. The press began as a pushback to the cuts that threatened feminist and literary publishing during Australia’s recession. Susan and Renate started out with four titles. Since then, Spinifex has gone from strength to strength. They publish everything from fiction to poetry to political tracts.

Almost 30 years on, Spinifex Press has now published over 200 books. They’ve shared writing by some of the most relevant and necessary voices in the modern feminist movement. Among their authors are Robin Morgan, editor of the iconic Sisterhood is Powerful anthology, and Rachel Moran, an abolitionist campaigner. Other notable writers include Julie Bindel, Unity Dow, and Sheila Jeffreys.

Continue reading: https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/574816-spinifex-press (Source)

Violence Against Lesbians – A Powerful Panel at #FiLiA2019

by Claire Heuchan
AfterEllen.com

There aren’t enough spaces where violence against lesbians can be openly discussed. But FiLiA – Britain’s biggest feminist conference – is one of them. The Violence Against Lesbians panel took place in the Bradford Hotel on Saturday 19th October. Over a hundred women attended the session. Consuelo Rivera-Fuentes, Susan Hawthorne, Hilary McCollum, and Angela Wild made up the panel, chaired ably by Sally Jackson.

The purpose of FiLiA, as Sally opens by reminding us, is to amplify women’s voices. In particular, to amplify the voices of women who are seldom heard and often silenced. Lesbians’ voices aren’t always listened to – in mainstream society, feminist spaces, or even the LGBT community. And so, if the numbers are anything to go by, a lot of women feel a sense of relief that lesbians are a priority at FiLiA.

Continue reading: https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/573318-violence-against-lesbians-a-powerful-panel-at-filia2019 (source)

Brazil: The lesbian activist who defends LGBT rights in the Amazon

dani-lesbiana-indigena

Dani is the indigenous woman who stars in the second chapter of ‘Rainforest Defenders’ and one of the leaders, at only 21 years old, of the Amazonian resistance to the logging, mining and agrarian threat. But Dani is something else. She is one of the first indigenous women to say openly that she is a lesbian and use her visibility to fight for the LGTB cause in the Amazon.

She belongs to one of the communities that live on the banks of the Tapajós River, a mixture of ancient native settlers, indigenous people, descendants of African slaves and whites of Portuguese origin. Communities that are trying to avoid the exploitation and destruction of their land.

Dani’s community has an advantage over the majority, as it is considered [in] a Conservation Reserve, and therefore temporarily protected from indiscriminate extraction. But the young woman still has to fight against the threats that the extensive cultivation of soy exerts on her land and also against the prejudices of her own community, of the evangelist church, religion they profess, and of her own family .(Translated)

Dani es la indígena que protagoniza el capítulo segundo de ‘Rainforest Defenders’ y una de las líderes, a sus solo 21 años, de la resistencia amazónica frente a la amenaza maderera, minera y agraria. Pero Dani es algo más. Es una de las primeras indígenas en decir abiertamente que es lesbiana y usar su visibilidad para luchar por la causa LGTB en la Amazonia.

Pertenece a una de las comunidades que viven a la vera del río Tapajós, mezcla de antiguos pobladores autóctonos, indígenas, descendientes de esclavos africanos y blancos de origen portugués. Comunidades que están tratando evitar la explotación y destrucción de su tierra.

La comunidad de Dani tiene cierta ventaja frente a la mayoría, pues está considerada como una Reserva de Conservación, y por tanto, protegida temporalmente de la extracción indiscriminada. Pero la joven sigue teniendo que luchar contra las amenazas que el cultivo extensivo de soja ejerce sobre su tierra y también contra los prejuicios de su propia comunidad, de la iglesia evangelista, religión que profesan, y de su propia familia.
(Original)

Continue reading at: http://www.mirales.es/dani-la-indigena-lesbiana-que-defiende-los-derechos-lgtb-en-la-amazonia/ (Source)

Lesbian. by Lisa Luxx

“A poem about the public lesbian experience and how the word ‘lesbian’ has become so hostile it is even taboo among our own communities, and outside our community it is mostly used as a slur or a porn category. Dedicated to the victims of increased hate crimes this pride. Filmed and directed by Tamara al-Mashouk.”

Words by Lisa Luxx.

Lebanon: legal case fails to ban show giving lesbians voice

Lebanon

The freedoms of individuals and expression won a clear victory yesterday, with the decision of the judge of summary of Beirut, Marie-Christine Eid, to reject the appeal presented the day before, Tuesday, January 29, 2019, by a handful of lawyers to ban the broadcast of the program Ana Heyk (“I am like”) which gives the floor to lesbians. A show by star presenter Neshan Der Haroutiounian on the Al-Jadeed TV channel, which lawyers Mohammad Ziad Jaafil, Michel Fallah, Lina Sahmarani, Mohammad Assad Safsouf and trainee lawyer Omar Chbaro said, “promotes deviant social cases and highlights them as if they were examples to follow for the younger generation. This goes against the laws in force and more particularly the penal code, and undermines the moral values of the Lebanese society “.

(Translated)

Les libertés individuelles et d’expression ont remporté une franche victoire hier, avec la décision de la juge des référés de Beyrouth, Marie-Christine Eid, de rejeter le recours présenté la veille, mardi 29 janvier 2019, par une poignée d’avocats visant à interdire la diffusion de l’émission Ana Heyk (« je suis ainsi ») qui donne la parole à des lesbiennes. Une émission du présentateur vedette, Neshan Der Haroutiounian, sur la chaîne télévisée al-Jadeed, et qui, selon les avocats Mohammad Ziad Jaafil, Michel Fallah, Lina Sahmarani, Mohammad Assad Safsouf et l’avocat stagiaire Omar Chbaro, « fait la promotion des cas sociaux déviants et les met en lumière comme s’il s’agissait d’exemples à suivre pour la jeune génération. Ce qui va à l’encontre des lois en vigueur et plus particulièrement du code pénal, et sape les valeurs morales de la société libanaise ».

(Original)

Continue reading at: https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1155215/malgre-les-pressions-islamistes-lemission-televisee-ana-heyk-donne-la-parole-a-des-lesbiennes.html (Source)

Translation tool: http://itools.com/tool/google-translate-web-page-translator

U.S.: Jenny Durkan To Become First Out Lesbian Mayor Of Seattle

Image courtesy of Sarah Ward

“We are thrilled Jenny will become the first lesbian mayor of Seattle – and just the second woman elected to the position,” said Victory Fund President & CEO Aisha C. Moodie-Mills. “Both women and lesbians are severely underrepresented in all levels of government, especially executive positions. While Seattle voters chose Jenny because of her proven track record of leading innovative reforms and fighting for all communities, it is also an undeniably proud moment for the LGBTQ community, which continues to see this strong leader break down barriers.”

Continue reading at: http://www.curvemag.com/News/Jenny-Durkan-To-Become-First-Out-Lesbian-Mayor-Of-Seattle-2118/

#UsToo: Reclaiming “Lesbian” in Vienna

ap_17091452228213

BY KELLY COGSWELL

“If we don’t have enough anecdotal evidence proving how trifling we are, it’s there in dollars and cents. Out of 424 million dollars budgeted for international LGBTI issues in 2013-2014, only a measly two percent went toward projects for LBQ (lesbian, bi, queer) women. And out of hundreds of recommendations put forward at the United Nations in recent years, only one addressed specifically lesbian issues.

Those figures come from the first European Lesbian* Conference that took place early this month in Vienna, and they were the proverbial last drop that pushed the organizers into action. (They should crunch the numbers for women’s projects, too, which I suspect are no more eager to embrace lesbian issues than queer NGOs often headed by gay men.)

The two researchers who presented a report to the conference on lesbian lives in Europe discovered that we were almost on par with unicorns when it came to mining data even among countries in the relatively progressive European Union.

This meant that not only were they limited in the conclusions they could draw, but that we would hit a brick wall if we wanted to propose a project on lesbian mental health, for instance, because we wouldn’t have enough figures proving it was needed or to create a model for how it might work. Ditto for projects addressing violence against lesbians. No data. Therefore, no funding. And no action. As a result, almost every researcher at the conference begged the lesbian participants from Iceland to Uzbekistan to get involved collecting data on their own communities.”

Continue reading at: http://gaycitynews.nyc/ustoo-reclaiming-lesbian-vienna/

Who was Jackie Forster? Google Doodle pays tribute to lesbian pioneer

Following her divorce, Forster embraced her gay identity. She moved in with her girlfriend in the mid-1960s, although she would not officially “come out” until 1969. When she did, it was in spectacular style, The Independent recalled in her 1998 obituary, “announcing to the world at Speaker’s Corner: ‘You are looking at a roaring dyke!’”.

Continue reading at: http://www.theweek.co.uk/89514/who-was-jackie-forster-google-doodle-pays-tribute-to-lesbian-pioneer (Source)

Lesbian Visibility Shines Through in Memoir by Federal Prop 8 Plaintiffs

Kris Perry and Sandy Stier would have loved it. One of the most famous couples in LGBT history as plaintiffs in the historic federal Prop 8 trial, they have nonetheless had their share of lesbian invisibility, even, as they reveal in their new memoir, “Love on Trial: Our Supreme Court Fight For the Right to Marry,” unto themselves.

Continue reading at: Lesbian Visibility Shines Through in Memoir by Federal Prop 8 Plaintiffs (Source)

Lesbian Herstory Archives – Brooklyn, New York

The women were also concerned about how difficult it was to get any information about lesbian history through traditional academic channels. Even when it could be found, the research process itself could be dehumanizing, requiring searching under categories like “deviant” and “abnormal.”

Continue reading at: Lesbian Herstory Archives – Brooklyn, New York – Atlas Obscura (Source)