Reclaiming lesbian history and culture

All this was organised by lesbians for lesbians. We had annual residential camps until a particularly mean-spirited transwoman blocked us legally, forcing us underground, and back into the 1950s closets. Lesbians need to be able to meet with lesbians to experience, discuss and enjoy lesbian culture. And we now need to defend our spaces from males emboldened by homophobic Gender Self ID laws. Friends report that about a third of people on lesbian dating sites are such men. They call us transphobic if we refuse to “Suck my lady dick”

After the Sex Discrimination was amended to include gender identity as a protected characteristic, there has been no government acknowledgement of the devastating effect of this change on lesbians and other women. Insufficient thought had obviously gone into this significant change that was based on blind denial of biological facts, as conflicting rights were invoked with no suggested ways to deal with them. 
As a result, lesbians in Australia have lost our rights of association. We have become isolated from each other, having to meet ‘underground’ (like in the old days of ostracism and homophobia), which has led to deteriorating mental health and significant losses to our culture and personal safety. I am fortunate in having already established supportive lesbian networks, but younger lesbians have become cut adrift, struggling to claim their lesbian identity, subject to the confusion of queer theory where (mainly heterosexual) men with a fetish are propositioning them by claiming to be lesbians with female ‘dick’ and/or being besieged with claims that lesbians can easily become men and ‘trans the gay away’ into a façade of more acceptable heterosexual relations with other women.

While these were unpleasant experiences, they are experiences that I share with other lesbians, especially those that do not conform to regressive gender stereotypes about what women should do, how they should behave and how they should dress. While these experiences have been profoundly negative, they are common among lesbians and have developed a steely resilience within myself and my community.
While I was welcomed into a thriving community of women, I have grown increasingly troubled over the past few years about young lesbians joining my community. Lesbians are a small and marginalised group within the broader community and forcing us back underground where we again employ the use of passwords and vouching systems is regressive and robs us of our right to free assembly. It is akin to lesbian life in the 1950’s and has no place in contemporary society. It robs us of the connection with our young counterparts who are denied an understanding of their culture and rich history, which was a connection that I so thoroughly benefited from. As lesbians we are no longer able to meet up as women with a common bond without the presence of men who do not share our experiences of the world.

Although I lived on the south side of the city, when I first came out I just about lived in The Angel Cafe (in Brunswick St, Fitzroy) and Shrew Bookshop and Gertrude’s Giftshop, both of which were in Gertrude St Fitzroy. I think I bought about half of Shrew’s books while I was familiarising myself with the ‘theory’ of lesbianism (and numerous trashy lesbian novels).
   
In the late ’80s & early ’90s, every Friday night, Stewarts Hotel in Carlton had a lesbians-only dance that was sorely missed when it closed. There were also weekly lesbian-only dances at the Sarah Sands Hotel and The Ivy in the city. If you preferred to play pool, there was The Glasshouse in Collingwood or The Inkspot (in Elsternwick).

Matrix Guild Victoria’s annual fundraiser for advocacy for Lesbians Over 40, the Satin and Silk Ball at San Remo Ballroom, was a well-loved yearly highlight  the early ’90s, with a live band and supper. It was unique because lesbians wore everything from satin ballgowns (sometimes accompanied by Doc Marten boots), to tuxedos or tails or tradie gear. Mix-and-match, limited only by the imagination. 

The Lesbian Cancer Support Group ran from 1996 to 2005, providing invaluable emotional support not only to lesbians who had cancer, but also to carers and bereaved partners (of which I was one). We received a small amount of funding, the last part of which was used to run the Lesbian Health Across the Lifespan Conference, covering many aspects of lesbian human rights and health, in 2005.

I loved going to Lesboraves, a monthly political lesbian discussion group in Collingwood in the early ’90s. It was absolutely essential for us to have these lesbian-only spaces, in order for us to be able to speak freely without fear of being judged, spoken over, or told that our lesbian-specific issues (such as legal discrimination) were not important.

I am desolated that NONE of these places/events exist any more!