On April 21, an appeals court in the Polish city of Białystok threw out a case brought by Przasnysz county authorities against four lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights activists who founded the “Atlas of Hate” project. This is the first final verdict in favor of the activists who are facing multiple lawsuits for drawing international attention to Poland’s discriminatory “LGBT-Free Zones.”
The Atlas of Hate is an interactive map of Poland showing provinces, towns, and municipalities across the country where local authorities have adopted discriminatory “family charters” pledging to “protect children from moral corruption” or declared themselves free from “LGBT ideology.”
In December 2022, courts in Opoczno and Tarnów counties dismissed in the first instance two other cases brought by local authorities against Atlas of Hate. Another two municipalities withdrew lawsuits after the European Union threatened to pull funding over the so-called “LGBT-Free Zones.”
Seven of the nearly 100 localities with these anti-LGBT policies sued the Atlas of Hate founders for defamation, demanding public apologies and 280,000 zloty (US$64,000) for calling their regions “LGBT-Free Zones.” Lawyers for an ultra-conservative organization, Ordo Iuris, which championed the “LGBT-Free Zone” resolutions, supported the lawsuits.
“Local authorities who decided to sue us should finally understand that their claims are doomed to failure,” said Jakub Gawron, one of the Atlas of Hate founders. “Poland’s courts have emphasized that the right to criticize authorities is subject to special protection.”
Authorities in one-third of the country adopted anti-LGBT resolutions after the right-wing Law and Justice ruling party made “protecting” Poland from “LGBT ideology” a centerpiece of its successful electoral campaign in 2019. Fifty-six anti-LGBT resolutions across Poland, including in Przasnysz, Opoczno, and Tarnów counties, remain in place.
As Poland’s courts side with the Atlas of Hate activists, it’s clear local authorities only aim to have achilling effecton human rights defenders and suppress criticism of anti-LGBT resolutions. The Polish authorities should drop remaining lawsuits against LGBT activists and finally repeal all discriminatory resolutions.
The court also instructed the government to urgently consider a 2015 court-ordered report that recommended broader recognition of same-sex relationships. Building on judgments from 2007 and 2017 that recognized rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, the court ruled that failure to recognize same-sex spouses violates Nepal’s constitution and its international human rights obligations.
“The Supreme Court has again drawn attention to the government’s lagging implementation of court orders to recognize same-sex relationships,” said Kyle Knight, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Nepal has a global reputation as a leader on LGBT rights, and the government needs to live up to it with a tangible policy change.”
The case, Adheep Pokhrel and Tobias Volz.v. Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Immigration was brought by a gay couple – Pokhrel, a Nepali citizen, and Volz, a German citizen. The pair were legally married in Germany in 2018. They applied for a non-tourist visa for Volz in July 2022, which would entitle him to the same rights to live in Nepal as a married heterosexual spouse in the same circumstance. Nepali authorities denied the request on the grounds that the application form reads “husband” and “wife” and does not recognize two husbands.
Pokhrel and Volz attempted to register their German marriage with Nepali authorities, who denied their request. They applied again for a non-tourist visa for Volz in August 2022, submitting the Supreme Court’s judgment in Suman Panta v. Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Immigration, et al. (2017) to demonstrate the court’s previous orders to grant foreign same-sex spouses non-tourist visas, but the authorities again denied the application.
In 2017, a lesbian couple – Suman Panta, a Nepali, and Leslie Luin Melnik, an American – took their case to the Supreme Court when the American spouse was denied a non-tourist visa. The court ordered the government to issue the visa, ruling that: “[I]f a foreign national claiming to be married to a Nepali citizen submits a marriage registration certificate and the Nepali citizen confirms the marriage in their visa application, then the issuance of visa to the foreign national cannot be denied.”
That case, and Pokhrel and Volz’s case, drew significantly from other Supreme Court judgments, including the landmark case of Sunil Babu Pant et al. v. Nepal. In 2007, in response to a petition from four LGBT activists, including Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to form a committee to study same-sex relationship recognition laws around the world.
The justices wrote: “[W]e hold that it is an inherent right of an adult to have marital relations with another adult with her/his free consent and according to her/his will. Same sex marriage should be viewed from the viewpoint of interest and rights of the concerned people as well as that of the society, family and all others.”
The court-ordered committee report, published in 2015, recommended that “the Government of Nepal remove the legal provision that marriage can only occur between a man and a woman and that it embrace the norm that a marriage can occur between two persons, and to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage on the basis of the principle of equality.”
Now, in Pokhrel and Volz’s case, the justices ordered the Immigration Department to once again grant the foreign spouse a non-tourist visa, and wrote: “Given this background, it appears that same-sex marriage should be considered a subject that is envisioned by the constitution and in accordance with the Constitution of Nepal, the decisions made by this Court, the report by the committee formed in accordance with the order by this Court, and the human rights treaties ratified by Nepal.”
The government of Nepal should live up to its reputation as a leader on LGBT rights and propose legislation to protect the rights of LGBT people, Human Rights Watch said. The Supreme Court is currently considering other LGBT rights cases, including a case brought by Rukshana Kapali, a transgender woman who is petitioning to be legally recognized as a woman.
“It has been 16 years since the Supreme Court ordered a government committee to study the issue of recognizing same-sex relationships and eight years since that committee told the government to take concrete and comprehensive action to recognize same sex relationships,” Knight said. “The government should urgently examine the committee report and the court’s comprehensive analysis of legal changes that would afford same-sex couples in Nepal their equal rights.”
The Sindh Human Rights Commission has advised police to stop harassing and arresting transgender people, an important step toward changing discriminatory laws, policies, and public attitudes in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
The commission, an independent statutory body, issued the guidance on April 3, relying on constitutional protections and international legal principles. It said that offenses based on poverty and homelessness should be removed so transgender women along with street children do not face criminal charges for behavior they take merely to survive.
In January, the Sindh Cabinet approved reserved seats for transgender people on local councils, so that each local council has at least one transgender representative. In December, the Sindh government extended the benefits of the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), the country’s largest social safety net, to transgender people. Previously, the BISP provided targeted subsidies to women from low-income households.
While Sindh’s recent measures provide some hope for ending discrimination and persecution of transgender people in the province, Pakistan’s federal and other provincial governments need to do much more.
Between September 2021 and October 2022, 18 transgender people were reported murdered in Pakistan, according to Amnesty International. Discrimination and violence against transgender people is common despite provisions in Pakistani law protecting them.
In 2009, Pakistan’s Supreme Court called on all provincial governments to recognize the rights of transgender people. The judgment specifically called for improved police response to cases involving transgender people, and to ensure the right of transgender people to basic education, employment, and protection. In 2018, the parliament passed a law that broadly protects trans people’s rights. However, in recent years a number of politicians have attacked the law and proposed regressive amendments.
The recognition and support for transgender people’s basic rights to security and dignity in Sindh reflects the hard work of activists who have long advocated for these reforms. But unless Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments take concrete action against violence – including ensuring that those responsible for attacks on transgender people are brought to justice – these communities will continue to be at risk.
Schools in Wales and Scotland are implementing respective and inclusive guidance to help support LGBTQ+ students.
Both regions of the UK recently announced separate schemes that would support transgender and queer students by training faculty members on how to handle LGBTQ+ issues.
Reports reveal that 60 per cent of Scotland’s secondary schools have adopted LGBTQ+ Youth Scotland’s inclusivity scheme as of Monday (24 April).
The LGBT Charter aims to provide a number of resources, including awareness training and policy reviews, to help improve the treatment of LGBTQ+ youth in local schools.
So far, 212 of 357 secondary schools in Scotland have adopted it, along with 40 primary schools and 21 colleges.
Thirty-one of 34 secondary schools in Edinburgh have been awarded charter status and will receive the benefits of the scheme along with 31 out of 38 schools in Glasgow.
Additionally, every local authority has at least one or more school which has received charter status.
Partnerships director at LGBT Youth Scotland, Ali Kerr, said in a statement: “These are formative years for young people and it’s vital that LGBTQ+ individuals are supported.
“With nearly two-thirds of secondary schools participating, this represents a significant commitment from Scottish educators to LGBT inclusion.”
Wales schools to receive supportive LGBTQ+ guidance
Meanwhile, Wales aims to publish guidance on supporting transgender and LGBTQ+ pupils in the next academic year
The Welsh parliament said it would provide “clear and well-informed advice” after an “extensive” consultation session over the course of this year.
Efforts to improve LGBTQ+ awareness in schools come amid reports from various charities that teachers often lack the confidence to address certain issues in classrooms.
As a result, an LGBTQ+ Action Plan implemented by the Welsh government hopes to create a comprehensive guide for teachers by 2024. The government initially planned to release the scheme in late 2023, but delayed its publication to guarantee integrity.
“This is a complex area of policy which requires extensive consultation with experts, practitioners, and the public, as well as children and young people themselves,” BBC News reported the Welsh government as saying.
According to reports from The Sunday Times on 16 April, prime minister Rishi Sunak said he is “concerned about parental consent,” adding that the guidance will compel teachers to “inform parents about their children questioning their gender.”
“There are so many vulnerable children in education who need so much support, so much help, and this just isn’t something that is frankly needed in the education system at all,” one said.
In a landmark unanimous ruling published last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found Peru responsible for violating Crissthian Olivera Fuentes’ rights to equality before the law and to judicial protection, after he faced discrimination in a commercial establishment and from Peruvian authorities.
In August 2004, Olivera and his partner, both gay men, visited a supermarket in Lima, during which time they acted affectionately toward each other. After a customer complained that their public display of affection disturbed him and allegedly affected nearby children, supermarket staff and security asked Olivera and his partner to desist or exit the premises. Olivera called the interaction “humiliating.”
Olivera filed a complaint to the consumer protection authorities and, after exhausting that avenue, appealed within the Peruvian judicial system. These authorities dismissed the case, citing insufficient proof of discrimination. The case reached the Supreme Court, which in 2010 reaffirmed the lower court’s ruling, citing the supermarket’s “presumption of innocence.” In 2011, Olivera, represented by DEMUS, a Peruvian human rights organization, appealed to the Inter-American system.
The Inter-American Court found that judicial authorities imposed an undue burden of proof on Olivera, resulting in a denial of his right to access justice. The court also held that the consumer protection authorities discriminated against him by giving weight to the baseless claim that same-sex displays of affection can be detrimental to children, and holding same-sex couples to different standards of behavior than that expected of opposite-sex couples.
This case builds upon other Inter-American rulings upholding the right of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to live free from discrimination, stereotypes, and violence. The court emphasized the importance of considering the homophobic context in which an incident occurs. Citing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the court also reinforced private companies’ responsibility to respect human rights principles in their operations, including the principle of nondiscrimination.
The court ordered Peru to prepare a comprehensive guide on the rights of LGBT people in the provision of services, and incorporate it into training courses for administrative and judicial authorities. It also ordered Peru to implement a public policy to help monitor whether companies are complying with principles of equality and nondiscrimination.
Same-sex couples deserve to express their love freely, just like heterosexual couples. This ruling, which helps to ensure there are mechanisms to report and repair unequal treatment by public and private actors, is a significant step toward ensuring such equality in the region.
A coalition of queer feminist organizations and individuals in India have issued a groundbreaking report that ties state and religious opposition to marriage equality to the subjugation of women, queer, and trans people via parental control.
The report lands as India’s Supreme Court is hearing the final arguments in a case over the legalization of same-sex marriage.
While India’s marriage equality debate has been framed almost exclusively as a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issue in the national and international media, the report’s authors see it as a family issue, because the court is ruling on whether adults have a say in forming chosen families through marriage.
The report, “Our Own Hurt Us the Most: Centering Familial Violence in the Lives of Queer and Trans Persons in the Marriage Equality Debates,” focuses on violence and discrimination against queer women and trans people.It describes physical and sexual violence, denial of land and property rights under “heterosexual family-oriented” inheritance policies, and their deeply held desires to build and protect “chosen families” that are safer than those they were born into. The findings are based on a closed-door hearing on violence against queer and trans people, at which the majority of those who spoke were queer women and trans men.
The report asserts that government opposition to same-sex marriage is “not against queer and trans [people] alone,” but is instead part of a broader attempt to stop women and trans men from accessing their right to free and full consent to marriage, including inter-religious and inter-caste marriages, which is foundational to their obtaining greater power, land, and autonomy.
In February, a Human Rights Watch report on violence and discrimination against lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) women globally found that forced and coercive marriage practices were the most pressing human rights violations affecting queer women. The investigation included interviews with 66 LBQ+ activists across 26 countries, and it found that the practice of forcing queer women into heterosexual marriages is deeply tied to laws and policies that violate their rights to land, inheritance, and property.
In consultation with queer and feminist human rights defenders, governments should reform or abolish patriarchal systems of control, including all laws that violate queer women and trans men’s right to free and full consent to marriage, as well as discriminatory property and inheritance laws.
Gay Ugandans are fleeing the country as the government’s Anti-Homosexuality Act moves closer to becoming law.
“The government and the people of Uganda are against our existence,” said Mbajjwe Nimiro Wilson, a 24-year-old refugee now living in a shelter in neighboring Kenya.
Safehouses are expected to be closed with passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Before escaping with just a backpack of belongings, Wilson was cornered by a hostile crowd on the street as he tried to buy groceries.
“They kept saying, ‘We will hunt you. You gays should be killed. We will slaughter you,’” he told The New York Times. “There was no option but to leave.”
Uganda’s latest Kill the Gays law is having its intended effect.
“It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperials,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday, as he sent the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act back to Parliament for additional consideration before he signs it.
The Biden administration calls the latest “Kill the Gays” bill “one of the most extreme” anti-LGBTQ+ measures anywhere in the world. The proposal mandates life in prison for anyone convicted of engaging in homosexual sex, among other draconian provisions.
Museveni congratulated lawmakers who stood up to “international pressure and shielded Uganda’s moral fabric during the passing of the bill.”
The president had in mind liberal Western influences whom he and others in the East African nation have accused of promoting homosexuality in the country and throughout Africa.
But while anti-LGBTQ+ allies have rejected pressure from the U.S., the European Parliament, and those condemning their latest attempt to erase homosexuality from the country, they have welcomed it from another Western power center.
Since 2009, conservative evangelical groups from the U.S. have been instrumental in promoting an anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in Uganda and other African nations, which have been the targets of religious indoctrination since the colonial era.
In a region where harsh penalties for homosexuality have been on the books since the British imposed them in the 19th century, conservative Christian and Muslim populations have been ripe for anti-LGBTQ+ proselytizing.
Family Watch International is an Arizona-based organization committed to spreading anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion ideology around the world, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group was instrumental in crafting the original “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda in 2009.
After the Uganda Supreme Court overturned that law on a technicality in 2013, Family Watch returned to help write revised legislation that would withstand judicial scrutiny, with willing partners publicly denouncing liberal Western influences, despite accepting close to a billion dollars annually in development aid from the U.S alone.
Last month, following passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act through Uganda’s unicameral Parliament, Family Watch sponsored a conference in the country that drew lawmakers from more than a dozen African nations, all committed to passing or introducing copycat legislation to combat “the sin of homosexuality.”
One Family Watch partner is Kenya, where the country’s Supreme Court sparked controversy recently when it allowed gay rights groups to legally register.
Kenya’s president and other anti-LGBTQ politicians have condemned the ruling, including Parliament member George Peter Kaluma, who introduced a bill to criminalize homosexuality in the country, ban Kenyans from identifying as LGBTQ+, and grant citizens the power to arrest anyone they suspect of being gay.
“These people are perverts and I promise I will legislate to take every right they think they have,” Kaluma told the Times.
His bill would also return gay refugees like Wilson, still sheltering in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, to their home countries.
Laws like his, predicted Kaluma, will soon cover the continent.
LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya face the threat of deportation if proposed anti-homosexuality laws are passed in parliament.
Homosexuality is already illegal in Kenya, but the the Family Protection Bill 2023 would expand upon these laws, meaning LGBTQ+ people would face life sentences for simply identifying as themselves.
If passed, the bill would impose a jail term of no less than five years on people found guilty of assembling, picketing, promoting or supporting LGBTQ-specific activities.
This would be dire not only for Kenyans, but refugees as well. The proposed bill would also allow for “the expulsion of refugees and asylum seekers” who identify as LGBTQ+.
Kenya is home to half a million refugees in camps across the country from Kakuma and Dadaab, according to Washington Blade. Refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya are mainly from Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries that have endured war, famine and economic instability.
Prior to this bill, Kenya was the only country in the region accepting refugee and asylum seekers without asking about their sexuality.
Recently, however, there have been increased attacks against LGBTQ+ people in the camps, especially in Kakuma, Kenya’s largest camp.
Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. (Getty Images)
A report conducted by the Organisation for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) found that 83 per cent of LGBTQ+ refugees at Kakuma experienced physical violence due to their sexual orientation, with 26 per cent reporting sexual assault.
The report includes the horrific experience of a trans refugee living in the camps, who shared that they were forced to have sex with a woman.
“They forced me to have sex with the lady. They then lectured me on the need to get married and have children of my own. They left me traumatized. Two days later they asked the lady to come and stay with me as my wife.
“That is when I escaped from the block and moved to live with a friend in an area far from my allocated shelter. I did not report the incident since I was afraid the police would equally stigmatise me for who I am.”
There are currently 300 LGBTQ+ refugees in Kakuma who have started an online petition, pleading with the Kenyan government to stamp out discrimination and address the mistreatment they’ve been dealing with in the camps.
The petition reads: “As refugees who have sought safety and refuge from conflict and persecution, we should not have to endure further suffering and discrimination within the confines of the camp. Yet, this is the reality for many of us.
“We are subjected to brutal attacks and physical violence from fellow refugees who hold homophobic views, leaving us with deep wounds and scars that often result in physical disability. Some of our community members have even lost their lives in these attacks.”
The proposed bill will only worsen their lives and leave them with nowhere to go.
President of Kenya William Ruto, however, slammed this ruling and said: “It is not possible for our country Kenya to allow same-sex marriages … It will happen in other countries but not in Kenya.”
Anti-homosexuality laws have increased across the African continent as more countries introduce oppressive laws that target LGBTQ+ people.
The commissioner for The Council of Europe’s Human Rights is urging politicians in Slovakia to vote against proposed legislation that would effectively prevent trans people from having their gender legally recognised.
The bill, set to have its second reading next month, proposes only allowing someone to change their gender marking if they can prove, via genetic testing, it had been incorrectly determined.
In a letter to the Slovakia parliament, dated 19 April but released publically on 25 April, commissioner Dunja Mijatović said she was concerned that the bill would “effectively” mean trans men and women’s genders would not be legally recognised and “lead to human rights regression”.
She said it was “in conflict” with the Slovak Republic’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
It “should have triggered a process of addressing long-standing concerns about intolerance towards LGBTI people”, she said.
“However, I am disappointed that no discernible progress has been made, and that the human rights of LGBTI people in the Slovak Republic appear to be more, rather than less, at risk.”
Mijatović also used the letter to highlight issues relating to the rights of same-sex couples and hate incidents towards queer people.
Rights for same-sex couples in the Slovak Republic fell short of European Court of Human Rights case law, she said, noting, specifically, that the current legal framework did not grant same-sex couples “adequate recognition and protection of their relationship”.
She went further and urged that human rights of queer people be protected.
“These include ensuring that gender identity and sex characteristics are explicitly recognised as protected characteristics in hate-crime legislation, and included as aggravating circumstances when offences are committed on those grounds.”
Mijatović also recommended raising societal awareness and acceptance of sexual orientation and gender identity, noting parliamentarians had downplayed links between hate crimes and the wider Slovakia society and political sphere.
The Slovak Republic is not the only European country facing condemnation for its laws in relation to LGBTQ+ people.
Knowing your LGBTQ+ history is not only important, but it can provide great comfort and reassurance for members of the community. What’s more, it opens our eyes to the fact that, yes, queer really has always been here!
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In honor of Lesbian Visibility Week, we thought we’d educate you on some key moments in lesbian history, from the first arrest for lesbian activity to the first televised kiss between two women.
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The first conviction for lesbian activity
We’re starting off by throwing it all the way back to the 1600s.
In March 1649, there was the first known conviction for lesbian activity in North America.
Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon were charged with “lewd behavior with each other upon a bed” in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Hammon was under 16 and not prosecuted.
The first lesbian marriage
Public domainAnne Lister plaque in York
Same-sex marriage wasn’t legalized in the United States until 2015, but that didn’t doesn’t mean lesbian weddings only started happening then.
In fact, the very first marriage between two women actually happened in the 1800s.
Anne Lister (whose name you might recognize from the HBO series Gentleman Jack) was dubbed “the first modern lesbian,” and she married Ann Walker at Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York in 1834.
Of course, their union was without legal recognition, given that same-sex marriage was only legalized in the U.K. in 2014. However, they took communion together on Easter Sunday and thereafter considered themselves married.
In years since, the church has been described as “an icon for what is interpreted as the site of the first lesbian marriage to be held in Britain,” and the building now hosts a commemorative blue plaque in their honor.
The word “lesbian” is used
The word “lesbian” is part of many people’s everyday vocabulary now, but do you know when it was first used?
Well, the word “lesbianism” to describe erotic relationships between women had been documented way back in 1732.
The term was first used by William King in his book, The Toast, published in England, which meant women who loved women.
The book has become notable for providing proof that the term “lesbians” was used in a sexual sense as early as the 1700s, in exactly the same way that it is used today.
Before this, the word lesbian meant “of Lesbos”, such as “Lesbian wine” or “Lesbian culture.”
The term “lesbian” is used in a medical dictionary
Then, in 1890, the term lesbian was used in a medical dictionary as an adjective to describe tribadism (as “lesbian love”).
The terms lesbian, invert, and homosexual were then interchangeable with sapphist and sapphism around the turn of the 20th century.
Arrest for lesbian partying
WikipediaMa Rainey
Singer Ma Rainey – the so-called Mother of the Blues – was arrested in her house in Harlem for having a lesbian party in 1925.
Her protégé, Bessie Smith, bailed her out of jail the following morning.
Both Rainey and Smith were part of an extensive circle of lesbian and bisexual African‐American women in Harlem, and the Blues scene of the Harlem Renaissance provided Black women with a space to explore their sexuality and gender. It gave them the freedom to be themselves without the white supremacist gaze, which sexualized and criminalized Black women.
Rainey wrote about speculation regarding her sexuality three years later in the song “Prove it On Me Blues,” with lyrics including: “Ain’t nobody caught me, you sure got to prove it on me.”
Publication of a groundbreaking lesbian novel
In 1928, English author Radclyffe Hall published what many consider today a groundbreaking lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose “sexual inversion” is apparent from an early age.
The book’s release caused the topic of homosexuality to be a topic of public conversation in both the United States and England.
The formation of the first known lesbian rights organization
In September 1955, the first known lesbian rights organization in the United States was formed in San Francisco.
Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) hosted private social functions until it was dissolved in 1995. It was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars and clubs, which were subject to raids and police harassment, as well as general discrimination.
Throughout its 14 years, Daughters of Bilitis became an educational resource for lesbians, gay men, researchers, and mental health professionals.
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While representation is well on its way now, there was a time when TV shows didn’t want to touch lesbianism with a bargepole, making the first on-screen kiss between two women all the more monumental.
Although it might surprise you to learn that it wasn’t until the nineties that two women first locked lips on American TV.
The kiss in question aired in a 1990 episode of 21 Jump Street, but the camera cut off their actual lips, meaning the actual kiss wasn’t really shown at all.
So, unofficially, the first lesbian kiss on TV is often attributed to a 1991 episode of legal drama L.A. Law, in which bisexual lawyer C.J. briefly kissed her female colleague Abby Perkins on the lips.
Sadly, romance never blossomed between the two characters, as Abby left the show and C.J ended up with a boyfriend, not to mention the network received major backlash for the scene.
Still, we’ve come a long way.
Audre Lorde is named State Poet of New York
A sign with an Audre Lorde quote at the 2017 Women’s March in Toronto
In 1991, self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde became the State Poet of New York. She dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing various injustices, whether it be classism, homophobia, racism, or sexism.
The critically acclaimed novelist, poet, and essayist was also a co-founder of The Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, and an editor of the lesbian journal Chrysalis.
In April 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on the cover of Timemagazine, stating: “Yep, I’m Gay.”
The cover coincided with the broadcast of “The Puppy Episode,” a two-part episode of the American situation comedy series Ellen.
The episode details lead character Ellen Morgan’s realization that she is a lesbian and her coming out, with the title initially used as a code name for Ellen’s coming out so as to keep the episode under wraps.
To say the moment was groundbreaking for lesbian history would probably be an understatement, as not only did it win multiple awards, Ellen became a cultural icon. DeGeneres’s career, though, suffered as the network stopped promoting her sitcom until it was ultimately canceled.
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First lesbian elected to Congress
Campaign photoSenator Tammy Baldwin
In 1998, aged 24, Tammy Baldwin became the first openly lesbian candidate ever elected to Congress, winning Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District seat over Josephine Musser.
The Democrat was also the first woman elected to either chamber in Wisconsin.
Then in 2012, she made history as the first LGBTQ+ person elected to the Senate.
Publication of When We Were Outlaws: a Memoir of Love and Revolution
Written by Jeanne Cordova, When We Were Outlaws was published in 2011.
The radical lesbian activist and pioneer’s memoir offers a raw and intimate insight into the life of a young activist torn between conflicting personal longings and political goals, at a time when the fight for gay rights and liberation for women was still fresh.
Today, When Were Outlaws is still considered extraordinary.
Lesbian history is still in the making
Looking back at these groundbreaking moments in lesbian history, we can see how far the LGBTQ+ community has come in the fight for equality and acceptance. However, we must also acknowledge that lesbian history is still in the making.
There is still much work to be done in terms of combating discrimination and bigotry and ensuring that all members of the community are treated with dignity and respect.
Let us honor the brave pioneers who paved the way for us and continue to fight for a better future for all members of the LGBTQ+ community.
By subscribing to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter, we can stay informed and engaged with the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights and contribute to the ongoing progress towards a more just and equitable society.
