As a new member of the LesbianGlobal team, I felt exhilarated entering a professional LBQ+ women’s space for the first time. Eager to help empower our community, my role as a Research and Community Engagement intern began with an ambitious task—to compile a comprehensive list of LBQ+ organizations working to protect and uplift LBQ+ women and communities worldwide. But my excitement turned to dismay as I discovered the alarming invisibility and lack of support for LBQ+ women globally.
The harsh reality became evident—LBQ+ women’s existence challenges societal norms, threatening the heteropatriarchy, which responds with violence and suppression. LBQ+ women often hide to survive, making it challenging to find organizations dedicated to uplifting and protecting their existence. Our partner organizations like Astraea and MamaCash, along with the recent HRW report on LBQ+ women globally (produced in collaboration with LesbianGlobal), provided valuable insights into the few groups working tirelessly to support LBQ+ women worldwide.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been as taken aback as I was. I’m aware of the marginalization of LBQ+ women in the United States and western world and knew the situation for LBQ+ women must be far worse and more dangerous around the globe. However, what I failed to truly consider, at least until I stared at yet another unsuccessful search bar, were the deep roots of invisibility that lies at the heart of LBQ+ women’s existence. Womanhood throughout history has only ever existed societally within the confines of male presence and control. Any LBQ+ person knows that queer womanhood, whatever that means to each individual, is to reject the very frames of gender, and with it, the confines of societal structure itself. This abandonment of conformity poses a threat to the lifeblood of the heteropatriarchy, which in turn responds to LBQ+ existence the only way it knows how: violence. LBQ+ women have no choice but to hide for their own survival. It’s one thing for an American like me, living in Philadelphia on a left-leaning college campus, to walk around in short hair and baggy clothes and to hold hands with a woman. It’s another issue entirely for LBQ+ women to gather anywhere outside of the few pockets around the world that have been deemed progressive and collectivize in direct opposition to cultural and legal restrictions. This is where the few organizations that are doing the global work for LBQ+ women come into the picture. It wasn’t until I scoured the bibliographies and websites of our partner organizations like Astraea and MamaCash, along with the recent HRW report that LesbianGlobal supported, that I was able to uncover any of the groups around the world that exist solely to protect and uplift the lived experience of LBQ+ women. The consolidated list that I compiled can be accessed here. Please reach out via email to let us know if other international LBQ+ women’s organizations that align with our mission should be added to our list.
Even in trying to stay informed on LGBTQ news, queer-specific news hardly ever provides LBQ content. LBQ-specific blogs and news sources typically retain a lighter tone, which is important in its own right, but does little to inform their audiences about real issues that pertain to LBQ+ women internationally. I love a Pride-themed article and post from a go-to mainstream publication in June as much as the next lesbian, but they so rarely cover issues that pertain to LBQ+ women that I’ve found myself feeling disheartened and resentful when I do any internet digging of these sources. The more research I do for my work at LesbianGlobal, the more certain I become of the desperate need for our organization to fill this gaping hole of LBQ-specific information and community online. How else are we supposed to be able to learn about the issues that affect our LBQ sisters globally, much less be able to help one another? This invisibility and lack of acknowledgement in the media is just another product of lesbophobia, seeking to silence LBQ women to the extent that they cease to exist on planes so vast as the internet. LesbianGlobal offers its salient solution: empower LBQ+ women to build a supportive global community. Let us hear, speak, and support each other on a platform that we can trust. Let us rely on ourselves and one another. In doing so, we take back the power that society yearns to strip from us.
Please join us in this vital mission to amplify LBQ+ voices, foster connections, and establish a united global community. Together, we can overcome invisibility, support one another, and pave the way for a brighter future for LBQ+ individuals everywhere.
Author: Lilah Katz
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