April 20 to 26 is Lesbian Visibility Week and the theme is health and well-being. The week raises awareness and supports women and nonbinary people, while encouraging them to be their authentic selves.
The first Lesbian Visibility Week took place in the United States in the ‘90s and was created by the West Hollywood Lesbian and Gay Advisory Council in collaboration with the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Centre. Another contributor was the West Hollywood Lesbian Visibility Committee, which was founded in 1989. At first, the week wasn’t celebrated anywhere else in the United States. According to Los Angeles Mayor John Heilman, “Part of the reason we started [Lesbian Visibility Week] was because there was a lot of attention on the gay male community, but not as much for lesbians.” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1995.
Before the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym that we are familiar with today, ‘GLBT’ was used by the queer community. There was a drive to switch the orders of ‘G’ and ‘L’ due to the rise of feminist theories that were gaining popularity in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Additionally, the lesbian community played a crucial role in helping gay men with medical care and support during the AIDS crisis. Lesbians intervened when gay men were banned from donating blood and began working at blood banks to ensure donations were going to AIDS patients. This selfless act propelled the change in the acronym as the letter ‘L’ was moved to the beginning of ‘GLBT’ to show respect and solidarity for lesbians.
Although efforts have been made for lesbian rights, there is much work to be done. The 2SLGBTQIA+ community still faces violence and discrimination and is forced to hide certain parts of their identities. Queer individuals are placed at higher suicide risk because of how they are stigmatized and mistreated in society. Queer representation has become more popular in the media, but many aspects of culture, legislation, and life exclude queer women. Lesbian Visibility Week attempts to shed light on this and raise awareness for queer women because they are often left on the sidelines.
If you are looking for some lesbian television to binge during this week, I got you covered. My all-time favourite queer representation is the show High School, which was created by icons Tegan and Sara Quin and is based on their life. You also cannot go wrong with The L Word, a show from 2004 with six seasons of crazy lesbian drama. It follows the lives of an incestuous friend group of lesbian and bisexual women in West Hollywood. This next suggestion strays a little further from the two prior ones; however, I can’t not talk about Atypical. Atypical is not about lesbians, but there is a queer character who plays an all too relatable lesbian role, where she falls in love with a woman while dating a guy. Another classic is But I’m a Cheerleader, which grapples with the homosexual pressures society places on women and men.
Whether you are a lesbian or know one, it’s important to recognize this week as a moment of how far we’ve come. Hopefully one day, we won’t have to keep fighting for a week’s worth of support. In the meantime, lesbians, you are visible to us all year round, and we love you.