Okay, we admit, we didn’t realise it was Lesbian Visibility Week, so we here at Dublin Lesbian Line are hanging out heads in shame. We’re blaming coronavirus. However, although we may have overlooked this anniversary, we never forget the importance of lesbian visibility because we hear the stories of people who have suffered because of the invisibility of lesbians in Irish society on the helpline every week.

In our wellness course and at our events, we hear the stories of people who do not feel comfortable using the word ‘lesbian’ because they are worried about the image that it portrays. This is why we need to make lesbians more visible, we need to show that there is no one ‘type’ of lesbian, and you don’t need to look a certain way or act a certain way to be a lesbian. Lesbians can be non-binary, asexual, people of colour, trans, someone with a disability, closeted, questioning, queer, the list goes on.

This is where Dublin Lesbian Line (DLL) comes in – our volunteers work tirelessly to support women all year round. We have a three-pronged approach in the support of LGBTQAI+ women* in Ireland. We provide helpline and online chat support on Thursdays from 6.30pm-9pm, we run community events and workshops, and we produce the Women STAR podcast.

The DLL helpline has been in operation for 40 years and it is the foundation of our organisation. Our anonymous helpline volunteers listen to the stories of people who have been excluded from the LGBTQAI+ narrative and therefore feel isolated and alone. We hear from a lot of women* who come out later in life because they have never seen themselves represented in the LGBTQAI+ spaces or in media content. We support these people by providing a calm, soothing voice, and a listening ear.

When we realised through the helpline that the lack of representation of lesbians is a massive issue across the board for our callers, we decided to start running events and courses and providing positive content that they can see themselves represented in. We have learned a lot at these events but above all, we have heard time and time again that women* who identify as lesbian are uncomfortable using the word and that they feel like using it has become a contentious issue.

Our event attendees have told us they are not comfortable using the word because they feel like it has become seen as an exclusionary word in itself and that they do not have a right to use the word because they are asexual, gender fluid, or trans. However, through our workshops and events, we have seen a lot of people reclaiming the word and becoming proud to use it again, and we always try to communicate with people that identities do not have to be binary, lesbians can be trans, lesbians can be aromantic, lesbians can be non-binary.

Similarly, in relation to the Outhouse women’s wellness courses that are run by DLL’s Laura Louise Condell, she says that “the wellness course groups are always so diverse; some people have been out for decades and others are at the start of their journey. Sometimes women* who do identify as lesbian are uncomfortable using the word. This is often because of the negative connotations that can surround the word, and sometimes people feel unsure if they can call themselves lesbians because, for example, they’ve been with or are attracted to men, or because they are trans or identify outside of gender binaries.

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“The group always encourages each other to use whatever word they feel like fits them. It’s incredible to see a transformation from people coming from a place of fear or uncertainty to embracing their identities and owning the word ‘lesbian’’.

We have always felt that the media representation of LGBTQAI+ women* has been severely lacking and we learned through the helpline and our events and courses that there is a massive desire from the community for more positive representation, so we have begun producing our own podcast called Women STAR. This podcast aims to represent the true lives of LGBTQAI+ women* in Ireland with a focus on mental health, emotional resilience, and what it is like to be queer in Ireland in 2020.

A priority for us when we started making this podcast was to provide the listener with interviews with people who are down-to-earth, relatable, and representative of the diversity of our community. So often when queer people are represented in the media, the most famous and well-known of our community are used as spokespeople and this can lead to a singular viewpoint constantly being communicated with the public. We want our listeners to be able to relate to the interviewee’s experience and to be able to benefit from hearing about some experiences that are similar to their own and some experiences and concepts that they had never even considered.

https://shows.acast.com/women-star/episodes/ep-1-toryn-glavin

Additionally, we have tried to increase lesbian representation in Irish society by taking part in major events in Ireland such as Dublin Pride and the Women’s Mini Marathon. 2019 was the first year that we took part in either of those events and, although this representation is extremely important for the growth of Dublin Lesbian Line itself, we also found that it was even more important for visibility. Other lesbians could see our volunteers be out and proud as members of one of the few organisations in the country who focus on queer women’s issues.

Unfortunately, like every organisation, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted DLL greatly. All of the events that we were due to take part in have now been cancelled or postponed and we have had to temporarily stop operating the helpline and online chat service. So in order to continue supporting the community during this difficult period, we will be launching a series of online webinars in May focusing on a variety of topics such as mental wellbeing, LGBTQAI+ history, and queer activism. Readers can keep an eye on our social media pages or sign up to our newsletter for more information.

Happy Visibility Week from all at Dublin Lesbian Line.

women* – inclusive of of trans, non-binary people and gender-fluid people