26th April 2020 #LESBIANVISIBILITYDAY

On #LesbianVisibilityDay we would like to send our love and Solidarity to our Lesbian Sisters all over the world. Here is some of the FiLiA content with a focus on Lesbian Voices.

Violence Against Lesbians - FiLiA Conference 2019

Recording from the Violence Against Lesbians Panel at the FiLiA Conference in 2019. Featuring:

Susan Hawthorne - Unnoticed, Unrecorded, Unremembered: Inscribing the Torture of Lesbians
Hilary McCollum - Voicing Violence Against Lesbians
Counsuelo Rivera Fuentes - My Experiences of Pain in Torture and Imprisonment in Dictatorial Chile
Angela C Wild - Lesbians at Ground Zero: Lesbians and the Cotton Ceiling

FiLiA meets: Sheila Jeffreys - The Lesbian Revolution

Sheila Jeffreys became a feminist activist in 1973, and a lesbian feminist in 1977. She is the author of 10 books on the history and politics of sexuality. Sheila's most recent book is Lesbian Revolution: Lesbian Feminism in the UK 1970-1990. On this podcast, she discusses her work with Heather Brunskell-Evans, touching on the scope, culture, ideas and practices of lesbian feminism, and the forces that led to the disappearance of the lesbian feminist movement. To quote Sheila: "Lesbian feminism is now rising again, and I hope that this book will provide fuel to that flame." 

Sheila’s speech on The Lesbian Revolution at FiLiA2018 can be read HERE

FiLiA meets: Susan Hawthorne

In this podcast, Susan Hawthorne speaks to FiLiA about her work in researching violence against lesbians.
In Uganda in 2002, a woman said to her, "Be careful, in Uganda lesbians are tortured." This set her on the path to researching why she had not heard this before.  From 2003 onwards she has written numerous research papers, spoken on the subject of the torture of lesbians at conferences in India, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, South Korea, USA and Australia to almost no effect. In 2017, her novel Dark Matters was published.

FiLiA meets: Bev Jackson - LGB Alliance

Bev Jackson set up the LGB Alliance together with Kate Harris in October 2019. LGB Alliance is a lesbian-led organization for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals that emphasizes the importance of biological sex, not gender identity, when talking about sexual orientation.

FiLiA meets: Angela C Wild

Angela C. Wild is a lesbian feminist activist, writer, researcher and a political artist. Her work focuses on promoting uncompromising lesbian visibility, building lesbian culture, fighting for women-only-spaces as well as challenging compulsory heterosexuality, institutionalised femininity, motherhood and pornography.
She is a founding member of Get The L Out lesbian activist group and author of Lesbians At Ground Zero the first research on the cotton ceiling

FiLiA Meets: Julie Furlong

Julie Furlong is a lesbian feminist activist, who is part of a group of proud lesbian women who organised the Lesbian Strength March in Leeds in September 2019. The day was a march for lesbian women followed by a rally for lesbian women and all female supporters. She speaks to FiLiA volunteer Zoï Hélène in this podcast about topics including what lesbian feminism means, why supporting this event is so important, and Anne Lister.

WHO WAS ANNE LISTER?

Historian Jill Liddington says ‘I examined the diaries’ portrayal of Anne Lister, comparing these with the images presented by editors - from John Lister on. I remained hooked by Anne’s extraordinary life: dazzling worldly achievements plus unbuttoned lesbian affairs.’