In July and August 2023, while Europe was in the grips of the hottest summer ever registered and under unprecedented storms, lesbians gathered to protest the State-sponsored lesbophobia of the Italian far-right government.

While we were there in solidarity with the Italian mums and their children, we all knew that this was not only about parental rights. It was about a Europe that could not represent us.

• A Europe struggling to protect women against violence because Member States can’t agree that sex without consent is rape.
• A Europe more and more locked in its own borders, that sends people to their death in the Mediterranean and in the Balkans
• A Europe that cannot speak up clearly against genocide, against patriarchal wars at its doorsteps and for peace and permanent ceasefire.

A Europe that now, more than ever, NEEDS LESBIANS.

We choose to look at Europe from our lesbian perspective, from the point of view of those outside patriarchal norms and unbound by cis-heteronormativity. From these margins, from our experiences as feminist, anti-racists, LGBTI, climate activists, we know that another Europe is possible.

A Europe where the rights of our children will be guaranteed. Where “freedom of movement” means also equal access to sexual and reproductive rights across Europe. A Europe where all women and non-binary people enjoy equality, justice and freedom from violence. A Europe where butch lesbians and trans folks are not attacked because of “what a woman should look like”. A Europe where we are not sexually harassed because we are “too feminine and we asked for it”.

Far-right governments, racists and white-suprematists want a Europe where the rights of Black and racialised people are denied, where human dignity is granted based on skin tone, ethnicity or religion. A Europe where expressing solidarity to Ukrainians means denying it to others. We do not fall for this trap, and we know that a Europe unable to deal with its colonial past is doomed to repeat it.

Capitalists, ultra-liberals, and climate-change deniers want a Europe where the South burns while the North drowns. A Europe where they speak about “ecology” to deny our rights, but not to protect our homes, our fields, and our lives. We can read between the lines, and we know that the price of climate change will be paid by the poorest and most vulnerable.

Patriarchy has tried to convince us that being lesbian was a challenge, a misfortune, something to be ashamed of. It has failed. Being lesbian is our superpower and we mean to use it.

In the European elections, from our elected positions, from our grassroot community work, because of our #lesbiangenius, we call for a European Union that:

• Takes into account all LBTI women and non-binary persons when protecting women and LGBTI people’s rights;
• Protects our children’s rights and ensures free movement for our families, because #lesbiansaremotherstoo;
• Dismantles borders and walls instead of contributing to build them;
• Makes our societies safer and more inclusive instead of more racist, lesbophobic, ableist and transphobic;
• Fights climate change instead of protecting capitalist interests;
• Supports the lesbian grassroot work in service of our communities.

Against the raise of the far-right we want more feminism, more anti-racism, more climate actions.

Against the raise of the far-right, we want a LESBIAN EUROPE.