In March 2020, in a context of insecurity and fear linked to the COVID-19 pandemic spreading globally including in Europe and Central Asia, EL*C decided to react by organising an online space for lesbians to exchange information on the ongoing situation and its many repercussions. This online space, coined ‘LLL – Locked-down Lesbians Listening’, was open seven days per week for several months and moderated in a number of languages to accommodate as many lesbians as possible.

Additonally, throughout all of 2020, we continued receiving information and feedback from our network and it became increasingly clear that the crisis would have severe consequences on lesbian groups across Europe and Central Asia, especially taking into account the overwhelming evidence that the lesbian movement is severly underfunded. For this reason, EL*C developed its own COVID-19 Emergency Grants Program, with the aim to help lesbian groups cope with the pandemic. Within this activity, we have been providing small grants to lesbian organizations that were in urgent need of financial support, especially those that are working directly with supporting the community with immediate needs, such as food, medicines, psychological support, shelter, support to elderly lesbians, lesbian refugees, etc. For this purpose, EL*C has launched 2 cycles of grant applications with the available funding of 60,000.00 EUR, out of which 30,000.00 EUR have already been distributed to 12 lesbian groups from Austria, France, Spain, Serbia, Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan, while we have received over 50 applications. The remaining amount will be distributed to lesbian groups in the second half of 2021.

Thanks to the LLL sessions and the additional information received by the community, we realised that very little information was available on the specific struggles within the lesbian communities and how those communities were coping with the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversations happening during the ‘LLL’ sessions concerning the impact of COVID-19 on lesbian communties across our regions convinced us of the need for a more general and exhaustive evaluation. The first stage of our evaluation process was based on desktop research and data collection and already preliminarily highlighted the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on women and the LGBTIQ community as a whole. Unfortunately, most of the studies that we came across did not take into account thoroughly the combinations of factors such as gender and sexual orientation in the experiences linked with the pandemic. However, the stories of violence perpetrated by unsupportive families against lesbians, the episodes of discrimination based on both gender and sexual orientation as well as the increase of lesbophobic rhetoric and statements that we have been registering since the beginning of the pandemic demonstrated the need to specifically consider the experience of women in the LGBTIQ community.

Based on these initial findings (or lack thereof), we decided to launch two online surveys, one aiming to assess the impact of the situation on lesbian individuals and the other focusing on lesbian organisations and groups in our region. The surveys were available in eight different languages (Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Serbian). Between December 2020 and March 2021, while several countries within our scope were facing second and third waves of COVID-19, we collected 2113 answers from individuals and 134 organisations and groups in Europe and Central Asia. A detailed analysis of the methodology followed by the collection and analysis of this data is available below.

As detailed in Chapter 1, the survey aimed to collect data from individuals on issues related to safety, employment and income for lesbians as well as the experience of discrimination and the consequence of the situation on the respondents mental well-being. An alarmingly high rate of respondents reported increased feelings of insecurity in the public space, instances of violence perpetrated by unsupportive family members, and the recurrence of lesbophobic discourses and rhetoric. This withstands and illustrates previous accounts on how the pandemic had worsened the incidence of violence against women in general, and against lesbians in particular. In addition, the results confirm that lesbians, as a minority group, experienced a stronger economic shock. The long-term damage caused by the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic should be carefully evaluated. Moreover, measures related to social distancing, such as drastic reductions in people’s freedom of movement and social contacts, posed additional problems to lesbians especially when their relationship(s) and families were not legally recognised in their country. Finally, the data also speaks to the heavy toll on lesbians’ mental health as well as the numerous ways in which lesbians stayed active in their community, organised themselves to stay in contact with each other and provide support to the most precarious within their communities.

The data collected regarding individuals also allows for a specific focus and elucidates the areas in which factors related to intersectionality (such age, race, ethnic minority, refugee/asylum seeking status, disability or gender identity) determine significant difference in the experiences of the pandemic. While the report does not aim to offer a complete analysis of the intersectional oppressions faced by lesbians, our community, and their impact on the experience of the pandemic, it focuses on the areas in which statistically significant differences could be found from our pool of respondents (more details on methodology and the demographic are available below).

Chapter 2 of this report is devoted to lesbian organisations and groups, whose aswers to the survey show that the lesbian community has, in a very short amount of time, re-organised to provide for the direct needs (such as food and housing) of members of the community in need and to offer support services to deal with the most vulnerable within their communities. This has been done thanks to the generosity of community members and due to extensive experience in dealing with crises that the lesbian movement has accumulated throughout decades of leadership in the LGBTIQ and feminist movements. However, the results also show that the chronic lack of funding and resources for lesbian-led and lesbian-focused projects, initiatives and organising has worsened, as a result of the pandemic. This poses a serious risk to the capacity of the movement to continue offering its indispensable support services and to fully respond to the rise of hateful rhetoric and lesbophobic violence in Europe, Central Asia and beyond.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global shock whose long-term effects are yet to fully emerge. They are, however, predictable and, as this report already shows, will inevitably intensify the existing system of oppression. Lesbians, living at the crossroads of multiple societal issues such as gender inequalities and social stigma related to non-conforming sexual orientations, offer practical experience and examples of the skills needed, as a society, for survival in this crisis and its aftermath. For this reason, the present report wants to not only offer recommendations to policy-makers, institutions and donors on the specific inclusions of lesbians in policies aimed at addressing the COVID-19 crisis, but also to make visible a lesbian perspective on the present crisis. As EL*C did at the beginning of the pandemic, those in power at global, regional and national level have the opportunity to listen to the lived realities of lesbians as well as to the experiences of the lesbian movement to build a recovery that is fully inclusive of everyone’s needs and experiences in our societies and to construct healing processes that are truly revolutionary.

Find here the Data Explorer Tool

Download the full report here!!

[embeddoc url=”https://europeanlesbianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Covid-Report-final-1.pdf”]

In March 2020, in a context of insecurity and fear linked to the COVID-19 pandemic spreading globally including in Europe and Central Asia, EL*C decided to react by organising an online space for lesbians to exchange information on the ongoing situation and its many repercussions. This online space, coined ‘LLL – Locked-down Lesbians Listening’, was open seven days per week for several months and moderated in a number of languages to accommodate as many lesbians as possible.

Additonally, throughout all of 2020, we continued receiving information and feedback from our network and it became increasingly clear that the crisis would have severe consequences on lesbian groups across Europe and Central Asia, especially taking into account the overwhelming evidence that the lesbian movement is severly underfunded. For this reason, EL*C developed its own COVID-19 Emergency Grants Program, with the aim to help lesbian groups cope with the pandemic. Within this activity, we have been providing small grants to lesbian organizations that were in urgent need of financial support, especially those that are working directly with supporting the community with immediate needs, such as food, medicines, psychological support, shelter, support to elderly lesbians, lesbian refugees, etc. For this purpose, EL*C has launched 2 cycles of grant applications with the available funding of 60,000.00 EUR, out of which 30,000.00 EUR have already been distributed to 12 lesbian groups from Austria, France, Spain, Serbia, Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan, while we have received over 50 applications. The remaining amount will be distributed to lesbian groups in the second half of 2021.

Thanks to the LLL sessions and the additional information received by the community, we realised that very little information was available on the specific struggles within the lesbian communities and how those communities were coping with the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversations happening during the ‘LLL’ sessions concerning the impact of COVID-19 on lesbian communties across our regions convinced us of the need for a more general and exhaustive evaluation. The first stage of our evaluation process was based on desktop research and data collection and already preliminarily highlighted the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on women and the LGBTIQ community as a whole. Unfortunately, most of the studies that we came across did not take into account thoroughly the combinations of factors such as gender and sexual orientation in the experiences linked with the pandemic. However, the stories of violence perpetrated by unsupportive families against lesbians, the episodes of discrimination based on both gender and sexual orientation as well as the increase of lesbophobic rhetoric and statements that we have been registering since the beginning of the pandemic demonstrated the need to specifically consider the experience of women in the LGBTIQ community.

Based on these initial findings (or lack thereof), we decided to launch two online surveys, one aiming to assess the impact of the situation on lesbian individuals and the other focusing on lesbian organisations and groups in our region. The surveys were available in eight different languages (Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Serbian). Between December 2020 and March 2021, while several countries within our scope were facing second and third waves of COVID-19, we collected 2113 answers from individuals and 134 organisations and groups in Europe and Central Asia. A detailed analysis of the methodology followed by the collection and analysis of this data is available below.

As detailed in Chapter 1, the survey aimed to collect data from individuals on issues related to safety, employment and income for lesbians as well as the experience of discrimination and the consequence of the situation on the respondents mental well-being. An alarmingly high rate of respondents reported increased feelings of insecurity in the public space, instances of violence perpetrated by unsupportive family members, and the recurrence of lesbophobic discourses and rhetoric. This withstands and illustrates previous accounts on how the pandemic had worsened the incidence of violence against women in general, and against lesbians in particular. In addition, the results confirm that lesbians, as a minority group, experienced a stronger economic shock. The long-term damage caused by the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic should be carefully evaluated. Moreover, measures related to social distancing, such as drastic reductions in people’s freedom of movement and social contacts, posed additional problems to lesbians especially when their relationship(s) and families were not legally recognised in their country. Finally, the data also speaks to the heavy toll on lesbians’ mental health as well as the numerous ways in which lesbians stayed active in their community, organised themselves to stay in contact with each other and provide support to the most precarious within their communities.

The data collected regarding individuals also allows for a specific focus and elucidates the areas in which factors related to intersectionality (such age, race, ethnic minority, refugee/asylum seeking status, disability or gender identity) determine significant difference in the experiences of the pandemic. While the report does not aim to offer a complete analysis of the intersectional oppressions faced by lesbians, our community, and their impact on the experience of the pandemic, it focuses on the areas in which statistically significant differences could be found from our pool of respondents (more details on methodology and the demographic are available below).

Chapter 2 of this report is devoted to lesbian organisations and groups, whose aswers to the survey show that the lesbian community has, in a very short amount of time, re-organised to provide for the direct needs (such as food and housing) of members of the community in need and to offer support services to deal with the most vulnerable within their communities. This has been done thanks to the generosity of community members and due to extensive experience in dealing with crises that the lesbian movement has accumulated throughout decades of leadership in the LGBTIQ and feminist movements. However, the results also show that the chronic lack of funding and resources for lesbian-led and lesbian-focused projects, initiatives and organising has worsened, as a result of the pandemic. This poses a serious risk to the capacity of the movement to continue offering its indispensable support services and to fully respond to the rise of hateful rhetoric and lesbophobic violence in Europe, Central Asia and beyond.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global shock whose long-term effects are yet to fully emerge. They are, however, predictable and, as this report already shows, will inevitably intensify the existing system of oppression. Lesbians, living at the crossroads of multiple societal issues such as gender inequalities and social stigma related to non-conforming sexual orientations, offer practical experience and examples of the skills needed, as a society, for survival in this crisis and its aftermath. For this reason, the present report wants to not only offer recommendations to policy-makers, institutions and donors on the specific inclusions of lesbians in policies aimed at addressing the COVID-19 crisis, but also to make visible a lesbian perspective on the present crisis. As EL*C did at the beginning of the pandemic, those in power at global, regional and national level have the opportunity to listen to the lived realities of lesbians as well as to the experiences of the lesbian movement to build a recovery that is fully inclusive of everyone’s needs and experiences in our societies and to construct healing processes that are truly revolutionary.

Find here the Data Explorer Tool

Download the full report here!!

[embeddoc url=”https://europeanlesbianconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Covid-Report-final-1.pdf”]

Translation of the Article in L’Obs and AFP, Published on 28 May 2021.

On Friday 28 May, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for “rape on the grounds of sexual orientation” of a lesbian woman.

In March 2020, Jeanne’s attacker (whose name was changed at her request) was sentenced to 15 years by the Seine-Saint-Denis court. But the aggravating circumstance of homophobia was not retained.

This time, the jury and judges considered that it was a lesbophobic rape, in particular because the accused “knew from the beginning of their encounter the sexual orientation” of his victim.

The court also relied on the testimony of the young woman, who had repeatedly recounted the phrase used by her attacker as a warning: “You like chicks? Well, I’m going to make you like this”.

The recognition of the lesbophobic nature of this attack “was the most important thing for me”, reacted Jeanne to AFP. “The rape was fueled by that, he wanted to deny me as a lesbian, to punish me. At the first trial, I had been denied a second time by the justice system, society, in my identity, that was the hardest”, she explained.

“Corrective rape”

The sentence handed down on appeal was slightly lower because of the defendant’s confession to rape and violence: Jeanne, whose whole body had “numerous wounds and bruises”, had notably had a perforated eardrum.

But he insisted that he had “no problem” with his homosexuality. “He was out of time, full of cocaine and alcohol, he did not know what he was doing,” said his lawyer, Paul de Bomy, after the verdict.

“Jeanne’s lawyer, Stéphane Maugendre, said that the conviction, “a historic first”, was also “the culmination of the Aix-en-Provence trial” of 1978. In that trial, the three attackers of Anne Tonglet and Araceli Castellano, a lesbian couple, were convicted after a fight led by their lawyer Gisèle Halimi, which resulted in a legal redefinition of rape.

“Lesbian and bisexual women are extremely vulnerable to sexual violence and assault” because of “hatred and contempt linked to sexual orientation, but also because of the misogynistic perception that women are ‘objects’, especially sexual objects”, Silvia Casalino, co-director of the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community, told AFP.

10% of lesbian victims of rape

“There is also the belief that women who do not have sex with men are ‘sick’, ‘abnormal’ and need to be ‘corrected’,” she added.

In her eyes, the Court of Appeal’s decision, which could be a first in Europe according to information from her activist network, “is very important and sends a clear signal to European states that are currently discussing the introduction of measures to prevent hate crimes against LGBTI people”.

In her view, the decision of the Court of Appeal, which could be a first in Europe according to information from his activist network, “is very important and sends a clear signal to European states that are currently discussing the introduction of measures to prevent hate crimes against LGBTI persons”.

Translation of the Article in L’Obs and AFP, Published on 28 May 2021.

On Friday 28 May, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for “rape on the grounds of sexual orientation” of a lesbian woman.

In March 2020, Jeanne’s attacker (whose name was changed at her request) was sentenced to 15 years by the Seine-Saint-Denis court. But the aggravating circumstance of homophobia was not retained.

This time, the jury and judges considered that it was a lesbophobic rape, in particular because the accused “knew from the beginning of their encounter the sexual orientation” of his victim.

The court also relied on the testimony of the young woman, who had repeatedly recounted the phrase used by her attacker as a warning: “You like chicks? Well, I’m going to make you like this”.

The recognition of the lesbophobic nature of this attack “was the most important thing for me”, reacted Jeanne to AFP. “The rape was fueled by that, he wanted to deny me as a lesbian, to punish me. At the first trial, I had been denied a second time by the justice system, society, in my identity, that was the hardest”, she explained.

“Corrective rape”

The sentence handed down on appeal was slightly lower because of the defendant’s confession to rape and violence: Jeanne, whose whole body had “numerous wounds and bruises”, had notably had a perforated eardrum.

But he insisted that he had “no problem” with his homosexuality. “He was out of time, full of cocaine and alcohol, he did not know what he was doing,” said his lawyer, Paul de Bomy, after the verdict.

“Jeanne’s lawyer, Stéphane Maugendre, said that the conviction, “a historic first”, was also “the culmination of the Aix-en-Provence trial” of 1978. In that trial, the three attackers of Anne Tonglet and Araceli Castellano, a lesbian couple, were convicted after a fight led by their lawyer Gisèle Halimi, which resulted in a legal redefinition of rape.

“Lesbian and bisexual women are extremely vulnerable to sexual violence and assault” because of “hatred and contempt linked to sexual orientation, but also because of the misogynistic perception that women are ‘objects’, especially sexual objects”, Silvia Casalino, co-director of the EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community, told AFP.

10% of lesbian victims of rape

“There is also the belief that women who do not have sex with men are ‘sick’, ‘abnormal’ and need to be ‘corrected’,” she added.

In her eyes, the Court of Appeal’s decision, which could be a first in Europe according to information from her activist network, “is very important and sends a clear signal to European states that are currently discussing the introduction of measures to prevent hate crimes against LGBTI people”.

In her view, the decision of the Court of Appeal, which could be a first in Europe according to information from his activist network, “is very important and sends a clear signal to European states that are currently discussing the introduction of measures to prevent hate crimes against LGBTI persons”.

By Manon Fontaine for the EL*C

The day before Lesbian Visibility Day 26 April marked the success of a spectacular Dyke March in the French capital, Paris.

41 years after the first French lesbian march, the organisers of Lesbian Collages successfully brought together 10,000 lesbians in the streets of Paris to support the right to Assisted reproductive technology (“ART”) for all. The aim of this demonstration was to make legal demands to the French state, but also to make the lesbian community visible on the model of the Dyke Marches that have been held all around the world for decades.

Demands of the organisers and participants
This year, the main demand of the march was for an IVF law for all that really corresponds to the needs of the LGBTI community. As is often the case, lesbians spearheaded a cause that concerns all members of the community, highlighting notably the transphobic and racist provisions of the LREM bill that was finally rejected by the Senate in February 2021.

Thus, lesbians have expressed their requirements for the future law in various communiqués, speeches and slogans. According to them, a satisfying law would include: anonymous ART by default, free and reimbursed for all, without conditions; to be able to give one’s ovocytes to one’s partner (sharing the IVF (in vitro fertilisation) procedure between the two mothers, as in Belgium); have the right to refuse the match (there is currently a necessity to have a donor with physical characteristics close to the applicants); an appropriate communication effort on gamete donation by public health actors to fill the current gap for people of colour.

Firstly, the demonstrators are calling for the abolition of the heteronormative regime and associated privileges by demanding equal conditions in accessing ART and the right to found a family. Marlène Ducasse, who is member of Lesbian Collages and organiser of the march, shared the difference in treatment between heterosexual and lesbian couples in the light of the draft law:

“For example, the current bill includes that lesbian couples who want to have their child recognised will have to go through a notary and therefore pay, which straight couples do not do today when they have access to ART.”

Indeed, ART in France has been legal and free for heterosexual couples since 1994. With this demonstration, lesbians want to point out the legal discriminations / barriers between lesbians and heterosexuals, but also the social and cultural impacts that these have on their lives and families.

Lesbians have always been able to have children despite unequal laws, but the important thing is also to change mentalities about parenthood and lesbian families. Thus, lesbian mothers who have had to use indirect means such as going abroad to benefit from ART express the discomfort they feel in France because of the illegality of these practices.

Lisa, a lesbian activist and mom of a 2 and a half year old son born through ART, explains the double legal and social difficulty of the process she had to go through. She explains that she had to travel to Belgium to access ART, where it is legal for same-sex couples since 2007. “We were quite lucky because it worked the first time. We spent 1,000 euros in total, the costs increase especially when you have to go back several times, and go for IVF”.

Like Lisa, 2.400 French women every year are reported to have undergone ART abroad in Spain and Belgium only, according to a survey conducted by the media outlet La Croix in January 2020. However, the costs can quickly rise to around 10,000 euros. France, which is a country well-known for its social security provisions, could provide this medical procedure for free to 3,000 to 7,000 additional requests if the law was extended to single women and lesbian couples.

Furthermore, legalizing ART for all could also prevent numerous other difficulties that deeply affect numerous maternity projects in France from happening. Indeed, many legal obstacles stand in the way of these women, whether they choose to undergo ART abroad or to circumvent the law in France through risky and expensive procedures.

However, Silvia Casalino, the co-founder and co-director of the Eurocentralasian Lesbian Community (EL*C), explains that the fight for ART for all is far from having only a legal scope. She compares the fight for ART to the fight for marriage for all which took place in France in 2012:

“By entering the fight head on, it gives gays, lesbians and trans people a lot of visibility, at a time when trans issues were not discussed at all, for example. I think that politically the ART is a bit the same thing: even if you’re not personally interested in having children, it’s a political instrument, an extremely important political revelator that it’s interesting to use to unlock other things.”

Making lesbians visible, a necessity
Indeed, lesbian mobilizations around subjects like ART also allow the community to draw attention to its existence and specificities. The repertoire of actions currently used in France is varied and visible, ranging from collages to lesbian marches, while lesbians are also managing to gain visibility in the media thanks to lesbian celebrities such as Alice Coffin or Adèle Haenel. The strategy of visible lesbians is thus deployed in both the cultural and activist fields.

According to Silvia Casalino, visibility in the media is one of the major issues for lesbians today. Indeed, the stake of occupying media space is a major one, and opponents like “La Manif pour Tous” have understood this. It is particularly vital for lesbians to fight back, especially in a context where lesbian activists are not taken seriously:

“In France, journalists consider activists to be biased, so they are not interviewed as experts or taken into consideration: they are automatically discredited.” This way, appearing prominently in the media through events such as the Dyke March is essential to bring about both legal and societal changes, having a direct impact on public opinion.

The legacy of the second wave feminists and the Dyke Marches
To gain visibility, lesbians have realised that they need to rely on media-friendly and highly visual actions, as shown by the development of lesbian collages since December 2020. They use them in part to raise awareness and express themselves on issues like ART with slogans insisting on the fact that they do not need a father figure to raise children.

Furthermore, many actions and claims used in the lesbian struggle are deeply rooted in the legacy of second-wave feminists, who are notably at the origin of the first lesbian march in France, organised in June 1980 by the lesbians of Jussieu. Indeed, Marlène (member of Lesbian Collages) describes their impact on the current movement:

“It’s a bit of folklore because the contexts are completely different, but we reused a lot of visuals and we said publicly that it gave us the inspiration to do a specifically lesbian march. If the 1980’s march hadn’t happened I don’t know if we would have come up with the idea so easily.”

The idea of these feminists, who were mostly lesbians, also inspired many of the slogans sung or written on placards at this last Dyke March. Thus, many slogans such as “adopt an ethical lifestyle with political homosexuality” or “feminism is theory, lesbianism is practice” explicitly refer to the pioneers of political lesbian activism.

At the same time, it was this type of slogan in particular that provoked the strongest reactions from lesbophobes, both after the images of the march were broadcasted in the media and during the organisation of the march. In both cases, the organisers and lesbians in general were indeed victims of cyberharassment.

In the context of the organisation of the march, Marlène says that it was mainly the organisation of non-mixed processions that angered internet users, sometimes even within the LGBTI community:

“The day after the march was announced, messages began to appear accusing us of transphobia and biphobia. […] There is a lot of progress to be made in the way lesbian organising is perceived: it is enough to say that we are organising, that we are lesbians and that we want to do a march for people to come and resent us with a lot of contempt.”

These criticisms have also been taken up by French cultural figures such as Raphaël Enthoven, or far-right websites such as Fdesouche (1), according to Marlène. This particularly affected French activists, including after the march and the posting of photos on Twitter: for example, the lesbian political figure Alice Coffin was forced to deactivate her account to escape cyberbullying, revealing once again the unconcealed lesbophobic atmosphere in France.

Nevertheless, in general, the lesbian march on 25 April seems to augur well for lesbian mobilisation in France. Marlène is pleased with its success and is already thinking about its long-term role:
“For me, this march is a victory in the sense that we expected to be 500 people and in the end […] we succeeded in making numbers and in bringing together 8,000 people in the streets of Paris outside Pride on issues specific to the lesbian community.

This march showed us that lesbians are capable of organising and mobilising: it’s an open door. We must take inspiration from this march to continue to organise new actions for the lesbian community.”

(1) https://twitter.com/Enthoven_R/status/1386542827316957184?s=07

By Manon Fontaine for the EL*C

The day before Lesbian Visibility Day 26 April marked the success of a spectacular Dyke March in the French capital, Paris.