Lesbian feminists with a banner "I love, I trust, I value Myself: Stop Sexual Violence Against Women". Belgrade.
I came out as a lesbian in the feminist encounters at the end of the eighties in Yugoslavia, a country which later dissolved through the nine years of war (1991-1999). At that time, some of us were passionate about ending patriarchy here-and-now and the first thing we started was to create women-only groups to empower women to get out of male violence. In Belgrade, we formed a feminist SOS Helpline for women and children survivors of violence in 1990, and we quickly realised that more than half of us were lesbians. There are similar stories from many places - Glasgow, Berlin, Bologna, Montreal….
Lesbians have been at the heart of the movement against men’s violence in many spaces across the world. From 1972, when the first Rape Crisis Centre was formed in Washington DC, lesbians were among the feminists who founded rape crisis centres and shelters for abused women in Europe, Latin America, US, Canada and Australia. I want to highlight this fact - that lesbians were and are engaged in the field of challenging men’s violence – but I also want to understand why this is important for lesbians themselves and for women dealing with legacies of violence.
