Lesbian Visibility Week: the Glasgow Lesbian Avengers
It’s Lesbian Visibility Week, an annual observance to recognise and celebrate lesbian women and non-binary people. Lesbians have always been a part of history and continue to shape modern society, yet their contributions are often overlooked or erased.
Lesbian Visibility Week offers us an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate these contributions, ensuring that lesbians are recognised and included in our shared history moving forward.
In this article, our volunteer Ben uncovers the work of The Lesbian Avengers, a group dedicated to raising awareness and visibility of lesbian issues. The Lesbian Avengers spread worldwide, and with the help from the Lesbian Archive at Glasgow Women’s Library, Ben highlights the actions of the Glasgow chapter.
The Lesbian Avengers
The Lesbian Avengers began in New York City in 1992. They were a direct-action group created to address and create visibility for lesbian issues.
One of the original founders, Ana Simo, expressed her frustration surrounding lesbian invisibility. This inspired the beginnings of the group alongside five other lesbian activists (Sarah Schulman, Maxine Wolfe, Anne-Christine d’Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire).
The Avengers opted for original and impactful forms of activism that would attract media attention and new members. This included the use of fire and fire eating documented in the film “The Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too” (released in 1993) which followed their first year. The Lesbian Avengers then spread to other parts of the USA.
They expanded worldwide to Canada, Scotland, Ireland, France and Australia. During its peak, there were over sixty separate groups worldwide, all with the same shared goal.
The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers
The Glasgow Chapter of the Lesbian Avengers was founded by the Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL), where their first meeting took place in the mid-1990s.
The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers were active in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights across Scotland. They marched down Princes Street in Edinburgh during the first large-scale Pride March in 1995.
The group shared information that highlighted examples of lesbophobia and homophobia, and organised demonstrations, protests, leafleting campaigns and member recruitment to support the cause.
The Lesbian Avengers also took steps to protect their members during demonstrations by providing information. An example held in the GWL archive is a flyer that they handed out during demonstrations advising protesters how to respond if they were arrested.
Protesting Section 28
A major campaign documented in the Lesbian Archive was the protest against Section 28 in Glasgow.
The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers stood against Section 28 and the banning of lesbian and gay material. On a flyer they quoted the Mitchell Library founder, Stephen Mitchell’s, intentions to “represent every phase of human thought and every variety of opinion”. Banning gay and lesbian material was in direct opposition to this.
They protested outside the Mitchell Library after the decision to ban the Pink Paper (a Lesbian and Gay newspaper) in all of Glasgow’s libraries because of Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988).
Standing against sexism
The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers also stood against sexism, promoting women’s rights and equality.
A key example found in the GWL archives are the ‘We Object’ posters. These were fly posted over sexist adverts for the Voodoo Room obscuring the crude posters. An archived article from the Evening Times, covering the Lesbian Avengers actions, was titled “I say stick your sexist posters!”.
Preserving and celebrating lesbian history
The work of the Glasgow Lesbian Avengers, preserved in the Glasgow Women’s Library’s Lesbian Archive, reminds us of the power of grassroots activism and the importance of visibility. Their bold actions—whether protesting Section 28 or flyposting over sexist advertising—makes space for lesbian voices in Scotland’s cultural and political landscape.
Glasgow Women’s Library is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the histories and contributions of all women in Scotland. Their Lesbian Archive is an invaluable resource documenting the stories too often left out of mainstream history.
Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh is also a space dedicated to preserving the history of our community through publishing and queer literature, including works by lesbian authors.
Let this week serve not just as a celebration but a reminder of how important preserving our history is to building visibility. By remembering and amplifying lesbian voices—past and present—we create a future where all identities can be seen, heard, and valued.