Social:Discrimination against lesbians

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Short description: Irrational fear of, and aversion to, lesbians
Soweto Pride 2012 participants remember lesbians raped and murdered in 2007.

Template:Lesbian feminism sidebar Discrimination against lesbians, sometimes called lesbophobia or lesphobia, comprises various forms of prejudice and negativity towards lesbians as individuals, as couples, as a group, or lesbianism in general.

Examples of discrimination against lesbians include, but are not limited to, discrimination in housing and employment, physical or sexual abuse including corrective rape, lack of legal protections for lesbian couples to care for one another, removal of children from lesbian mothers, negative stereotypes and negative media representation, verbal harassment, legal persecution and imprisonment, government censorship, and familial and/or community rejection.

Lesbophobia is analogous to gayphobia.

Terminology

The first usage of the term lesbophobia listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is in The Erotic Life of the American Wife (1972), a book by Harper's Bazaar editor Natalie Gittelson.[1][2] While some people use only the more general term homophobia to describe this sort of prejudice or behavior, others believe that the terms homosexual and homophobia do not adequately reflect the specific concerns of lesbians, because they experience the double discrimination of both homophobia and sexism.[3][4]

Extent

Anti-lesbian violence

Lesbophobia is sometimes demonstrated through crimes of violence, including physical assault, sexual assault, corrective rape and murder.

Africa

In the late 2000s, men murdered and raped several lesbians in South Africa.[5][6] The victims included Sizakele Sigasa (a lesbian activist living in Soweto) and her partner Salome Masooa, who were raped, tortured, and murdered in an attack that South African lesbian-gay rights organizations, including the umbrella-group Joint Working Group, said were driven by lesbophobia.[7][8] In the Gauteng township of KwaThema, soccer player Eudy Simelane was gang-raped, beaten and stabbed to death, and LGBTQ activist Noxolo Nogwaza was raped and stoned before being stabbed to death.[9][10] Zanele Muholi, community relations director of a lesbian rights group, reports having recorded 50 rape cases over the past decade involving black lesbians in townships, stating: "The problem is largely that of patriarchy. The men who perpetrate such crimes see rape as curative and as an attempt to show women their place in society."[8][11][12] Corrective rape is an ongoing social problem in South Africa.[13][14][15]

Americas

In 1995, lesbian couple and gay rights activists Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill were murdered in Oregon. Their killer stated that their being lesbians made it easier to kill them. He also murdered a bisexual man for making a pass at him.[16]

Europe

In its 2019 annual report, France's SOS Homophobie found that anti-lesbian violence increased 42 percent in France in 2018, with 365 attacks reported.[17][18][19]

As of 2024, 1 in 5 countries worldwide criminalize private, consensual intimate activity between adult women. The penalties and effects of criminalization include arrest and detention, physical and sexual violence from other individuals or government actors, coerced marriage, and separation of mothers from their children, among many other consequences.[20]

Negative reactions from family

LGBTQ youth are disproportionately likely to end up homeless.[21][22] More than half of these youth were homeless due to significant conflicts with family members over their sexual orientation or identity.[22][21]

Negative media representations

"Lesbian" ranks among some of the most popular search terms on popular pornography sites.[23] Pornography often portrays inaccurate, fetishistic caricatures of lesbians. Common porn storylines include men "fixing" lesbians or lesbians hitting on straight women, perpetuating the stereotypes that lesbianism is something to be "fixed", that female sexuality is not to be taken seriously, and that lesbians are predatory.[24]

Lesbian erasure

Lesbian erasure refers to the process of ignoring, discarding, or purposefully writing out the history and struggles of lesbians.[25] This term can refer to writing lesbians out from history, such as writing out Stormé DeLarverie from starting the Stonewall riots.[26]

Anti-lesbian beliefs and stereotypes

The idea that lesbians are dangerous—while heterosexual interactions are natural, normal, and spontaneous—is a common example of beliefs which are lesbophobic. Like homophobia, this belief is classed as heteronormative, as it assumes that heterosexuality is dominant, presumed, and normal, and that other sexual or relationship arrangements are abnormal and unnatural.[27] Lesbians encounter lesbophobic attitudes not only in straight men and women, but also gay men.[28] Lesbophobia in gay men is regarded as manifest in the perceived subordination of lesbian issues in the campaign for gay rights.[29]

Lesbians have been stereotyped in often contradictory ways. Kim Emery, in discussing lesbians in the United States during the late-19th century, says:

It is a truism […] that lesbian existence is inflected and afflicted by apparently incompatible social stereotypes. Lesbians are assumed to be both men in women's bodies and women marked as masculine by physical anomaly. Lesbians are accused of hating men and of wanting to be men, of being both sexually predatory and essentially asexual [sic], of committing unspeakable sexual acts and of lacking the endowments necessary to perform any [sexual acts].[30]

A stereotype that has been identified as lesbophobic is that female athletes are always or predominantly lesbians.[31][32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ lesbophobia (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, September 2005, http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=lesbophobia  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ↑ Ogden, Annegret S. (1986). The Great American Housewife: From Helpmate to Wage Earner, 1776–1986. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 206. ISBN 0-313-24752-8. 
  3. ↑ "What is "Lesbophobia"?". ILGA. 18 December 2006. http://www.ilga.org/news_results.asp?LanguageID=1&FileCategory=1&FileID=997. 
  4. ↑ Czyzselska, Jane (9 July 2013). "Lesbophobia is homophobia with a side-order of sexism". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/09/lesbophobia-homophobia-side-order-sexism. 
  5. ↑ "Lesbian killers in South Africa get 18-year jail terms". BBC News. 1 February 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16835653. 
  6. ↑ Pithouse, Richard (29 March 2011). "Only Protected on Paper". http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/644.1. 
  7. ↑ Ndaba, Baldwin (July 13, 2007). "'Hate crime' against lesbians slated". http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/hate-crime-against-lesbians-slated-1.361821. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bridgland, Fred (14 July 2007). "Lesbian couple killed in execution-style murder: Hate crimes increase despite equal rights law". Sunday Herald. http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1546316.0.0.php. 
  9. ↑ Kelly, Annie. "Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa. 
  10. ↑ "South Africa killing of lesbian Nogwaza 'a hate crime'". BBC News. 3 May 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13265300. 
  11. ↑ Cogswell, Kelly Jean (26 July 2007). "Cut It Off – And Stop AIDS". Gay City News. http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18630253&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=585504&rfi=6. 
  12. ↑ "S. Africa gangs using rape to 'cure' lesbians". NBC News. 13 March 2009. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29676829. 
  13. ↑ Fihlani, Pumza (30 June 2011). "South Africa's lesbians fear 'corrective rape'". BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13908662. 
  14. ↑ Koraan, Rene; Geduld, Allison. ""Corrective rape" of lesbians in the era of transformative constitutionalism in South Africa". Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal (Pelj) 18 (5): 1931–1952. doi:10.4314/pelj.v18i5.23. https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-37812015000500024. Retrieved 19 July 2025. 
  15. ↑ Gaitho, Waruguru. "Curing Corrective Rape Socio-Legal Perspectives on Sexual Curing Corrective Rape SocioLegal Perspectives on Sexual Violence Against Black Lesbians in South Africa". William and Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1573&context=wmjowl. 
  16. ↑ Sams, Jim (August 21, 1996). "Acremant: Hatred of lesbians, gay men prompted slayings". The Record. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19960821/A_NEWS/308219965. 
  17. ↑ "Rapport sur l'homophobie 2019 : 2018, une année noire pour les personnes LGBT" (in fr). 14 May 2019. https://www.sos-homophobie.org/article/rapport-sur-l-homophobie-2019-2018-une-annee-noire-pour-les-personnes-lgbt. 
  18. ↑ "Insultes, coups de poing, interdiction d'entrer : des lesbiennes racontent les agressions qu'elles ont subies" (in fr). 14 May 2019. https://www.franceinter.fr/societe/insultes-coups-de-poing-interdiction-d-entrer-des-lesbiennes-racontent-les-agressions-qu-elles-ont-subi?xtmc=lesbophobes&xtnp=1&xtcr=2. 
  19. ↑ Wilkins, Anna (August 13, 2019). "Anti-Lesbian Hate Crimes Are On The Rise". https://www.gentside.co.uk/news/anti-lesbian-hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise_art3568.html. 
  20. ↑ BREAKING THE SILENCE: THE CRIMINALISATION OF LESBIANS AND BISEXUAL WOMEN AND ITS IMPACTS: 2nd edition. 24 September 2024. ISBN 978-1-7397871-2-7. https://www.humandignitytrust.org/wp-content/uploads/resources/Breaking-The-Silence.pdf. Retrieved 19 July 2025. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "Barriers in Access for Youth Experiencing Homelessness who Identify as LGBTQ+". https://bridgeforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/BFY-LGBTQ-Homelessness.pdf. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Heinze, JL. "Fact Sheet on Injustice in the LGBTQ community". National Sexual Violence Resource Center. https://www.nsvrc.org/blogs/fact-sheet-injustice-lgbtq-community. 
  23. ↑ "2024 Year in Review". December 5, 2024. https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2024-year-in-review#top-searches-pornstars. 
  24. ↑ "How Porn Can Misrepresent and Fetishize LGBTQ+ Individuals and Relationships". 13 October 2024. https://fightthenewdrug.org/porn-can-misrepresent-and-fetishize-lgbtq-individuals-and-relationships/. 
  25. ↑ Morris, Bonnie J. (December 22, 2016). "Dyke Culture and the Disappearing L". Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/22/disappearing_lesbians_and_the_need_to_preserve_dyke_culture.html. Retrieved 20 March 2024. 
  26. ↑ Fleming, Pippa (3 July 2018). "The gender-identity movement undermines lesbians". The Economist. https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/03/the-gender-identity-movement-undermines-lesbians. 
  27. ↑ Jillian Todd Weiss, "The Gender Caste System – Identity, Privacy, and Heteronormativity" 10 Law & Sexuality 123 (Tulane Law School, 2001)
  28. ↑ Megan Radclyffe, Lesbophobia!: Gay Men and Misogyny (Continuum, October 2005)
  29. ↑ Raizada, Kristen (2007). "An Interview with the Guerrilla Girls, Dyke Action Machine (DAM!), and the Toxic Titties". NWSA Journal 19 (1): 39–58. doi:10.2979/NWS.2007.19.1.39. ISSN 1040-0656. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4317230. 
  30. ↑ Emery, Kim (1994). "Steers, Queers, and Manifest Destiny: Representing the Lesbian Subject in Turn-of-the-Century Texas". Journal of the History of Sexuality 5 (1): 26–57. ISSN 1043-4070. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3704079. 
  31. ↑ Peper, Karen (1994). "Female athlete=Lesbian: a complex myth constructed from gender role expectations and lesbiphobia". Queer words, queer images: communications and the construction of homosexuality. New York University Press. pp. 193–208. 
  32. ↑ Darcy Plymire and Pamela Forman, "Breaking the Silence: Lesbian Fans, the Internet, and the Sexual Politics of Women's Sport", International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, pages 1566–1768 (Springer Netherlands, April 2000)

Further reading

News, magazine, website
Books
Academia
  • Dopler, Tania Sharp (1 December 1996). Lesbophobia in Feminist Organizations: An Examination of the Effect of Organizational Structure and Sociopolitical Context on the Expression of Lesbophobia (PDF) (Thesis). Carleton University.
  • Forbes, Susan L.; Stevens, Diane E.; Lathrop, Anna H. (2002). "A Pervasive Silence: Lesbophobia and Team Cohesion in Sport". Canadian Woman Studies (Inanna Publications) 21 (3): 32–35. ISSN 0713-3235. OCLC 09951504. https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/6617/5805. 
  • HaleyNelson, Chelsea (2005). "Sexualized Violence Against Lesbians". Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 17 (2–3): 163–80. doi:10.1080/14631370500332882. ISSN 1040-2659. 
  • Judge, Melanie (November 2015). Violence against lesbians and (IM) possibilities for identity and politics (PDF) (PhD). University of the Western Cape.
  • Peel, Elizabeth (1999). "I. Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men: Decision- Making in Reporting and Not Reporting Crime". Feminism & Psychology 9 (2): 161–167. doi:10.1177/0959353599009002008. ISSN 0959-3535. 
  • Waite, Helen (October 2015). "Old lesbians: Gendered histories and persistent challenges". Australasian Journal on Ageing (Wiley) 34 (S2): 8–13. doi:10.1111/ajag.12272. ISSN 1741-6612. PMID 26525439. 

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