By Tim Lambert
Lesbianism has always existed, of course, but less was written about lesbians than about gay men. In the Ancient World, lesbianism was seldom written about. Sappho was a Greek poet who lived about 600 BC. She likely was a lesbian. Unfortunately, little is known about her and little of her work survives. Much later in history the word lesbian was coined because Sappho came from the island of Lesbos. The word sapphic comes from her name.
Little was written about lesbians in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Church considered it a sin, but gay women were, obviously, likely to be discreet. Lesbianism was regarded as sinful and shameful. Nevertheless, lesbianism was tolerated more than male homosexuality.
Lesbianism has never been illegal in England. There is a persistent myth that an act was passed in 1885 outlawing both male homosexuality and lesbianism, but when the act went to receive the royal assent, Queen Victoria redacted the parts about lesbianism because she refused to believe it existed. In reality, an MP added an amendment to an existing act. It outlawed male homosexuality but said nothing about lesbianism.
In the 19th century, women sometimes lived together. It was acceptable for women to have ‘close friendships’. No doubt, some were romantic relationships. Two women living together were called Boston Marriages.
One famous lesbian of the 19th century was Anne Lister (1791-1840). She was a landowner who recorded her lesbian affairs in diaries. She is sometimes called the first modern lesbian. Several prominent women who lived in the 19th century may have been lesbians. Susan B. Anthony likely was a lesbian.
Lesbianism has never been illegal in England. In 1921, the House of Commons passed a bill to make lesbianism illegal. However, it was rejected by the House of Lords, and it never became law. Lesbianism was by no means acceptable, but gay women were treated much less harshly than gay men.
On 16 November 1928, a court in Britain decided that a lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness, was obscene. It was banned, and it remained banned in Britain until 1959. Although lesbianism has never been illegal in Britain, some books about it were once banned for obscenity. Nevertheless, in the USA and Britain, lesbian pulp fiction about lesbians was common in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1926, Edouard Bourdet wrote a play about lesbians called The Captive. The play was performed on Broadway in New York. However, the authorities eventually banned the play.
In Germany, a law was passed against male homosexuality in 1871. There was no specific law against lesbianism. During the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), lesbians had many meeting places in German cities. In Nazi Germany (1933-1945). lesbians were not persecuted to the same extent as gay men. However the Nazis closed lesbian meeting places.
The first lesbian bars opened in the 1920s. In Paris, there was a famous lesbian bar called Le Monocle. In the USA, the first lesbian bar was opened by a Polish woman, Eva Kotchever, in 1926. However, the authorities raided the bar and closed it in 1927. Nevertheless, there were many lesbian bars in the USA by the 1950s.
Lesbianism became more acceptable in the Western World in the late 20th century. In the USA, the Daughters of Bilitis was formed in 1955 to campaign for lesbian civil rights. In the 1950s, there were many lesbian bars where women could meet.
The first film to show a lesbian kiss was Morocco, made in 1930, starring Marlene Dietrich. The famous lesbian film The Killing of Sister George was made in 1968.
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality (including lesbianism) from its list of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Attitudes to lesbianism gradually changed.
In Britain, Maureen Colquhoun was elected an MP in 1974. She was the first openly lesbian MP, but she faced a great deal of criticism for it. In the USA, the first openly lesbian member of Congress was Tammy Baldwin. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998.
In Britain in 1974, the first lesbian kiss shown on TV was broadcast by BBC 2. In the USA, the first lesbian kiss on TV was broadcast in 1991.
The first (legal) lesbian marriage took place in the Netherlands in 2001. In the USA, the first lesbian marriage took place in Massachusetts in 2004.
