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Lesbian erasure is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of lesbianism in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. Lesbians may also be ignored within the LGBT community and their identity may not be acknowledged.

In history

Journalist and author Victoria A. Brownworth wrote that the erasure of lesbian sexuality from historical records "is similar to the erasure of all autonomous female sexuality: women's sexual desire has always been viewed, discussed and portrayed within the construct and purview of the male gaze". Oftentimes, erasure of lesbians is enabled when LGBT organizations fail to recognize the contributions of lesbians; such as when, in 2018, a statement by the National Center for Lesbian Rights about the Stonewall riots did not acknowledge Stormé DeLarverie's involvement in the uprising.

In scholarship

Political theory researcher Anna Marie Smith stated that lesbianism has been erased from the "official discourse" in Britain because lesbians are viewed as "responsible homosexuals" in a dichotomy between "responsible homosexuals" and "dangerous gayness." As a result, lesbian sexual practices were not criminalized in Britain in ways similar to the criminalization of gay male sexual activities. Smith also points to the exclusion of women from AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smith believes that these erasures result from sexism and suggests that these issues should be addressed directly by lesbian activism.

In advertising

Marcie Bianco, of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, observed that lesbian erasure occurs in advertising: advertisers do not target lesbians when they are publicizing products to LGBT audiences. As an example, she points to the collapse of AfterEllen, which she says resulted from a lack of advertisers. The former Editor in Chief of AfterEllen, Karman Kregloe, stated that advertisers do not think of lesbians as women, and Trish Bendix observed that lesbians are assumed to like anything gay, even if it is male-focused.

In the LGBT community

Language and lesbian spaces

Author and women's history scholar Bonnie J. Morris, as well as many other lesbian activists, such as same-sex marriage groundbreaker Robin Tyler, Ashley Obinwanne, screenwriter and co-founder of platform Lesbians Over Everything, and AfterEllen owner and Editor in Chief Memoree Joelle, say the increased use of the amorphous term queer to describe lesbians is a "disidentification" term that contributes to lesbian invisibility. In an interview about her 2016 novel Beyond the Screen Door, author Julia Diana Robertson discovered that her self-identification as a lesbian and her description of the novel's genre was changed to queer and queerness in the published quotes. At the 2018 Brighton Pride parade, the only instance where the word lesbian appeared was on a banner celebrating Stormé DeLarverie.

With regard to the term lesbian, Shannon Keating of BuzzFeed, pointed to significantly more people, especially the younger generation, identifying "outside the assigned-gender binary", "that trans men and women are joined by those who identify as genderqueer, agender, non-binary, genderfluid — to name only a few", and that "against the increasingly colorful backdrop of gender diversity, a binary label like 'gay' or 'lesbian' starts to feel somewhat stale and stodgy." Keating also addressed some queer-identified women feeling more comfortable with the word queer than lesbian because of ideas about gender essentialism, there now being more LGBT diversity, and the possibility of internalized homophobia. Keating stated that "the word 'lesbian' has carried such a deeply uncool connotation for so long — sometimes for terrible reasons (ugly, old-fashioned, essentialist stereotypes) and sometimes for extremely legitimate ones (a history of transmisogyny) — that's it's worth considering if making the term cool is something we should really want at all."

Several feminist lesbian activists have lamented the rapidly increasing disappearance of many physical spaces, such as lesbian bars, women's bookstores, and music festivals, that were alternative lesbian spaces in which lesbian subculture thrived. Alexis Clements of Curve magazine stated, "There aren't clear-cut or easy answers to the question of why so many spaces are changing or closing." She said that "part of it is definitely economic" and part of it "relates to political changes." She pondered, "As legislation gradually shifts to reduce LGBT discrimination around things like marriage or employment, it may be that many now feel more integrated into the larger culture and don't see as much need for separate space or political activism." She also questioned if the change is generational, as "there's been a shift toward queer identities and politics that are born of a belief that gender and sexuality operate on a spectrum that doesn't necessarily fit into male/female or straight/gay/bi paradigms" while "others, still, prefer and believe in the need to create spaces that are more inclusive.

Keating, while acknowledging that "pieces of gay male culture have found their way into the mainstream in a way lesbianism simply hasn't" and that "gay male spaces, from bars to entire city neighborhoods, have managed to maintain some modern relevance, while lesbian bars and bookstores have shuttered en masse across the country", argued that the disappearance of lesbian bars "and spaces across the country have gone out of business for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with trans inclusion." Keating said "other places are still here, and still going strong — oftentimes just under a different, broader, more inclusive name. The same goes for lesbian events. That's not necessarily erasure: That's evolution." Keating added, "If anything, embracing gender diversity and welcoming queer people of all stripes have kept certain historically lesbian-only events and spaces alive, and allowed new ones to grow."

In relation to transgender women

Media sources have reported on lesbian activists being excluded from LGBT events over transgender issues; for example, New Zealand group Lesbian Rights Alliance Aotearoa was banned from Wellington Pride because it was "'not being inclusive enough' of trans people". At Vancouver, Canada's Dyke March, the group The Lesbians Collective was told to exclude lesbian pride placards and symbols which march organizers said were exclusionary of trans women. Such disputes have also occurred in the United States and in LGBT communities across the United Kingdom. Gina Davidson of The Scotsman stated, "At its heart is the focus on trans rights by LGBT organisations, and resultant philosophical and biological questions around what defines a woman, and its impact on sexual orientation and therefore lesbianism." She commented, "Is lesbianism a sexual attraction only to female bodies or is it attraction to feminine identity? Can it involve trans women who still have male bodies?" Some lesbian women feel that trans women who identify as lesbians erase what it means to be a lesbian, while other lesbians disagree.

The term lesbian erasure has been used by some trans exclusionary radical feminists, such as members of the United Kingdom organization Get the L Out, which has a focus on trans women. The group, which proposes the creation of an autonomous lesbian community, argues that lesbians are "constantly vilified and excluded from the GBT community for stating their exclusive sexual preference", that the expansion of transgender rights erases lesbians, that transgender activism encourages lesbians to transition to straight men, and that the GBT community is becoming increasingly anti-lesbian and misogynistic. A spokesperson for Get the L Out said they were concerned about the rights of trans women who identify as lesbians being supported over the rights of lesbians to choose their sexual partners. The group staged its first protest at the 2018 London Pride Parade and was condemned as transphobic or "anti-trans" by the organizers of Pride in London. PinkNews and The Guardian denounced the protesters. Sarah Ditum of the New Statesman quoted the protesters and their material: "The group...carried banners proclaiming 'lesbian not queer', 'lesbian = female homosexual' and 'transactivism erases lesbians'."

Applying the terms transphobic, bigot or other negative terminology to lesbians who do not consider trans women, including those who have not gotten sex reassignment surgery, as sexual partners has also been addressed as a form of lesbian erasure or conversion therapy. A situation in which a lesbian declines to date a trans woman may be referred to as "the cotton ceiling" (the difficulty transgender women or other transgender people face when seeking a romantic or sexual relationship with a cisgender lesbian or gay person). Terry MacDonald of the New Statesman stated that the term cotton ceiling "smacks of misogyny and male entitlement" and that "it isn't just radical feminists who find this problematic: some trans women do too. Is that really just irrational bigotry?"

Ditum stated that the sexual attraction debate matters so much to lesbians because they "have consistently faced everything from mockery to violence for insisting on boundaries to their sexuality" and that some have experienced corrective rape. Feminist theorist Claire Heuchan said that "lesbian is again a contested category" and "even acknowledging lesbian visibility is described as 'dogwhistle transphobia'. Something within the LGBT community has gone seriously wrong when being for lesbians is interpreted as being against people identifying as transgender...lesbophobia isn't coming from social conservatism as it has in the past, but within the LGBT+ community." African-American lesbian performance artist and writer Pippa Fleming, writing in The Economist, stated, "Lesbian identity is now being dubbed as exclusionary or transphobic. You're damn right it's exclusive: lesbians have a right to say no to the phallus, no matter how it's concealed or revealed." She added that "patriarchy and sex-based oppression are real, and they remain the driving force behind the invisibility of black lesbians. The gender-identity movement's attempt to rebrand the lesbian as queer, and the pronouncement that 'anyone can be a lesbian', are nothing short of erasure."

Some LGBT activists have opposed the term lesbian erasure in relation to transgender activism. In a 2018 open letter opposing this use of the term, twelve editors and publishers of eight lesbian publications stated, "We do not think supporting trans women erases our lesbian identities; rather we are enriched by trans friends and lovers, parents, children, colleagues and siblings." Carrie Lyell, editor of DIVA magazine and creator of the letter, stated that "while there's no denying women are marginalised within the LGBT+ movement, this having anything to do with trans people, or trans issues, is news to me." She referred to the argument that trans women are pressuring lesbians to "accept them as sexual partners" as "scaremongering".

Speaking on the term cotton ceiling and lesbians dating trans women, Cassie Brighter of Curve magazine stated, "The point of such discussion is not, EVER, to exhort anyone to have grudging sex without enthusiastic consent. The point of such discussion is to exhort folks to examine their inherent bigotry." She said, "We change, we grow, we learn through familiarity and exposure. We can challenge and re-examine our prejudices and fixed ideas." Shannon Keating of BuzzFeed argued that "though lesbians are by no means under attack by gains in trans acceptance, it's true that American attitudes about gender identity are evolving, which has started to impact the way many of us think about sexual orientation."

In relation to butch lesbians and transgender men

With regard to the topic of trans men transitioning, some lesbians or authors argue that transsexuality or transgender activism erases butch lesbians by making them feel that they should be men due to their gender nonconformity, opining that older lesbians who figured out their identity would have also felt that they should have been men growing up in today's culture. They note a number of lesbians having been tomboys or having experienced gender dysphoria as a child. Some transitioned and detransitioned. Tristan Fox of AfterEllen stated that today's transgender movement pushes "young lesbians into believing they are male and amputating their healthy breasts and taking cross-hormones—every butch knows what they are seeing. It's like looking into a mirror and recalling all of the angst, hatred, parental and peer rejection all over again."

Author Shannon Gilreath, commenting on "transsexuality as gay erasure", stated, "I have often wondered how much of transsexualism can be explained by an appalling self-hatred, an overwhelming need to not be gay - in other words, a self-liquidating homophobia. From this perspective, transsexualism is a way of avoiding being a femme gay man or a butch lesbian. Instead a femme gay man can actually be a 'straight woman' and a butch lesbian can actually be a 'straight man." He said that while he is aware of trans women who have undergone sex reassignment therapy and trans men who identify as gay, for his "theory on transsexuality to make sense at this point, one must pause to remember the importance of the gendered body and its relationship to compulsory heterosexuality under patriarchy/heteroarchy as 'a direct locus of social control.'"

Katie Herzog of The Stranger stated, "There is a contingent of 'radical feminists' ('radfems' in internet parlance) who use to argue that transitioning is a patriarchal attempt to reinforce gender roles and erase butch women." She stated that "no one knows exactly why so many people seem to have recently come out as trans or some other form of genderqueer", but that "increased visibility and societal acceptance" are "logical explanations for the perceived growth in the trans population." She reported on writer and trans activist Julia Serano arguing that it is "due to the shift from the old gatekeeper system of trans health care to the newer model that 'takes trans people's experiences and concerns seriously.'"

Arguing that "the idea that trans men are 'lesbians in denial' is demeaning and wrong", trans author Charlie Kiss, writing in The Economist, and stating that he "could not have tried harder or longer to be a true lesbian" but that it never felt right, also attributed the reported increase in the number of people assigned female questioning their gender identity or identifying as boys or men to an increase in visibility and it being "much harder to present as female and come out as a trans girl in secondary school, than it is to present as male and come out as a trans boy." He added that "a rebalancing is under way because now, at last, trans men are getting some visibility in the media. That makes it easier for people to imagine this as their future; to envision possibilities and establish if they would be happier if they transitioned to male."

Butch lesbian Ruth Hunt, writing in The Independent, stated, "one particularly strange tactic that anti-trans campaigners use is presenting any move forward for trans rights as being inevitably at the cost of lesbian rights. Specifically the rights of young, butch lesbians. But the hard facts simply aren't there to back any of this up." Hunt said that although "more young people are talking about their identity and how they feel" and "there's been an increase in the number of young women who are accessing age-appropriate support to help talk through these issues", "talking to a specialist is not the same as transitioning. Very few young people who access support go on to transition. This is what we would expect: that's what much successful gender treatment looks like."

See also

• Lesbian Avengers
• Bisexual erasure
• Queer erasure

Notes

1. TotallyHer Media, a subsidiary of Evolve Media and owner of AfterEllen, denied the hearsay about the website shutting down and fired Trish Bendix ahead of her scheduled departure from the publication.

References

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38. Staff (19 December 2018). "Not in our name". DIVA. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
39. Lyell, Carrie (15 July 2019). "Trans people aren't 'erasing' lesbians like me – I'll fight for equality standing side-by-side with them". The Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
40. Brighter, Cassie (January 23, 2019). "The Misunderstood Premise of the Cotton Ceiling". Curve. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
41. ^ Fox, Tristan (December 5, 2018). "A Butch Eradication, Served With a Progressive Smile". AfterEllen. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
42. ^ Herzog, Katie (June 28, 2017). "The Detransitioners: They Were Transgender, Until They Weren't". The Stranger. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
43. ^ Gilreath S (2011). The End of Straight Supremacy: Realizing Gay Liberation. Cambridge University Press. pp. 60–65. ISBN 1139504711.
44. Kiss, Charlie (July 3, 2018). "The idea that trans men are "lesbians in denial" is demeaning and wrong". The Economist. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
45. Hunt, Rich (November 16, 2017). "When transphobic people try to pretend they're defending butch lesbians like me, I see the cynical tactic for what it is". The Independent. Retrieved December 19, 2019.

Further reading

• Barnes, J.J. (July 8, 2017). "Lesbianism is under attack, though not by the usual suspects". Feminist Current.
• Brownworth, Victoria A. (March 5, 2015). "Erasure: The New Normal for Lesbians by @VABVOX". A Room of Our Own.
• Dobkin, Alix; Tatnall, Sally (January 29, 2015). "The Erasure of Lesbians" (PDF). Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC).
• Elbir, Dilara (17 September 2019). "Why films about lesbian characters should be called lesbian films". Little White Lies.
• Feng, Jiayun (April 15, 2019). "Weibo Is Taking Down Posts Hashtagged #Les, Short For Lesbian". SupChina.
  • cindy (April 17, 2019). "Weibo Reverses Ban on Lesbian Content Amid Uproar". China Digital Times.
• Fleming, Pippa (July 3, 2018). "The gender-identity movement undermines lesbians". The Economist.
• Heuchan, Claire (July 1, 2017). "The Vanishing Point: A Reflection Upon Lesbian Erasure". Sister Outrider. (Sister Outrider received the 2016 Best Blog award from Write to End Violence Against Women.)
• Kirkup, James (16 May 2018). "The silencing of the lesbians". The Spectator.
• OLOC Boston (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) (2016). "Erasing Lesbians". The Proud Trust.
• Pidd, Helen; Greenfield, Patrick (3 September 2018). "Plaque for 'first modern lesbian' to be reworded after complaints". The Guardian.
• Rimmer-Tagoe, Holly (30 September 2016). "From pulp to corsets: lesbian literary stereotypes". The Skinny.
• Robertson, Julia Diana (January 30, 2018). "Shhh! Rachel Morrison and Dee Rees Are Lesbians—Why is the Media Trying to Erase the L Word". AfterEllen.
• Robertson, Julia Diana (December 21, 2018). "Co-opting the L: Homophobia & The Thought Police". AfterEllen.
• Robinson, Dinean (October 15, 2014). "On Raven-Symoné and Erasing Black Lesbian Identity". HuffPost.
• Syfret, Wendy (6 June 2016). "how instagram can be a weapon against the erasure of lesbian culture". i-D. Vice Media.
• Waterhouse, Liz (February 24, 2015). "Is the "L" in LGBTI silent?". Star Observer.

Books and journals

• Barrett, Ruth, ed. (2016). Female Erasure: What You Need To Know About Gender Politics' War on Women, the Female Sex and Human Rights (1st ed.). California: Tidal Time Publishing. p. 225. ISBN 978-0997146707.
• Derry, Caroline (Autumn 2018). "Lesbianism and Feminist Legislation in 1921: the Age of Consent and 'Gross Indecency between Women'". History Workshop Journal. 86: 245–267. doi:10.1093/hwj/dby021. ISSN 1363-3554.
• Hawthorne, Susan (2007). "The Silences Between: Are Lesbians Irrelevant?". Journal of International Women's Studies. 8 (3). Bridgewater State University: 125–138. ISSN 1539-8706.
• Hodson, Loveday (2017). "Queering the Terrain: Lesbian Identity and Rights in International Law" (PDF). Feminists@law. 7 (1). University of Kent. ISSN 2046-9551. (via University of Leicester)
• Jeffreys, Sheila (2018). "Postcript: The erasure of lesbians". The Lesbian Revolution: Lesbian Feminism in the UK 1970-1990. Routledge. p. 186. ISBN 978-1138096561. LCCN 2018012144.
• Millward, Liz; Dodd, Janice G.; Fubara-Manuel, Irene (2017). Killing Off the Lesbians: A Symbolic Annihilation on Film and Television. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1476668161.
• Munt, Sally R. (1998). Heroic Desire: Lesbian Identity and Cultural Space (1st ed.). New York University Press. ISBN 978-0814756065.</ref>
• Wilton, Tamsin (1995). "Invisible and erased: uses and abuses of history". Lesbian Studies: Setting an Agenda. Routledge. pp. 50–65. ISBN 0-415-08655-8.

• Lesbian feminism
• Lesbian history
• Lesbophobia
• Political lesbianism
• LGBT erasure