International Lesbian Day: A Herstory

This October 8th we celebrate International Lesbian Day (ILD), and in honour of our Lesbian community members, readers, writers and staff, the Star Observer wishes you a happy, proud and affirming ILD!

The origins of ILD is extremely unclear, with it being entirely possible that the event was celebrated independently by various groups all over the world before being streamlined into one date. However, the October 8th celebrations seem to have started in Christchurch, Aotearoa (New Zealand), with the date chosen to mirror March 8th – International Women’s Day.

While we’d love to claim it as an Australian initiative, the respect and gratitude must go to the Christchurch Lesbian Support Group, founded at the Women’s Resource Centre in the late 1970s. In the personals section of The Press published on 20 September, 1980, a “Lesbian visibility week” was advertised for 4–11 October 1980, with activities including “discussion day for lesbians, women’s dance, picnic and sports day, organised dinner, forum on lesbian issues” and “Drop in night and party, gay dance”. According to a timeline of queer history in New Zealand compiled by Hugh Young, the march held on October 10 was attended by around 200 women (and, unsurprisingly, another 100 turned up for the dancing later on!)

Here in Australia, a National Lesbian Independence Day March in Sydney was planned for September 2, 1978. Sadly, permission from NSW police was not granted on the basis that “talking to members of the public about lesbian issues on the streets could be construed as offensive and therefore illegal behaviour.” The march went ahead anyway, with sadly only 40–50 in attendance.

An ILD was celebrated in Melbourne on 13 October, 1990 at Collingwood Town Hall, which seems to be the earliest Australian event in October, as also reported in the fabulously named magazine Lesbians on the Loose. However, in the following issue a letter to the editor from Laurel Walter of Lilyfield credited an unnamed woman participant of a consciousness raising group at the second Lesbian Conference for suggesting a celebration for “A Saturday in September” of “1979 (I think)”. The Star Observer has not been able to confirm this date.

We can delve into the newspaper archives as much as we want, but the following letter to the editor in that same issue of Lesbians on the Loose (by a Claire Flaherty of Adelaide) makes a very salient point. “Does it matter? Does there have to be an established tradition of celebration as with IWD? Why don’t we just proudly claim this (or another) day as ours… I want us to start celebrating International Lesbian Day – and never stop!!!”

So whether we credit the Christchurch Lesbian Support Group in 1980, the unnamed woman from a consciousness-raising group at the second Lesbian Conference in 1979, or any other of the unnamed and unrecorded originators of this glorious day, we raise a glass to those who came before us who wanted to celebrate and uplift the lesbians in our community! Whether we took inspiration from our neighbours across the Tasman Sea, or were independently inspired, it doesn’t matter; what matters is that we take this day to stand in solidarity, acknowledge, celebrate, uplift and affirm the contributions of Lesbians!