{"title":"<i>The Lesbians and Policing Project</i>: police monitoring in defence of dangerous lesbian-ness in 1980s London.","authors":"Will Jackson, Helen Monk","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2448064","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2448064","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article provides a case study of <i>The Lesbians and Policing Project</i> [LesPop], a police monitoring organisation that existed in London between 1984 and 1990. Drawing on archives held at Glasgow Women's Library, the article reviews the activities of LesPop and outlines its aims and objectives. We consider both its origins and its demise in the political context of Britain in the 1980s. In doing so, we argue that LesPop offers an important, and hitherto unexamined, contribution to lesbian history in Britain. Centralising the experiences of lesbians in London in an era of state-sanctioned homophobia, LesPop provides a case study in lesbian political and community organising and engagement with, or resistance to, the carceral state. Understanding how LesPop sought to monitor and research the police and in turn, educate and organise lesbians, reveals much about the regulation of sexuality in the pursuit of social order and illustrates the importance then, and now, of grassroots efforts to challenge homophobia and hold the police to account.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"84-100"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142956553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hysterical lesbians and respectable gays. Lesbian anonymity in mainstream LGBT+ and grassroots activisms.","authors":"Ramona Dima","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2381854","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2381854","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article is informed by sixteen in-depth interviews with LGBT + activists in Romania, my archive and notes during my involvement in feminist and queer activist circles, as well as archival materials of an LGBT + NGO. It proposes the concept of <i>lesbian anonymity</i> as a means of investigating the way in which marginal positions within mainstream movements are anonymized and their contributions to the movement dispersed within the generic queer/gay activism. By looking at specific case studies from Romaniás transition period (1989 to mid 2000s), I analyze how matters of representation were tackled within the LGBT + mainstream movements in relation to grassroots activist circles. The article explores what happens when queer gatekeepers fail to engage with internal criticisms concerning the selective erasure of certain categories of voices such as queer women, trans people, racialized people, sex workers. I argue that lesbian anonymity offers another angle of analyzing the clashes between and within different LGBT + groups in post-socialist spaces. How does <i>lesbian anonymity</i> shape the queer movements and why is it important to keep representational issues in mind while working on non-normative sexualities, gender, and women´s reproductive rights? This contribution offers a necessary critique of the representational gaps within queer movements.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"232-250"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142000976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Among the characters from that chapter\": Soviet medicalization of homosexuality in Lithuanian lesbian oral history narratives.","authors":"Rasa Navickaitė","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2485564","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2485564","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Based on oral history narratives and original archival research, this article discusses how the Soviet medicalization of homosexuality has affected the self-identification of queer women and how it currently features in the narratives that lesbians tell about themselves in post-Soviet Lithuania. The article shows that the medicalization of homosexuality in Soviet Lithuania was inseparable from the broader pressures of Communist morality, which aimed to guide the private lives of individuals, and that the pathologizing of female homosexuality was tightly interrelated with the social pressure on women to fit into their gender role and adapt to the frameworks of femininity. The article also reflects on how the medicalization of homosexuality, as imposed by Soviet modernity, continues to be felt in the region and how it affects the current state of the LGBTQ community.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"192-210"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143988935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communing and belonging in Mumbai's LBT scene.","authors":"Lauren Ruhnke","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2572269","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2572269","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In Mumbai, new streams of private funding and shifting social milieu have supported the growth of LBT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) social and nightlife spaces. A more recent addition to the informal social networks, activist collectives, and support groups that have long comprised a lesbian scene in the city, these spaces are increasingly visible to the public. As greater visibility comes in parallel with homophobic nationalism, the LBT scene offers queer young adults the chance to resolve a disconnect between self-understanding and normative stigma by finding networks of support. However, as the queer expressions that unify these collectivities elide internal differences, Mumbai's LBT scene engenders tensions of inclusion. Drawing upon ethnographic research of queer digital and nightlife spaces in Mumbai, this essay examines how class and caste shape experiences of belonging in the LBT scene. It argues that material costs of access work in tandem with linguistic, aesthetic, and social norms to mediate inclusion in the middle-class LBT scene. Examining how upper-caste terms of desirability and status inform social norms in the scene, I show that caste intersects with class to further dictate belonging. I argue that in their practices of communing, lesbians confront the class/caste boundaries that encumber their pursuits of social support.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"587-607"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145318777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leftover peaches: Female homoeroticism during the Western Han dynasty.","authors":"Laurie Venters","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2334137","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2334137","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Female homoeroticism in early imperial China has received minimal scholarly attention. This article purposes to investigate lesbianism in the Western Han dynasty, taking into consideration both the literary and archaeological material. I first offer a succinct rundown of the ancient terminology of male homosexuality, principally in an effort to underline the classical Chinese language's absence of a precise vocabulary to describe lesbian attachments. Next, I turn to the transmitted textual sources, analysing the two extant records of love between women in order to gauge something of the nature and permissibility of female homoerotic relationships. The final section of this essay is dedicated to mortuary objects, namely the moulded bronze phalli and other sexual training tools disentombed from Western Han gravesites. When properly contextualised, the excavated dildos can be interpreted as having been used by concubines, both within same-sex partnerships and in the course of pornographic displays staged for their master's enjoyment.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"101-127"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140912929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Things People Gave Me\": the Leslie Feinberg Archives.","authors":"Kelly A Wooten","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2551414","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2551414","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University recently acquired the papers of writer, theorist, activist, and revolutionary communist Leslie Feinberg; these papers are held now alongside the papers of Feinberg's spouse and partner, Minnie Bruce Pratt. Feinberg's papers include hir manuscripts, correspondence, gifts from readers and activists, and an original compendium of ephemera from transgender lives. \"Things People Gave Me\" explores how Feinberg's papers arrived at the Bingham Center, and shares insight into the thought process and care that Feinberg's heirs, Minnie Bruce Pratt and her two sons, put into the decision. The journey of Feinberg's papers is a reminder of the urgency of making plans and decisions about legacy, including one's archives, papers, and copyright, while alive.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"439-453"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145001598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Necessity of the Human Hand. An Autoethnographic Reflection on Minnie Bruce Pratt's Poetry, Activism, and Legacy.","authors":"Anja Oliver Schneider","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2573906","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2573906","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article explores Minnie Bruce Pratt's work, life, and legacy through an autoethnographic lens, using two encounters with Minnie Bruce as anchors to build on and circle around; to open into musings, visions, echoes. I argue that Minnie Bruce's poetry and writing contends with her intersecting marginalization, queer desire, and loss: In my reading of her work, I see a firm belief in materialism, communal solidarity, unique visions pushing against dominant expectations. I interweave analyses of Pratt's work with stories from my own life, rivering into my experiences of chronic illness, loss, and transformation as a non-binary trans butch poet. At the heart of this piece are questions of writing with, and beyond, the body amidst the in-between, and I hope to highlight Minnie Bruce Pratt's continuous impact on the queer community, even after the loss of her physical form.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"462-469"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145439466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revisiting \"lesbian nationalism\": Lesbian activism and agency in Hungary from the 1990s to the illiberal present.","authors":"Katrin Kremmler, Anna Borgos","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2561137","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2025.2561137","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Can lesbians speak in Hungarian illiberalism? They can and they do, but they are facing new challenges in a polarized society, with NGOs sanctioned and the issue of LGBTQ+ rights instrumentalized to gain voters' support and oppose Western liberal hegemony. In order to understand the illiberal authoritarian present unfolding in real time, local lesbian scholars and activists are challenged to develop new strategies, which also includes rethinking existing academic concepts on lesbian activism. In this paper, we address and challenge how lesbian activism in post-socialist Hungary was implicated with nationalism and ahistoricism in academic literature still considered relevant today. Drawing on our own historical account as lesbian activists and scholars in Hungary since the 1990s, we argue for an (auto)ethnographic focus on lesbian micro-politics, as it responds seismographically and actively intervenes into the illiberal culture wars.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"271-292"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145125762","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Taylor Marie Doherty, Julie R Enszer, Laura Harris, Silas Heying, Amanda Mixon
{"title":"Remembering and Celebrating the Life and Work of Minnie Bruce Pratt.","authors":"Taylor Marie Doherty, Julie R Enszer, Laura Harris, Silas Heying, Amanda Mixon","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2026.2675807","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2026.2675807","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This introduction biographically contextualizes the life and work of Minnie Bruce Pratt (1946-2023) while briefly summarizing the contributions to the special issue, \"The Work and Legacy of Minnie Bruce Pratt.\" Pratt's personal life, social activism, writing career, teaching, and mentorship are discussed in conversation with prior scholarship about Pratt. The five scholarly articles, two roundtables, one interview, and two personal essays that make up the special issue are explained, and future potential research topics are highlighted. The co-editors' intentions in assembling the special issue in the wake of Pratt's death are shared throughout the introduction.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"353-362"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148144950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Caitlin Edwards, Robert Allan, Sandra Taylor, Carin Graves
{"title":"Lesbian women and attachment theory: A scoping review.","authors":"Caitlin Edwards, Robert Allan, Sandra Taylor, Carin Graves","doi":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2448794","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10894160.2024.2448794","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the lesbian adult attachment literature. Eight databases were searched yielding 4,827 total articles which were subsequently distilled to 37 articles for full review. Thematic analysis was used to develop themes related to attachment theory and lesbian relationships. Themes included the unique aspects of lesbian attachment relationships, the nuance of avoidant attachment in lesbian relationships, the impact of lesbian identity development on attachment, and the comparison of lesbian attachment relationships to other populations. Methodological nuances and significant gaps in the literature are noted. Directions for future research are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":46044,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Lesbian Studies","volume":" ","pages":"1-31"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143081211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}