LET'S HEAR YOUR STORIES
Actualizado: 6 de oct de 2020
August is a month of great importance for the lesbian community. The 19th is the day of lesbian pride and the 29th is the day of lesbian visibility.
In this year of 2020 so challenging and painful that we are living, it would not be enough to warn about the rights of women, for the struggle and mobilization that was to include the “L” at the beginning of the acronym “LGBT”, it would not be enough to warn about the dangers of male chauvinist violence that doesn’t accept that women don’t like men and relate to other women.
It would not be enough because difficult times like this one must look at the history of lesbian women and remember that just because we have the possibility to know these stories is a sign of resistance which goes beyond time, history and the oppressive patriarchal erasure.
So, in honor of the month of August, which celebrates lesbian pride and visibility, we are going to celebrate some lesbian writers thanking, revering and inspiring their existence.
Let's start with the broken silence of Audre Lorde, American writer, of Caribbean descent, author of “Outsider sister” and “Your silence will not protect you”.

“I was born black and a woman. I am trying to become the strongest person I can to live the life I have been given and to help bring about changes towards an acceptable future for the plane
t and for my children”.
Her life path was one of activism for human rights especially for black women. In an interview on the book “Outsider sister” she puts it: “And in the places where women's words cry out to be heard, each of us must recognize our responsibility to seek those words, to read them, to share them and to analyze their relevance in our life. Let us not hide behind the farce of separation imposed on us and which we often accept as if they were our invention. ”
Her voice brings her experiences to life and she cries out to hear other women, poses herself as black, lesbian, mother and poet, was an activist for the end of the multiple oppressions she felt and those she knew about.
In Brazil, Cidinha da Silva, also breaks the silence, a writer with great sensitivity who
opens up human relations, has a diverse production going through various genres such as children's literature, chronicles, poetry.
In her book “Love songs and Caress” she warns:
“You can catalog me however you want. Just don't expect me to wear the clothes you give me. Or go into boxes of your own accord ”.
And to fill us with poetry and courage, I leave here the words of the artist Ryane Leão, author of the books “Everything in her shines and burns” and “I never apologize for spilling me”:
my message to women
contains
your stories
discover the power
millions of voices
that were silent
for centuries
References
https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_wQgWJoe8/
https://margens.com.br/2019/08/29/autoras-lesbicas-marginais-para-voce-conhecer/
https://www.geledes.org.br/10-livros-imperdiveis-sobre-vivencia-lesbica-escritos-por-lesbicas/
https://www.geledes.org.br/nao-existe-hierarquia-de-opressao/
https://medium.com/todxs/representatividade-lesbica-literatura-lista-autoras-6eb332d25c8f
https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2017/08/25/cultura/1503684236_020478.html

Write by
Cristiane Duarte
Feminist lawyer active in the area of family law and defense of women’s right.

Translation by
Karen Poltronieri
Librarian, English Teacher and Feminist master student with project in favor of the end of violence against women.