#wlwoc

HAVANA ROSE LIU

Harper: You have no idea how good I feel right now. Yasmin: We're here forever, even if we can't be.

when they think of the lesbian community, they think of their fellow white lesbians

that's part of why lesbians of colour get accused of lesbophobia when we talk about racism in the lesbian community. because they see us as outsiders attacking a community we don't belong to, rather than community members addressing a widespread issue that impacts us every single day

it's a very similar experience for Jewish and Muslim lesbians. people believe there is an inherent conflict between our faith and our lesbianism, so we are discounted from lesbian spaces and conversations

so when Jewish and Muslim lesbians talk about islamophobia and antisemitism in the lesbian community, we are again accused of lesbophobia, because we aren't seen as members of the community. people who know nothing about our religions decide that we can't be Muslim and gay or Jewish and gay.

being a brown Muslim lesbian, I experience this regularly. white lesbians don't see me as one of them, so any critique that I have of their racism/islamophobia/antisemitism is dismissed as a lesbophobic attack from outside the community

I'm tired of the whiteness of so many lesbian spaces. I'm tired of being ignored and dismissed and excluded and vilified and told who I can and can't be

but I'm so grateful for my fellow lesbians of colour, my fellow Muslim lesbians, and the Jewish lesbians that I stand in solidarity with

I wish we didn't have to build our own community to escape the white supremacy, but I'm so glad that we have each other. that we support each other when the white lesbian community excludes us