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LGBTQ+ community members share messages and support for Lesbian Visibility Day

Lesbian Visibility Day has been celebrated annually on April 26 since 2008.
Lesbian Visibility Day has been celebrated annually on April 26 since 2008. Lesbian Visibility Day has been celebrated annually on April 26 since 2008.

LGBTQ+ people around the world, along with politicians and advocacy groups, have been raising awareness and support for the 11th annual Lesbian Day of Visibility.

Thousands of people have been posting using the hashtag #LesbianVisibilityDay, with politicians including Mayor of London Sadiq Khan celebrating lesbian culture and issues.

Lesbian Visibility Day began in the US in 2008, however thanks to the internet, the day has quickly become an internationally celebrated awareness event.

Xeenarh Mohammed, an author from Nigeria, took to Twitter to speak about diversity on the awareness day.

She explained: “We’re not all white, cis, European, blonde, young, androgynous, or any other box you put us in… we’re all loved and valid as heck.”

She told Press Association: “I decided to share my picture because conversations about queerness usually omits lesbians.

“On the one day lesbians are being proudly visible, I wanted to add my face as an African lesbian to the tapestry of what lesbians look like. We’re diverse, and that diversity is gorgeous.”

Politicians and public figures also took to social media to raise awareness on the day.

Scottish National Party MP Hannah Bardell joined in with the hashtag, saying: “I’m ever grateful for the support and love of my girlfriend.

“I’m also very conscious that the rights we enjoy in Scotland and across the UK are far from reach for lesbians in many other parts of the world.”

Ruth Hunt, CEO of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, posted a video in celebration of the visibility event.

She said: “I love Lesbian Day of Visibility because it’s one of the days of the year where we can talk very openly about what it means to be a lesbian.

“We often clump lesbian, gay, bi, trans issues all together… it’s nice to have a day just thinking about lesbians.”

Organisations and people within the community also explained that the visibility day should be used to reflect on LGBTQ+ history, and the contributions that lesbians have made to society and culture.

Finally, what would any visibility day be without an invisibility joke?

Labour Students national women’s officer, Lily Madigan, gave a message celebrating the day, along with a joke that tomorrow, people wouldn’t be able to see her at all.

Research by the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2016, just over one million (2%) people in the UK aged 16 and over identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.