Lesbian communities

Abstract

Lesbian communities have emerged in the public sphere in Euro‐America since at least the early 1900s. This entry charts the history of Euro‐American lesbian communities, with additional discussions of contemporary lesbian and queer spaces. The politics of lesbian communities span issues related to: lesbian feminism; the inclusion‐exclusion of transgender men and women; questions about bisexual women and sexual fluidity; the treatment of women of color; femme invisibility; and generational differences in the use of “lesbian” versus “queer” within lesbian, queer, and LGBTQ communities.