LBORI has provided this input to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against old lesbians.
Lesbian Bill of Rights International (LBORI) is an international network of radical feminist lesbian organisations that have adopted the Lesbian Bill of Rights (LBOR), including its definition of “lesbian”: a human female homosexual; or, a woman or girl who is exclusively same-sex attracted.
As lesbians, we submit this statement because there are forms of violence that lesbians experience due to the intersection of age and sexual orientation. In addition to the needs shared by all older women, older lesbians face further, specific vulnerabilities.
Violence against older women is not particularly visible and violence against older lesbians is even more hidden.
Lesbians tend to be an unexpected subject, largely overlooked by policymakers, and older lesbians are the most neglected demographic among lesbians.
This invisibilisation is the first form of violence, both in everyday life and at the institutional level. Invisibility prevents the development of appropriate measures to support older lesbians during one of the most vulnerable stages of our lives.
Older lesbians generally have fewer children and family members who can care for us, as we have typically resisted forming traditional families. While this may protect us from the high levels of domestic violence experienced by heterosexual women—since we do not live with the abuser—it often leaves us alone or vulnerable when facing the hardship of the aging process. Our families may consist of networks of friends, former partners and, where present, a current partner. However, these networks are generally composed of other older lesbians who increasingly also require support.
Lesbians have often had to rely more than heterosexual women on our physical strength, not only to meet the demands of daily life, but also to defend ourselves against male violence, as we could not delegate this function to a male partner. We have had to run faster to escape threats or even physically resist them. With aging, the physical strength that once supported our safety diminishes, and therefore we need secure solutions to protect us from male violence.
Nothing about aging is designed with lesbians in mind: Nursing homes and services for old people are conceived and designed for heterosexual individuals. The needs of older lesbian couples or single older lesbians are rarely considered, including our desire for female community, female staff, and the need for independent spaces, including moments of separation from heterosexual women.
Gender identity ideology is also a problem because it allows men who claim to be lesbians to enter spaces dedicated to us, or to be considered as female members of service staff. This is particularly disturbing for lesbians.
Data collected in statistics and reflected in UN recommendations are also distorted when no clear distinction is made between sex (reproductive biology) and gender (defined in the LBOR as sex-based stereotypes whose purpose is to force all women into a subordinate position in relation to all men).
It is therefore essential for the UN not to conflate sex with gender, and maintain women’s and lesbians’ rights on the basis of our female sex.
Lesbian Bill Of Rights International
WDI USA Lesbian Caucus
Lesbian Action Group (Australia)
Lezbicon (Norway)
ArciLesbica (Italy)
CoAL (Australia)
