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<blockquote>'''Warning:''' This page requires a heavy rework as it's lacking citations and uses colloquial language. Please do not use this page as fact until it is cleaned up.</blockquote>{{Sexuality Info|title1=|image1=
[[Non-Binary]]|gender(s)_attracted_to:=[[Women]]<br>
[[Non-Binary]]}}
'''Lesbian''' (also known as '''
The majority of lesbians are exclusively wlw/nblw, including all [[Trixic|NBLW]], [[Asterian|WLNB]], and [[Enbian|NBLNB]] attractions. However, despite this, for some lesbians, the attraction is not exclusive, as m-spec lesbianism (especially [[Bi-Lesbian|bi-lesbianism]]) is a historically seen identification.
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==Exclusive Lesbian Attraction==
:''{{hatnote|Main
The majority of the lesbian community is exclusively attracted to women and/or non-binary individuals. This is not something that is in question, nor is it something that is invalid. Lesbians with exclusive attraction are welcome to their label, and often have a separate community from m-spec lesbians. This is because m-spec lesbians have vastly different experiences, and while they can respect one another and speak together on lesbianism, they both will likely remain in separate spaces, with some overlapping spaces as well.
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Many lesbians who are not attracted to men face the same issue where men believe they can "force" lesbians to like men. This harmful idea has resulted in wrongdoings against lesbians across the world, especially in countries which are more conservative and traditional and which are unsafe countries for queer individuals in general. As a result of this idea, the idea that lesbians can be into men can be very traumatic to many lesbians, which is why many have formed their own communities with other lesbians who are strictly into women/non-binary individuals.
However, while this idea has harmed and continues to harm a large part of the lesbian community, and it should never ever be encouraged to tell any lesbian that they "can like men" if they don't, that harmful idea does not stop the fact that some lesbians are attracted to men. This in no way means that all lesbians do or should ever be "forced" to, just that some do, due to the history of lesbian definition and identity when it comes to m-spec lesbianism. No one who doesn't like men can be "forced" to be attracted to them, but at the same time, that harm should not be wielded against m-spec lesbians, as they face similar trauma, harm, and issues, and they are not to blame for the horrible crimes against the lesbian community committed by [[Queerphobia|
[[Compulsory Heterosexuality|Compulsory heterosexuality]] tend to affect lesbians with exclusive attraction.
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===Bi-Lesbians===
'''[[Bi-Lesbian
===Pan-Lesbians===
'''[[Pan-Lesbian
===Omni-Lesbians===
'''[[Omni-Lesbian
===Ply-Lesbians===
'''[[Poly-Lesbian
===Straightbians===
'''[[Straightbian
===History===
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==Gender-Based Lesbianism==
Although
===Non-Binary Lesbians===
'''[[Non-Binary Lesbian
Some specific forms of non-binary lesbianism are '''[[Agender Lesbian|agender lesbian]]s''', '''[[Bigender Lesbian|bigender lesbian]]s''', '''[[Genderfluid Lesbian|genderfluid lesbian]]s''', '''[[Lesbian Demigirl|lesbian demigirl]]s''', '''[[Librafeminine Lesbian|librafemininelesbian]]s''', and '''[[Xenic Lesbian|xenic lesbian]]s'''.
Any non-binary can identify as lesbian if they want, but they don't have to if they're not comfortable doing so.
===Masc Lesbians===
'''Masc Lesbians''' are individuals who identify as male or masculine in a non-traditional sense (through
Men who are women-aligned are inherently non-binary, so [[Selenian|women-aligned]] men, as well as [[neutral]]-aligned men, [[Artemian|feminine-aligned]] men, [[Xenic|xeno-aligned]] men, and other [[enboy|non-binary men]] with varying alignments, are queer and their experiences should never be forced to fit binary manhood, as they are unique, and they are non-binary and therefore deserve to be respected in queer and lesbian spaces.
In general, binary men cannot be lesbians. However, while being trans makes them no less of men in any way, some binary trans men may choose to still identify with the label/community if they identified as such before realizing they were men and still feel some form of connection to the term and community despite realizing they were men. This is up to the individual trans man, as they may feel more safe continuing to identify as lesbian/be part of lesbian spaces, either due to personal history, discomfort with male spaces due to trauma from cis men, or other personal reasons.
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'''PNC Lesbians''' are individuals that use pronouns not expected for their identity. Typically, when individuals think of lesbians, they think of individuals who use she/her pronouns, however this is not the case for many non-binary and non-women lesbians, as well as for some [[Pronoun Non-Conforming|pronoun non-conforming]] lesbians who are women.
Terms PNC lesbians may use are [[He/Him Lesbian|he/him lesbian]], [[He/Her Lesbian|he/her lesbian]], [[They/Them Lesbian|they/them lesbian]], [[It/Its Lesbian|it/its lesbian]], [[Neopronoun Lesbian|neopronoun lesbian]], and similar.
==History==
The word lesbian comes from the name of the Greek island Lesbos, the birthplace of the poet Sappho (the origin of the word [[sapphic]]).<ref>[https://www.etymonline.com/word/lesbian Etymonline: lesbian (adj)]</ref> The use of lesbian to mean gay woman or
Romantic and sexual relationships between women go back far in human history, including to ancient times. Most ancient civilizations were surprisingly LGBTQ+ friendly, thinking that it was just human nature to crave sexual or romantic contact from the same gender.
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As mentioned above, the Greek poet Sappho was a major part in developing the terms lesbian and sapphic. She was believed to love women or be a lesbian. Little of Sappho's poetry survives, but what has survived provides deep description of women's daily lives, relationships, and rituals. Many of her poems proclaim her love for girls, as she deeply studied the beauty of women.
Ancient Greece had thriving homosexual culture, as men were sequestered with other men, and women with other women. Sexual relationships between men were recorded, but almost nothing about relationships between women were recorded. Records of
===Ancient Rome===
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===Early Europe===
With the term "sodomy" growing to describe homosexual men, same-gender relationships were viewed in a negative light. This was usually only to describe men who would partake in sexual relationships with other men, though.
Relationships between Catholic nuns have surprisingly been recorded during this time as well. Forty days' penance was demanded of nuns who "rode" each other (engaged in sexual behavior) or were known to touch each other's breasts. An Italian nun named Sister Benedetta Carlini was documented to have seduced many of her fellow sisters when being possessed by a Divine spirit. To end her relationships with other women, she was placed in solitary confinement for the last forty years of her life. However, contrary to this,
===Victorian era (17th-19th century)===
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Homosexuality became an undesirable characteristic for women in the workforce, which further silenced the lesbian community. Some homosexual women still persisted, and reclaimed the pink triangle, a symbol given to gay men in Nazi concentration camps.
A solution to isolated lesbians became lesbian pulp fiction in the 1950's. It was also a replacement for the little knowledge of
The Stonewall Riots was the first gay rights movement recorded in history. This started when a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in New York was attacked. This is when many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals started fighting for their rights.
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==Demographics==
===The Kinsey report===
In 1953, more than 8,000 American women were interviewed for an in-depth report on
Most of the women who reported homosexual behavior had not experienced it more than ten times. 51% of women reporting homosexual behavior had only one sexual partner.
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The earliest flag to represent lesbianism is the original rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to represent the entire LGBT community.<ref>[https://www.moma.org/collection/works/192373 Gilbert Baker - Rainbow Flag]</ref><ref>[https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-an-lgbt-symbol How Did the Rainbow Flag Become an LGBT Symbol?]
</ref>
* In 1999, Sean Campbell introduced the labrys lesbian flag, the first flag design specifically for lesbians.<ref>[https://www.pride.com/pride/2018/6/13/complete-guide-queer-pride-flags-0 The Complete Guide to Queer Pride Flags]</ref> The design involves a labrys on a black triangle with a purple background, since all three have historical significance in the lesbian community.
* The labrys was associated as a weapon used by the Amazons of mythology and in the 1970s it was adopted as a symbol of empowerment by the lesbian feminist community.
* The black triangle was used by the by the Third Reich to identify "[[asocial]] women", which included lesbians. Some lesbians reclaimed this symbol as gay men reclaimed the pink triangle.
* The violet background is because violet associated with lesbians because of the poetry of Sappho.
This flag is sometimes associated with [[TERF]]s but it is still widely used by many lesbians, who seek to fight against the association with TERFs. In August 6, 2017, the blog beyond-mogai-pride-flags posted versions of labrys flag without triangle.<ref>https://beyond-mogai-pride-flags.tumblr.com/post/163887056520/lesbian-labrys-pride-flags</ref>
In 2010, Wordpress blogger Natalie McCray announced her proposed design for a lipstick lesbian flag, using a design plagiarized from Fausto Fernós' 2008 cougar pride flag.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20151119165126/https://thislesbianlife.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/lipstick-lesbian-pride/ Lipstick Lesbian Flag]</ref><ref>[https://medium.com/@faustofernos/the-lipstick-lesbian-flag-idea-was-stolen-from-my-design-of-a-cougar-pride-flag-which-was-designed-ad2d18ae00c1 Medium post "The Lipstick Lesbian Flag idea was stolen from a drag queen."]</ref><ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/feastoffools/2414971431/ Cougar Pride Flag designed by Fausto Fernós.]</ref> McCray's lipstick lesbian flag is not intended for all lesbians, just lipstick lesbians, meaning all other kinds of lesbians are excluded. Variations upon this stolen design have since become very popular on Tumblr. However, the creator is problematic, as she has made several racist comments (and tried to justify them by saying she herself is a POC), has been actively biphobic, anti-sex worker, butchphobic, and lesbiphobic. She and her flag have caused a lot of harm to gender non-conforming lesbians and the lesbians her flag was designed to exclude, exclusion which promoted even greater exclusionism from the individuals who started using the flag.
There were a large amount of alternate lesbian flags made around 2018, one of those flags was the orange and pink version
The color meanings are as follows:
* Dark orange is for [[Gender Non-Conforming|gender non-conformity]] as many lesbians are gender non-conforming.
* Orange is for independence from men and individuality.
* Light orange is for community.
* White represents unique connections to womanhood, and how lesbians are all connected to womanhood in their own unique ways. It encompasses [[Transgender|trans]] and non-binary lesbian experiences, and butch and [[femme]] experiences with womanhood.
* Light pink represents serenity and peace. Pink represents love and sex.
* Dark pink represents femininity.
Though
A five stripe orange and pink design was created by purrfectcath (previously taqwomen/shimmeringatoms<ref>https://twitter.com/lesflagisracist/status/1395889683951808513</ref>) on or before July 25th, 2018 for the purpose of more easily producing physical flags and merchandise.<ref>https://official-lesbian-flag-blog.tumblr.com/post/176284375674/taqwomen-taqwomen-has-someone-done-this-i</ref><ref>https://twitter.com/lesflagisracist/status/1107301689231581184</ref> According to polls conducted by lesbianflag on Twitter / official-lesbian-flag-blog on tumblr, a large amount of individuals prefer this design for the lesbian flag.<ref>https://twitter.com/lesbianflag/status/1034419322289094656</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winning_Orange-Pink_Lesbian_Pride_Flag.png</ref> This is currently the most commonly used lesbian flag on the internet.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian</ref><ref>https://lgbtqia.fandom.com/wiki/Lesbian</ref>
It was given meanings by Tumblr user birdblinder on or before November 5th, 2018.<ref name=":0">https://twitter.com/lesbianflag/status/1059477130415951878</ref>
The stripe meanings are as follows:
* Dark Orange: Transgressive womanhood
* Orange: Community
* White: Gender non-conformity
* Pink: Freedom
* Dark pink: Love.<ref name=":0" />
Another flag design is by Tumblr user Apersnicketylemon. The color associations are as follows:
* purple for non-binary and trans lesbians (also to represent how violets were historically given between women to represent their love)
* pink for lipstick and femme lesbians (and to represent the beauty of feminine love)
* grey for [[A-Spec|aspec]] lesbians (and to represent the difficulty to navigating a "grey area" of society)
* blue to represent butch lesbians and gender nonconformity.<ref>[https://apersnicketylemon.tumblr.com/post/173994129517/so-i-did-a-lesbian-flag-redesign-because-really Tumblr post on apersnicketylemon's flag.]</ref>
Another flag design is by Tumblr user ferretwlw<ref>[https://ferretwlw.tumblr.com/post/632190623371460608/i-wanted-to-try-my-hand-at-making-an-all-inclusive Tumblr post on ferretwlw's flag.]</ref>. The color associations are as follows:
* Dark blue represents the community, and solidarity with each other. This is for the current lesbian community, and the unification of everyone in it.
▲Though her design is currently the most popular lesbian flag, Sadlesbiandisaster is a problematic user who does not support m-spec lesbians, usage of queer as an identity, or the diverse history of the terms butch and femme. She was previously exclusionary of cis ace-spec individuals, but changed her position on this in 2019<ref>https://sadlesbeandisaster.tumblr.com/post/185383640071/okay-everyone-this-will-be-the-last-post-on-this</ref> (though in the post where she stated this, she maintained her lack of support for m-spec lesbians). She has harmed individuals with those harmful ideals, and she also plagiarized her design from both the butch and femme flags, once made invertedly by another Tumblr user on July 3, 2017, under the username shapeshifter-of-constellation, before Sadlesbiandisaster.<ref>https://shapeshifter-of-constellation.tumblr.com/post/162570229392/butchspace-i-loooooove-your-orange-butch-flag</ref>
* Purple represents diversity in experiences and expression. This is not just for the trans, non-binary, [[Gender Non-Conforming|GNC]], and/or mspec lesbians, but also for lesbians of every kind of expression and subculture- butches, femmes, those who are neither, and everyone else who considers themselves a lesbian.
* Pink represents self acceptance and pride. It is also for those who are still coming to terms with being a lesbian, [[questioning]], in the closet, and so on.
* Yellow represents lesbian history and culture. This stripe reflects back on lesbian history and all the experiences lesbians have had. It’s also for lesbian culture, and all the subcultures within it.
* Mint represents inclusivity, tolerance, and acceptance.
The [[Lykoi Lesbian|lykoi lesbian]] flag design was created by wiki user [[User:Wemrotung|Wemrotung]] on June 1, 2021. The color associations are as follows:
* Raspberry represents gender non-conforming and pronoun non-conforming lesbians, such as he/him and they/them lesbians, as well as complex or non-normative connections to womanhood.
* Pink represents sapphic love, sex, attraction, and relationships.
* Yellow represents community and inclusion.
* White represents transgender, non-binary, and [[intersex]] lesbians.
* Blue represents lesbian history, culture, and solidarity with the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. Purple represents mspec lesbians.
* Dark purple represents aspec lesbians.
A more inclusive lesbian flag was designed by YouTuber Astri-Nomical on June 29, 2021. The darkest red stands for masculinity, followed by a lighter red for non she/her lesbians, a lighter red for POC lesbians, white for love and freedom, the lightest pink for ND lesbians, a darker pink for non-cis lesbians, and the darkest pink for femininity. (citation needed)
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Another alternate lesbian flag was made by FANDOM user Astarte Snow on November 28th, 2021. It was created to replace the sunset flag. <ref> https://lgbta.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000223709/r/4400000000000763492</ref>
On February 6th, 2022, another lesbian flag variant known as the Lavender Labrys flag was coined by Tumblr user the-gender-thieves<ref>https://the-gender-thieves.tumblr.com/post/675383132939255808/lavender-labrys-lesbian-flag</ref>. The color meanings are:
* dark violet: POC lesbians, neurodivergent lesbians, disabled lesbians, and lesbians of other minorities | sappho's writings of women wearing violet flower crowns or violets woven around their necks, violets became associated with lesbianism because of her poetry, the violet flower was also used historically by lesbians to symbolize their love for one another since the 6th century, rising again in 1926.
* pink: lesbian love in all forms | featured heavily in the sapphic flag and many current lesbian flags, also connects to roses, often associated with love and sexuality.
* yellow: liberation of all lesbians | lesbian history as a whole and a celebration of where we are now as a community. teal: trans, non-cisgender, and gender non-conforming lesbians | celebration of the stonewall riots and those with huge positive impacts on lesbian rights.
* labrys axe: similar to the labrys flag, it represents lesbian strength and feminism. lavender: plays a huge part in lesbian activism (for example the lavender menace movement and reclamation, and the fight against the anti-queer campaign known as the 'lavender scare')
==Gallery==
<gallery widths="200" mode="nolines" class="center">
File:Lesbian flag.jpg|The lesbian flag by shapeshifter-of constellation
File:2018 lesbian flag proposal.png|Five striped version of sadlesbeandisaster's flag.▼
File:LabrysLesbianFlag.png|The Labrys lesbian flag.
File:Lesbian pride labrys flag without triangle.svg|Labrys flag without triangle
File:LipstickLesbianFlag.jpg|Lipstick lesbian flag (plagiarized)
File:Lesbianflag.png|Modified lipstick lesbian flag
▲File:
File:Alternatelesbianflag2.png|An alternate flag proposed by lydiandragon
File:Alternatelesbianflag1.png|A modification to lydiandragon's flag by hiscetalfredo
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File:0C41FAD4-FF7A-4A68-A8A2-7582E441F169.png|An alternate flag made by FANDOM user RoseWatera. Dark magenta meaning femininity, purple representing gender non-conformity, dark blue meaning independence, cyan meaning independence from men, white meaning butch, femme and futch.
File:Lykoi lesbian (updated).png|The lykoi lesbian flag
File:Lesbian flag by Astarte Snow.png|An alternate lesbian flag by FANDOM user Astarte Snow
File:Lavender Labrys Lesbian flag.jpg|Lavender Labrys lesbian flag by the-gender-thieves
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*[[Agatic]]
*[[Axinitian]]
*[[Azalean (orientation)|Azalean]]
*[[Faunic]]
*[[Feminamoric]]
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*[[Iridian]]
*[[Larimarian]]
*[[Lesbiangender]]
*[[Lesbiagender]]
*[[Lesbienboric]]
*[[Lesromantic]]
*[[Neptunic]]
*[[Sapphic]]
*[[Trixensexual]]
*[[Trixian]]
*[[Womasexual]]
==External links==
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#[https://www.scribd.com/document/114298533/Love-Your-Enemy-The-Debate-Between-Heterosexual-Feminism-and-Political-Lesbianism Love Your Enemy - The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism (scribd.com)]
#[http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/bisex_movements_S.pdf Bisexual Movements (glbtqarchive.com)]
#
#[https://books.google.com/books?id=eaS0AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=when+separate+bisexual+community+began&source=bl&ots=FWMx3OzYss&sig=s3R3Nof97qiTAzg5J1SvueJUODk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja7cbptI_YAhWH5yYKHZ5NAuwQ6AEIQDAE#v=onepage&q=when%20separate%20bisexual%20community%20began&f=false when the bisexual community began to form separately]
#[https://twitter.com/StarNosedMoles/status/1416247867463802882 👤 on Twitter: "Lesbian Psychologies; Explorations and Challenges, 1987. Edited by the Boston Lesbian Psychologies Collective https://t.co/klUSNYYOb7" / Twitter]
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