We have no clear understanding of the international history of lesbian identity politics. This new research project asks how the “lesbian” emerged as an international political identity and traces its connections to the global women’s movement and global LGBT movement. I center my analysis on several sites of global information exchange, media representation, and identity construction. First, I show how the numerous United Nations meetings that focused on global women’s rights open a space for lesbians worldwide, beginning with the International Year of the Woman in 1975. Second, I investigate how lesbian periodicals and feminist/queer academic arguments cross national boundaries, like Curve Magazine eventually being distributed out of Australia or the circulation of ideas from French feminist Monique Wittig. Third, I look at the emergence of lesbian visual media and how TV shows such as The L Word or the 1996 Indian movie Fire offer new channels for global lesbian visibility. Finally, I briefly explore how the internet widened and expediated information exchanges across nation-states. I conclude with a postcolonial critique of the Western norms that constrain the global lesbian political identity. I suggest envisioning “the lesbian” as a transnational political identity that persists in opposition to heteropatriarchal gender and sexuality norms, and an opportunity for further expansion rather than limitation.
