Stressing the need to “make sure that lesbian women are empowered including in the LGBTQIA+ community”, Bahaghari Center for SOGIE Research, Education and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center) and Outrage Magazine, the only publication in the Philippines for LGBTQIA+ people, launched a mini-campaign to observe this year’s Lesbian Visibility Week that runs from April 21-27.

The Lesbian Visibility Week – observed annually in late April – focuses on the need to increase the visibility of, and awareness on lesbian women and their issues. This originated in California in the US in 1990, thanks to the effort of the West Hollywood Lesbian Visibility Committee. Its modern version, however, was founded in 2020 by Linda Riley, publisher of the UK-based magazine Diva.

“There are issue that are unique to lesbian women,” said MJ Ceñidoza, program manager at Bahaghari Center. “And only they can, and should speak about these. What we all can do is give them platforms so that they are seen, and are heard.”

Ceñidoza added that some of the issues are actually “layered and interconnected.”

Bahaghari Center, for instance, “held sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) seminars for lesbian Deaf women and their partners (who may or may not be lesbians). As was made apparent to us, they had issues as women, as lesbian women, and as Deaf LGBTQIA+ women. Sadly, too many of the ‘solutions’ provide by service providers only deal with one of these identities… instead of seeing them as intertwined, and so should be tackled holistically.”

That there is still much to do “can’t be stressed enough,” Ceñidoza said, adding that “it all starts with visibility, which we hope we’re helping happen somehow.”