Gender Studies student Maisie Taylor blogs about Writing the LGBTQ+ Research Guide and The Lesbian Avengers

During the development of the LGBTQ+ research guide, I had the chance to explore a wide variety of collections and topics such as the Lesbian Avengers. The Lesbian Avengers were founded in New York in 1992, but the organisation quickly spread to have over sixty separate groups. One of these groups was based in Glasgow. The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers described themselves as “lesbians involved in the struggle for lesbian survival and visibility. We are a direct-action group which aims to identify and promote lesbian issues and perspectives and to mobilise against any discrimination that affects lesbian lives”.

The Glasgow branch was especially vocal about the use of Section 28 in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library. The Director of Libraries, Andrew Miller, was using Section 28 to ban Lesbian and Gay material from libraries across Scotland. More specifically, he was restricting access to  ‘The Pink Paper’, a newspaper that was written by and for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The paper would no longer be displayed in the library but would be available for reference as Miller claimed that the library was family-friendly, and the Pink Paper was not.

The Glasgow Lesbian Avengers and members of the Glasgow Women’s Library Staff protested outside The Mitchell Library, demanding the newspaper to be freely available. Miller argued that the paper had never been banned and was freely available – one copy was available in The Mitchell Library. The protests held by the GWL staff, and the Lesbian Avengers led to Glasgow City Council commissioning Glasgow Women’s Library to do studies on the effects of homophobia and poverty on the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Glasgow. Similarly, between 2010 and 2013, GWL temporarily relocated to The Mitchell Library where they hosted an exhibition on Section 28.