It’s April and that can mean only one thing: Lesbian Visibility Week has come round again! Lesbian Visibility Week is an annual observance dedicated to increasing the awareness of lesbian women. Lesbian women have always been a part of Micro Rainbow – when it was founded in 2012 right up to 2025, when 40% of the team identify as lesbians.
And Jill Power, Micro Rainbow’s Head of Social and Economic Inclusion, is a trailblazing lesbian who has been fighting for equality and the rights of LGBTQI people since her teenage days.
For the first day of Lesbian Visibility Week, Micro Rainbow is sharing some of Jill’s thoughts and memories about fighting for equality, and Lez Be Friendz. Lez Be Friendz was written for Carnation for a Song. Carnation for a Song was a theatre company made up of LGBTQI Londoners, all aged 50+, who shared their stories to help build a moving musical experience. Commissioned by the Young Vic’s Taking Part department, the show features original songs and text directly inspired by their experiences.
Stories ranged from being on the front line of the fight for cultural acceptance and equal rights, to presenting hopes for a more inclusive future. They grappled with the treacherous world of online dating, faced up to the realities of ageing and reflect on whether they are truly seen by society.
Jill performed Lez Be Friendz as part of her participation in Carnation for a Song. It was a healing and cathartic experience.
Jill Power and Lez Be Friendz
Lez Be Friendz
I wrote Lez Be Friendz many years ago and went back to it today. I’m a big bad lesbian these days and have fought for lesbian and queer visibility the whole of my adult life. Sometimes I can’t even remember that I felt like that growing up.
When I was at school, my mum received a letter from a school friend’s mother saying that I was a loathsome lesbian, and my life changed overnight. I was a stain on the family, and they tried their hardest to turn me into anything but a lesbian. I feel sorry for that child as I was so stunted and alone but also, I was rebellious and never gave in.
I had to leave home at 16. I had no choice. I was homeless with all the other misfits and runaways, mainly queers. Eventually, I found my tribe and we made family. This was our family with humanity. My experiences politicised me and made me resistant to any form of oppression. The era was full of hate against queers, I fought relentlessly for my brothers dying of AIDS and against Section 28. It seemed every weekend was not just clubbing but protesting and no matter how tired every Sunday morning cooking batches of food to be delivered to people who were too sick to cook for themselves. The government did not help so we helped our family. I’m lucky I still have some family members alive today. We are still as dysfunctional as ever, but we have true family love for each other.
A few years ago, I was part of the original cast of Carnation for a Song – Young Vic. I had a spot where I performed Lez Be Friendz. It was very healing. It ran for 3 weeks, sold out and near enough every night someone came up to me for a chat about growing up wrong – in the past but even now. Solidarity and family is needed now more than ever.
As a political queer I truly believe we are never free if one of us is not. So, alas today, we dust down our marching boots and we continue the fight.
Sista Sista
Sista Sista is Micro Rainbow’s support group for LBTQI women who have experienced any forms of violence and abuse due to their sexuality, and/or gender identity.
This group’s aim is to
- help women overcome the impact of gender-based violence,
- cope with changes
- reduce isolation
- make friends and assist with integrating into a new life.
We support women to:
- rebuild their lives
- explore skills to build the relationship they deserve and desire
- handle transitions
- set goals
- plan for the future.
This project is delivered in partnership with the MRI Foundation.
Micro Rainbow has an extensive history of working with LBTQI women and asylum seekers in the UK. Sista Sista is part of Micro Rainbow’s Social Inclusion programme, which helps reduce the isolation many LGBTQI refugees and asylum seekers face.
What we do
Sista Sista works specifically with LBTQI asylum seekers to provide them with a social environment and safe community.
- This includes social inclusion outings to help facilitate community and workshops ranging from a wide variety of topics.
- Micro Rainbow also hosts workshops to empower LBTQI refugee women to regain their confidence and independence enabling them to secure employment, to access education or public services such as medical care and housing. If you are an organisation that would like to partner with us you can learn more about the many challenges LBTQI women face seeking asylum and how to support them
- Read some stories from Sista Sista.
A recent outing of the Sista Sista group
You hear it all the time – don’t you
Children should be loved unconditionally
I even heard my mother say it in conversation once….
But that was her all show and no substance.
I never looked right for her
No frilly frocks and knee-high white socks
She did try though, and that humiliation still burns my skin today
You are not ladylike …
….as I hung from the top of the monkey bars
Something my brother was scared too do
But no praise
Instead, you are in trouble… flashing your knickers for all to see.
You’re 10 – mother is shouting
She couldn’t be more shamed
The piercing accusations
nasty gal, dirty gal
The crime – having a best friend
The teachers said
That friendship was too intense
…. unnatural
Would only lead to trouble
Instant separation
segregation in the playground
A change of classroom
Banished from each other’s homes
oh, then the playground mockery
chanting, bullying, insinuations
LezBE fiends
LezBE Friends – still sounds dirty to me
All you learn growing up is that you are wrong
you are abhorrent
you are deviant
you are disgusting
you are a disappointment
you are queer – but not in the reclaimed way as it is now
you carry all of that
It is shame and it seeps into your pores
you carry it like a brooding cloak
encased in the cloak is deep heavy rooted blame
you are to blame for an unhappy household
you are to blame for nobody wanting to be there
you are to blame for getting every shade of shit kicked out of you
you are to blame when people say that’s that odd family
You learn to live in secrecy
Make no friends just… in case
you bring no attention to yourself … out of fear or difference
You laughed about boyfriends, sex, snogging and touch ups behind the football pitch
you learn to build a whole new other… a lie…
Hiding. ….
petrified of being found out
being told
Oh, you’re not one of them are you
You stop feeling
Then out of nowhere sweet sixteen
In a club
You see two gals kissing
You stand in awe
You feel
This is it.
You feel
A pang
A stirring
Release
You dance
you touch bodies
your lips brush
your heart bursts
your stomach flutters
you feel it … this is it … the moment of your life
you have sweet, sweet lift off
and this. this is just the beginning
You have permission to start your life all over again.
