From Coachella to the big screen: we're seeing a boom in lesbian pop culture

“Lesbians are everywhere,” a black cat thinks to itself in the famous poster by See Red Women’s Workshop, entitled ‘Lesbians are coming out…” (1982). Behind the cat is a street full of women, talking, cuddling, and eating.

If you happened to be in Broadway Market, on the 15 February this year, you might have seen a similar, but even more crowded, sight as queer women flocked to the secretive grand opening of London’s new lesbian bar La Camionera – now the capital’s second lesbian bar and fourth in the entire country. Unsurprisingly then, the street was overrun with potential customers, who passed their time waiting to step foot in the venue by talking, cuddling, and eating. Lesbians were everywhere.

Despite the lack of dedicated venues and spaces, this year’s Lesbian Visibility Week (22 – 28 April) comes amid a renaissance of lesbian culture, from film and culture down to the streets.

“From Chappell Roan going mainstream and Rosalia and Hunter Schafer dating in 2019 being confirmed, to Billie's new song about eating a girl out and Renee Rapp bringing The L Word cast to introduce her [at] Coachella. This is the year of the lesbians, the rest of you do better,” posted X user @xcowboygeniusx, capturing the sentiment of the moment.

If you watched any coverage of Coachella, you may have noticed that beyond Grimes’ awkward tech mishap, femme-lesbian icon Chappell Roan stole the show. Her music is finally having its (much deserved) mainstream break-through, as fans heavily relate to her new hit Good Luck Babe, which explores the experience of loving a woman who can’t admit she’s queer, hooked on the catchy, taunting bridge: “When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night/With your head in your hands, you're nothing more than his wife.” The song is Roan’s first to break into the Billboard Hot 100 and is currently going viral on TikTok.

But, as xcowboygeniusx pointed out, Roan’s was far from the only lesbian success story from Coachella; Mean Girls reboot star Rene Rapp invited the OG cast of 00s drama The L Word to introduce her set. Billie Eilish was also papped kissing YouTuber Quenlin Blackwell, *and* gave fans a preview of her new single Lunch during a secret set, which is pretty explicitly about eating a woman out. Coachella attendees would be forgiven for thinking they’d accidentally wandered into Dinah Shore.

As well as dominating Coachella’s stages, lesbian flicks have also taken over the box office with two hit films, Love Lies Bleeding and Drive Away Dolls, which helped to bring sex back to the big screen.

But it’s not just mainstream recognition. Lesbians have been getting organised at a grassroots level, too, and the result has been a boom in lesbian events. Not only has London seen a new lesbian bar, there’s also been a wave of pop-up events, from monthly bar takeovers to events like Butch Please having to move to a bigger venue to keep up with demand. In fact, the night is now running events both nationally and internationally, with a recent event in Brighton and New York. One new regular fixture is bi-monthly events run by the collective Pop-Up Dyke Bar, who wanted to create accessible and free spaces for queer people.

This renewed wave of organising and culture hasn’t come from nowhere; it’s the result of increased attacks on the lives and rights of LGBTQIA+ people and women. Lesbians and queer women have historically been at the forefront of queer organising and movements, and the present moment is no different. As the government flip-flops on its conversion therapy ban and uses trans rights as a political football, lesbians and queer women have responded by setting up groups like The Dyke Project, which has organised counter-protests and demos in solidarity with trans communities.

“There has been a concerning rise in transphobes trying to define terms like ‘lesbian’ and ‘dyke’ as only for cisgender women,” the organisers of Pop-Up Dyke Bar tell Cosmopolitan UK. “So creating an event that challenges this narrative has been another priority! We dedicate our dyke bars to being safe, fun spaces that are inclusive of transfem, transmasc, non-binary, intersex, and cis dykes. If you identify with dyke culture and respect the diversity of genders and sexualities within our community, you’re welcome here.”

While some are dubbing 2024, ‘The year of lesbianism’, not all lesbians and queer women are getting equal time in the spotlight. While we loved all the lesbians dominating the Coachella stage, lesbians of colour are still not being given those kinds of opportunities. The so-called ‘lesbian renaissance’ of new dyke spaces has also been criticised, as some of the events and spaces have all or majority white organising teams, and long-standing events run by lesbians of colour have not received as much mainstream attention. “We owe a lot to the dyke events that came before us, in particular the Bristol Butch Bar and Wet London who gave us incredibly helpful advice on how to run these nights free of charge while upholding our values,” adds the Pop-Up Dyke Bar spokesperson. If mainstream culture is finally ready to embrace lesbian culture and camp, it needs to make space for all dykes: dykes of colour, trans dykes disabled dykes, butch dykes, dykes in every shape and size.

Let’s turn Lesbian Visibility Week into Lesbian Visibility Year – or Lesbian Visibility Life – putting the issues, lives, loves, and culture of queer women front and centre, where it belongs. Here’s to more lesbian music, lesbian flicks, dance parties, collectives, and more out-and-proud lesbians in a culture that loves them. It’s long overdue.

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