Dyke village, population: you
February 12, 2020 1:12 PM   Subscribe

Are you a lesbian? Do you have a sense of a real-life lesbian community? If yes- where do you live?

I'm musing that as a single lesbian I don't have any other lesbians that are close to me either geographically or emotionally. This might be a contributing factor to issues I face.

Due to my employment situation I could technically live anywhere (see my askme history for details). I would like to know if anyone could recommend a place that has a high concentration of lesbians anywhere in the world.

I am currently in the UK and am aware that hotspots here are probably London, Brighton, Hebden Bridge and Manchester. I would like to hear from others around the world.
posted by Balthamos to Society & Culture (8 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I live in Montreal, and speaking anecdotally, there's an incredible lesbian community here -- at least among under-40 lesbians, I can't speak for 40+ since that's not my demographic.

The scene here is politically left and trans-positive, and many people use the word "queer" rather than a more specific gender/sexuality label. There's tons of events (parties, but also chiller events like poetry nights), several queer book stores, and a wonderful neighbourhood lesbian bar. There's lesbian community in both English and French, although the two groups don't tend to mix a whole lot.

Feel free to PM me if you want to know more about the community here.
posted by mekily at 1:28 PM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Im a bi woman but can attest that Alice Springs Australia has a pretty vibrant lesbian scene. Theres stats to back that up
posted by hotcoroner at 2:01 PM on February 12, 2020


The rural college town of Urbana, Illinois has had a thriving lesbian community for decades. It's even got the world's only lesbian feminist chorus, Amasong!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:36 PM on February 12, 2020


I live in San Francisco, California. My neighborhood, Bernal Heights, has a well-established lesbian population, owing to the decades-long presence of a storied lesbian-owned bar (the Wild Side West). I hesitate to call it a lesbian bar--which it is--because it's also a neighborhood institution where everyone mingles. The lesbian crowd here skews a bit older, but Wild Side has been here since the early 70s and so have quite a few of its regulars.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:40 PM on February 12, 2020


I'm in Long Beach, California. It is terrific for many reasons, but the women I call my neighbors make my long daily commute to work tolerable.

I reluctantly left Oakland, California (where I grew up) over a decade ago, and I never thought I'd find a place that would top it as far as community goes. But here I am. I'm also happy to answer any questions.
posted by otenba at 8:43 PM on February 12, 2020


I'm in Seattle. The community here is amazing, I love it so much. There are tons of events, and people have been really friendly to a relative newcomer like myself. It's been pretty easy to meet people and make friends. People are really invested in community. Things CAN get a bit incestuous but I think of that as sort of the Price of Admission if you want community.

I love talking about it, so feel free to memail me or ask me here if you want to know more.

(Like mekily says about Montreal, it's not really a "lesbian" community, though that's probably what it would have been called a decade ago. It's a queer community, which means cis and trans lesbians, but also bi women who prefer women, and many queer AFAB folks of various genders. It's pretty dykey, though, which suits this dyke-aligned trans non-binary AFAB person! From what I gather, this is pretty common in North American cities.)
posted by lunasol at 9:08 PM on February 12, 2020


Anywhere in Vancouver Island, Canada or in Vancouver you’ll find a large lesbian and queer/trans community.
posted by andreapandrea at 9:13 PM on February 12, 2020


I’m from Brighton originally but now live in Paris, I run a LGBTQIA+ female presenting group with 3500 members, from 18 to 70, and despite there only being 4 lesbian bars here, there is still a community.
posted by ellieBOA at 3:11 AM on February 13, 2020


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