#black lesbians

[lesbiansovereverything]

EVERLYN

A female family member of mine got married to a man in the middle of the COVID pandemic. So I watched the heterosexual coupling via Zoom. She wore a white dress with a long flowing train and a veil that hid her face; a spectacle of patriarchal heteronormativity. After the vows were said, and just before kissing the bride, her husband turned to the camera and announced with glee, “This is the first time we will be kissing!” They had been dating for three years.

In that moment, I saw the future and person my family had envisioned and engineered for me. One that I had escaped by coming out. The box and script that I was supposed to fit into and follow was made visible in the person of my relative and I mourned for her – wishing that this was what she genuinely wanted and had chosen and not the script that she was unconsciously following in order to win the approval of her parents and her community. But I’ve also known her since birth and I mourned because I knew different.

I’d escaped the same fate by coming out at 19. My rebellion had begun long before that in small ways, easily dismissed by family and community as eccentricisms that would be corrected once I followed the “plan.” But coming out as a lesbian sealed the deal for my family – as it was THE scarlet letter that could never be erased from my forehead. For me, however, it was a joyfully revelatory catalyst that embedded in me the surety that I could eschew scripts, jump from boxes, carve a life without templates of heterosexism, gender conformity, and sexual confinement – a knowledge that I had the freedom to choose something other than the life that had been set out by society and family.

My brother reacted by saying, “I feel as if you’re getting away with something. I just don’t know what.” I didn’t either – not then. But now I do. Somewhere deep inside, without having the words for it, I knew that what I wanted as a child–to be a Renaissance Woman who felt free to pursue a life of intellectual, physical, and creative freedom–was impossible under the regime of heteronormativity and female sexual subjugation that I saw all around me. And so many years later, having come out publicly at age 19, I look back and can honestly say that I am that Renaissance Woman I envisioned myself to be when I was seven.

*Everlyn Hunter immigrated to the US from Jamaica at the age of 14. Her educational accomplishments include Masters and Doctoral degrees in Psychology, as well as a diploma from Vancouver Film School in Writing for Television and Film. Concurrent with her professional work, Everlyn has held numerous leadership roles as a board member of non-profit human rights, Jewish, and LGBT organizations. Dr. Hunter currently lives in Los Angeles where she works as a Psychologist. In her spare time, she is a student pilot who loves flying, and an aspiring jazz vocalist. She is currently working on her first full length novel.

[xxconnection]

This Lesbian Poem by Akhaji Zakiya from Lisa C Moore's Does Your Mama Know?: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories

[divine-noire]

Skin like the sun ✨

Heart like the moon 🌙

[her-stars]

I NEED a black lesbian romcom movie with no fucking trauma. I want a regular cute and fun corny ass romcom. brown and darkskin leading women 👏🏾👏🏾

[asapphicsunflower]

a very happy lesbian visibility week indeed 💘

[limeade-l3sbian]

older black lesbians 💜

[pussyvanpussy]

[lavanderdykes]

Set It Off (1996)

[thottybrucewayne]

I'm on every bitch wishlist, shout out to Santa

[flowers-poetry-poc]

Say what you want about first kill, but the fact that we have a Black Lesbian in the mainstream is big. And this one’s particularly important because she is co-main character. She has a close knit black family that doesn’t care she is gay and who are pretty well written. Yeah this show isn’t perfect. But for a 15 year old black girl who is used to girls who look like her be the comic relief, the side character, the one that dies or only used to seeing white lesbians or light skinned lesbians, this is great. Let her enjoy it. Because I know that I would have.

[gotturnedout]

[lesbiansovereverything]

This year's Black Lesbians United Retreat was everything. These clips capture some of the joy, dancing, and horniness of the weekend.

[thenatureofbutch]

Screengrab taken from the YouTube series ‘studs world’

[scorpiuscomplex]

my daily dose of sweetness

[genderoutlaws]

Storme Webber, a Black Sugpiaq/Choctaw Two-Spirit Lesbian artist and poet, photographed by Diné artist Will Wilson for his ongoing Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange project. | 2018

Wilson employs a wet-plate collodion photographic technique, based on the nineteenth-century method that involves exposing and then developing a plate that has been coated in light-sensitive chemicals. He explores identity, the photographic medium as both art and science, and community. Wilson collaborates with his sitters, who determine their pose, clothing, props, and how they are presented. As a gesture of reciprocity, Wilson gives the sitters the original photograph, while retaining the right to print and use scans for artistic purposes. Originally, CIPX was Wilson’s way to work toward a re-imagined vision of Native people in response to historic photographers such as Edward Curtis and his The North American Indian (1907-1930).

[manicpixiedepressedwitch]