LOT Get-together For Documentary
A number of women who were involved in LOT (Lesbians Organising Together) during the 1990s met last month to remember and record LOT history. The gathering animatedly recalled the breadth of services LOT provided and the scope of LOT’s external involvements.
“We were aware at the time that we were able to set up the organisation due to the hard work of previous groups and women,” says original LOT member, Susan Miner. “The motivation to gather now came from the upcoming Outitude documentary about the lesbian community; the get-together was filmed and some content may appear in the documentary.”
Along with a drop-in centre, LOT provided space for women first coming out or exploring their sexual orientation, agitated for better healthcare, made legal submissions, and hosted social and community events including, for three years, the Wild and Wonderful Women’s Weekend. LOT partnered with WERRC organising several Lesbian Lives Conferences. LOT and Dublin Lesbian Line were both members of the NWCI.
LOT spawned LEA (Lesbian Education & Awareness). The initial grant to LEA (the first to a lesbian group in Europe) allowed the production of a lesbian resource pack that included the first published Irish legal information on intimate personal violence in partnerships between women.
“At the time LOT began in 1991, lesbian women were often invisible, both in wider society and within the LGB community,” says Susan. “By the time LOT ended in the late 1990s, we had succeeded in dramatically increasing the visibility and empowerment of lesbian women by, for example, influencing NWCI policy and actions, hosting a greater number of larger and more influential events, making submissions on proposed legislation, successfully agitating for two lesbian pages in GCN, and supporting 260 women in coming out in 1994.”