Visible, well and stronger together: reflecting on Lesbian Visibility Week 2026

(2) Visible, well and stronger together: reflecting on Lesbian Visibility Week 2026 | LinkedIn

Today is Lesbian Visibility Day, and the final day of Lesbian Visibility Week 2026. It feels like a good moment to stop and reflect on a week that has been joyful, powerful, emotional and much needed.

This year’s theme is Health and Wellbeing, which feels especially important. Visibility matters, but it is not just about being seen. It is about being able to live well, love openly, access support, feel safe, build community, take up space and thrive.

For me, Lesbian Visibility Week is both personal and professional.

Personally, I mark it as an out and proud queer woman. I know what it means to see people like us being visible, loud, brilliant and unapologetic. As someone who grew up in the 80’s/90’s under Section 28, with virtually no visible representation, role models or even acknowledgement of our existence, I also know what it means when that visibility is missing.

Professionally, I come to this week through my roles as Head of Partnerships and Development at Consortium of LGBT+ Voluntary and Community Organisations , Chair of Proud Changemakers, and someone who has spent more than 25 years working in and around LGBTQ+ communities, women’s, equality and social justice organisations.

I also come to it as someone who loves queer culture, queer joy, queer nightlife, queer friendship and the sheer magic that happens when our communities are in a room together.

This year, I was lucky enough to be in some of those rooms.

The Lesbian Visibility Week event at LSEG (The London Stock Exchange) was a powerful reminder of what it means for LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people to be visible in spaces that have not always been built with us in mind. Seeing our communities centred in such a high-profile setting, with a focus on health and wellbeing, felt significant. Not because visibility in corporate or institutional spaces solves everything, but because being present, heard and taken seriously in those spaces still matters.

I also attended the DIVA Awards hosted by DIVA Charitable Trust, which was a proper celebration of LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people across entertainment, politics, business, activism, community life and beyond. It was glamorous, joyful and full of incredible people, but it was also more than that. Nights like that are a reminder that our achievements deserve to be recognised. Our stories deserve to be told. Our leaders, campaigners, artists, organisers and everyday change-makers deserve their flowers.

And yet, this year’s theme asks us to go further than celebration.

Health and wellbeing are not soft issues. They are survival issues.

They are about mental health, safe housing, freedom from violence, access to inclusive healthcare, cancer screening, fertility care, sexual health, gender-affirming support, disability justice, community connection, financial security, rest, joy and dignity.

They are about whether a lesbian, bi or queer woman can walk into a GP surgery and be believed. Whether a non-binary person can access support without having to explain or defend who they are. Whether a Black lesbian, a disabled bi woman, a trans woman, an older queer woman, a migrant, a working-class queer person or a queer woman of faith can find services that understand the whole of who they are.

These issues are not abstract. They show up in people’s lives every day.

We know that LGBTQIA+ people continue to experience poorer mental health outcomes, barriers to healthcare, isolation, discrimination and increased risk of harm. We know that LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people are often missing from data, policy, services and funding decisions. We know that too many people still have to search hard for support that feels safe, informed and genuinely welcoming.

That is why Lesbian Visibility Week cannot just be about rainbow logos, award ceremonies or one week of social media posts. Visibility has to lead somewhere.

It has to lead to funding. To policy change. To better services. To stronger community infrastructure. To safer workplaces. To inclusive healthcare. To research that asks the right questions. To leadership opportunities. To intergenerational connection. To joy that is treated as essential, not optional.

At Consortium, I see every day how much of this work is being carried by grassroots LGBTQ+ organisations. Many of them are small, underfunded and stretched, but they are doing vital work with skill, heart and deep community knowledge. They are often the first place people turn when mainstream services have failed them.

That infrastructure matters. Visibility without resourcing is not enough. Communities cannot survive on applause alone.

At Proud Changemakers, I also see the power of storytelling, leadership and platforming voices that are too often pushed to the margins. Proud Changemakers exists because LGBTQIA+ people across civil society have always been leading change, often without the recognition, support or visibility they deserve.

Lesbian visibility is part of that. So is bi visibility. Trans visibility. Non-binary visibility. Intersex visibility. Ace visibility. Visibility for queer people of colour, disabled queer people, older queer people, working-class queer people and everyone who has been made to feel like they are at the edges of the edges.

An intersectional approach does not weaken lesbian visibility. It makes it stronger.

We can recognise the specific needs of LBT+ women while also refusing to let our communities be divided. Lesbian and bi women have distinct experiences of sexism, misogyny, homophobia, biphobia, healthcare exclusion and erasure. Trans women are facing intense and targeted hostility. Non-binary people are still too often ignored altogether.

These realities are not in competition with each other. They are connected.

I come back to a simple belief: we do not achieve freedom by pushing someone else out.

That feels especially important now. The political and social climate is hard. It feels more divisive, more hostile and more exhausting than it has for a long time. Across the world, far-right movements are becoming bolder, and LGBTQIA+ people are too often used as easy targets. Trans people in particular are being scapegoated, but history tells us that attacks rarely stop with one group.

When rights are framed as a threat, when solidarity is lacking, when inclusion is treated as controversial, and when marginalised people are encouraged to fight each other for scraps of safety, all of us lose.

The answer is not to shrink ourselves.

It is to get louder, kinder, sharper and more connected.

This week has also made me think about the queer women and non-binary people who inspire me personally and professionally. The colleagues, friends, activists, artists, trustees, fundraisers, youth workers, campaigners, drag performers, writers, DJs, community organisers and absolute grafters who keep showing up.

The people who build spaces with no money and too much caffeine. The people who answer the phone when someone is in crisis. The people who write the funding bid, book the room, chair the meeting, run the support group, organise the protest, bring the playlist and still somehow remember to check in on each other.

I want to shout out the brilliant queer women and non-binary people I get to work alongside through Proud Changemakers, including Luca Straker, Carrie Lyell , Amy Walton and the wider Proud Changemakers family.

I want to shout out the LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary folk across Consortium’s membership and the wider LGBTQIA+ sector who are leading services, campaigns, networks and community spaces in incredibly difficult conditions.

Marty Davies Laïla El-Métoui Sue Sanders Alexia Page Rebecca Paisis Raga D'silva Manju Patel-Nair Phyll Opoku-Gyimah Nicola Fearnley-Hill Nancy Kelley Bobbi Pickard Claire Ebrey Helen Belcher OBE Helen Walsh Laura Mackay Lynne Nicholls Zoe Grant Saba Ali FRSA and so many more.

And I want to shout out the queer women in my personal life. The ones who have made me laugh, kept me grounded, challenged me, inspired me, and reminded me that community is not an abstract idea. It is people.

Lesbian Visibility Day is a celebration, and it should be.

We should celebrate the artists, organisers, elders, young people, friends, partners, chosen families, campaigners, carers, leaders, rebels and joy-makers who have got us here. We should celebrate the fact that lesbian, bi, trans and queer women and non-binary people are visible in more spaces than ever before. We should celebrate the courage it takes to be out, while also respecting those who are not safe or ready to be.

But we should also be honest.

Visibility matters, but it only means something if it helps create real change.

As Lesbian Visibility Week 2026 comes to a close, I am holding both things at once: pride in how far we have come, and determination about the work still ahead.

We need better healthcare, stronger community funding, safer services, more inclusive workplaces, braver allyship, better data and solidarity that does not fall apart the moment things get politically difficult.

Most of all, we need each other.

Because lesbian visibility is not just about being seen for one week in April. It is about building a world where LGBTQIA+ women and non-binary people are safe, well, valued, resourced and free every day of the year.