Women around Sheffield have been celebrating ‘Lesbian Visibility Week’ to share their stories of living as a queer woman.
Societies across the city, such as the LGBT+ representatives committee, have celebrated the week with Instagram live discussions, social media posts and talks.
University of Sheffield student Jude Barnett spoke to Shefnews about her journey as coming out as a lesbian.
She said: “I knew something was up from a really, really young age. I had my first girl crush in year three.
“However, I didn’t come out until I was 14, and actually I was outed through my dad and step-mum reading my diary.”
The 20-year old English Literature student added: “That was really horrible because it took away my choice in what I wanted to say and how I wanted it to come across.”
The awareness week, founded by DIVA publisher Linda Riley, has become an international success since its return in 2020, reaching the city of Sheffield.
The week is endorsed by organisations such as Stonewall and UK Black Pride, with LGBT+ groups in Sheffield such as the university committee and SAYiT raising awareness to the day.
Olivia Provan, 20, lesbian representative of University of Sheffield’s LGBT+ committee, said: “It’s important we celebrate this week as so many people don’t realise the struggles lesbians can go through.
“In the society, and this week particularly, I’m someone for people to come and feel safe with.”
Miss Barnett found she has faced discrimination from when she came out at school through to living life as an adult at university.
She said: “One girl at school just looked me in the eyes and said ‘ew’ after I made a joke about me being a lesbian. That was pretty awful.
“I think the awareness week is good so people can educate themselves off people’s stories, but I think it could be more effective if big companies did more.”
Last year was the first year the University of Sheffield has had a lesbian representative and the LGBT+ committee hopes each year #lesbianvisibilityweek will ‘flourish’ more.