Lesbian Relationships

Because of the controversial nature of homosexuality and the heavy social proscriptions against it, many individuals are reluctant to reveal that they are gay. Because so many (most probably the majority) of gay persons are still closeted, estimates of the incidence of homosexuality have been misleading and inaccurate. Attitudes toward homosexuality began to change in the second half of the 20th century.

Gays attribute this, in part, to their own increasing assertiveness concerning their rights about pride in their orientation. Gay activism, which began in the late 1960s as a civil rights movement, has helped to change people's thinking and even some laws and business practices. Some large companies now extend health-care benefits to the life partners of their gay employees. Also, many places have officially appointed lesbian and gay advisory committees. However, while some attitudes have indeed changed, prejudice still exists and, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was considerable backlash, with attempts to pass laws prohibiting the granting of basic civil rights to gays. Their quest for equal recognition has been an ongoing struggle. Yet, regardless of how many strides they make, their ultimate goal of total equality continues to allude them.

Not all of society will accept them nor will it ever. Those with strong conservative religious mind sets will be the least accepting. Sad to say, those who are the least likely to show tolerance claim to represent God's truth As a result, their intolerance makes it impossible for them to be effective in convincing gay people to reconsider their sexual orientation.

Yet, there is credence in the argument that one should never reject the person regardless of her being gay. Yet, the inability to separate people from their sexual preferences continues to be a challenge to those who choose the lesbian lifestyle.

Needless to say, they are here to stay. They are our sisters, our daughters, and our fellow-employees. We'll either love and accept them for who and what they are or we will reject them along with their sexuality.

We can't have it both ways.

A wide degree of diversity exists among the types of individuals who identify themselves as being lesbian. The variations in the lesbian community range from bull dyke, to dyke, to hard butch, to soft butch, to femme, to lipstick femme.

While there are those who fit the popular stereotype of the homosexual as a sexually promiscuous female who cannot or will not maintain a permanent loving relationship, most gay females, live quiet lives just like anyone else.

Some gay women have raised children, alone or with partners, and the use of artificial, or alternative, insemination is increasing among lesbians, creating what has been called a lesbian baby boom.

The undeniable fact is that women who love other women have historically always been a part of our society. They work in factories, serve as executives in large companies, own homes in our neighbourhoods, and teach our children. Although, the current degree of repression is not as strong as it has been in the past, few gay women feel the same sense of freedom from scrutiny that heterosexual women experience.

Yet, in the larger scheme of things, each of us must make our own way along our chosen path. Whatever consequences that come as a result of our decision to take that path. Surely this principle is true regardless of one's sexual preference.

Accepting each other a human beings without passing sexual judgment on others is by far the better road to take.