Lesbian women are striking because we want the right to have relationships and families with other women without economic, legal, and social discrimination and without violence. Whatever our visibility or lack of it, there are lesbian women in every country: we are mothers, housewives, farmers, sex workers, secretaries, nurses, etc. We are Black and other women of colour, white, immigrant, refugee, we live in villages, in cities, some of us have disabilities, and we are all of different ages. We do the same unwaged work as other women caring for and looking after friends, families and communities and on top of that we also have to face and confront anti-lesbian and other discrimination. Many lesbian women can't afford to live openly with our partners, children, families because of hostility and discrimination, so we’re often forced to live double lives. Many us have had to emigrate to live a more openly lesbian life. We are striking to show how much lesbian women contribute to society and movements for social change; for all women to get the money and resources we need to have more sexual and other choices, and for a Millennium where all our lives are valued.

International Wages Due Lesbians (IWDL) is helping co-ordinate the Strike. Since 1975 we have been campaigning for lesbian women's economic, legal and human rights, including resources to be able to come out and be visible wherever we are. We are a multi-racial grassroots network, and we’re demanding recognition and compensation for all the unwaged and low-waged work lesbian women contribute to the economies of communities and countries, and against all forms of homophobia. We’re based in Barcelona (Spain), Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles (US), and London and Manchester (UK).

We would like to hear from other lesbian women who'd like to join the Global Women's Strike. Let’s stop the world - and change it!

I worked as a prostitute for many years to support my children, while living with a woman. Some may wonder how you can sleep with men for money and be a lesbian. I’ve met many other lesbian women so do sex work because it pays better than other jobs available to women. We do live under constant fear that we’ll have our children taken away if we get arrested because we are illegal workers and are also lesbian women. Laura, SF

I am on strike because I’m tired of hiding being lesbian. I work as a nurse and one time on a children’s ward a co-worker circulated rumours that a gay man and I were working there because we wanted to convert the children to homosexuals. Some of the people we worked with quit speaking to us; others said we better not mention our lives at work. We had to force the union to help us and this was a lot of work. Every time I get a new job I have to "come out" all over again. Lori, SF

The other day I realised I don’t know any lesbian women who own their own homes; if there’s any money passed along in the family it probably won’t go to the queers. We’re homeless when we’re youth, often to escape violence and hostility. When we get old there is a good chance you will be out on the street again. I’m striking for housing a for all. Ann, SF

I am going on strike to highlight the hidden work that disabled women do which is not recognised including caring for family and friends, and we’re against the sort of caring which is more like 24 hour surveillance, and often denies our sexuality and our sexual choices. E, London

I am striking for the right to be lesbian whatever country we live in, for our relationships to be seen as real, our work of caring for families, friends, children to be recognised including when we’re not mothers, and that as immigrants we don’t have to hide that we’re gay when we see our loved ones back home.   D, Italy / England

- I am going on strike because I have decided not to ask permission to share my live and my love with who I want. Because every time I go back to my village it reminds me that you can only be a lesbian in the big cities (and some times not even there). Because I am fed up of all the prejudices I have to confront day by day as a lesbian woman. I support the strike as an opportunity to get everybody together, everybody with the right to nothing, who has the right to everything, to basic resources to live as well as pleasure, happiness, dignity and life.

I’m a lesbian mother and have raised kids and I’m going on strike to add the work lesbian mothers do raising kids in the face of prejudice and poverty, along with all the other work mothers do. And now, I’m about to be a lesbian grandma. The work never ends! R, San Francisco

I am a Black lesbian woman, I have to fight against all sorts of prejudices, in society, with my family . . . every day is a fight to get my rights, which are no different to the rights of other people. I support the strike because I think it is going to change the world, from this day on everybody will realise how much power women have. C, London

Raising children is some of the hardest work there is, and women like me who are non-biological mums are usually officially invisible in our children’s lives - or we’re told our families are "perverted" or "pretended". I’m striking because no woman should have to choose between having and raising children and living a lesbian life; and the families we choose must be recognised and valued. A, London

I'll be on strike as a lesbian single mother because the isolation and vulnerability for single mothers can be even greater when we are lesbian. The additional suspicion and disapproval we face and the fear of losing our children makes us guard our lives more closely. We’re treated as less "real mothers" and more "pretended". It can be even harder to get our kids back from care especially if we’re also Black or immigrant, have disabilities and/or have a record for illegal work such as prostitution or shoplifting which many of us have do to support our children and have a social life. The lesbian and gay press rarely oppose government attacks on single mothers that aim to destroy our non-nuclear families. Whilst celebrating lesbian and gay couples who have or adopt children, they refuse to give lesbian single mothers any visibility, defence or protection. We have a right to money and time to fulfil all our own and our children’s needs and desires. K, London.

I’m joining the strike because as a Native American lesbian mother I am tired of fighting against prejudices and discrimination because my lover is a woman. Tired of dealing with the homophobia that my kids face because their mom's a lesbian and they are afraid they will be made fun of or bullied at school so they don’t bring their friends home. Tired of being an outcast within the Native American community that has been "brainwashed" by Anglo Christian beliefs. It is a new Millennium, and time for a change! Gonalcheesh, ho ho!

I’m a 49 year old Black lesbian born in Britain, with a German mother and Nigerian father and a survivor of child abuse. I’m going on strike for an end to being treated differently because of the colour of my skin and for having a woman lover. Along with women all over the world I want the hidden work of surviving prejudice, sexual abuse and other violence, acknowledged and compensated. We have a lot of wages and back-pay due and are entitled to new life-valuing millennium which includes the right to choose our sexuality and to live where and with whom we want without violence and other retribution. C, London

Striking statement from a nurse/lesbian

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