Lesbians in Love and Compromising Situations

Lesbians in Love and Compromising Situations
Formation1983
Dissolved1985
HeadquartersCape Town

Lesbians in Love and Compromising Situations (LILACS) was a social and political group for lesbians, founded in 1983 as "an offshoot of the gay students' association" at the University of Cape Town.[1]

LILACS was the first South African lesbian-only organisation,[2][3][4] part of a larger movement of LGBTQ+ organising in South Africa in the 1980s.[5][4]

The group disbanded in 1985[4] because members could not agree whether the group should use the label "feminist" and be politically active with other liberation organisations, or whether it should serve only as a space for socialising.[3]

Activist and librarian Julia Nicol and human rights activist Sheila Lapinsky helped to establish LILACS.[3][6] Nicol and Lapinsky went on to organise with OLGA (the Organizations for Lesbian and Gay Activists).[3][6]

The GALA Queer Archive (GALA) at the University of the Witwatersrand holds photographs, tapes, papers, and clothing related to LILACS, in the Julia Nicol and Sheila Lapinsky collections.[7][8][6][9]

References

  1. ↑ Gevisser, Mark (1995). "A different fight for freedom" (PDF). Defiant Desire. Routledge. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-12-04. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  2. ↑ Armour, Mary; Lapinsky, Sheila (1995). "'Lesbians in love and compromising situations': Lesbian feminist organising in the Western Cape". Defiant Desire. Routledge.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "The Julia Nicol Photographic Collection" (PDF). Newsletter of the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa (GALA) (5). 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-10. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  4. 1 2 3 Koen, Karin; Terry, Patricia. "South". International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Book South Africa.
  5. ↑ "Sexual Orientation Timeline | South Africa's Constitution". Our Constitution. Archived from the original on 2025-08-13. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
  6. 1 2 3 "Guide to the archival collections of the GALA queer archive" (PDF). GALA.
  7. ↑ "LILACS". Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA). Sheila Lapinsky. Retrieved 2026-06-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ↑ Chernis, Linda (2023). "The Gala Archives: Preserving The "Queerer" Side of Queer Cape Town". Beyond the Mountain. Routledge.
  9. ↑ "GALA T Shirt Tales" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2026-01-06. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.