Notes on lesbian anonymity within mainstream LGBT+ activism

This article proposes the concept of lesbian anonymity for investigating how marginal positions within mainstream movements are anonymized and their contributions to the movement dissipated in the queer collaborative conglomerate. By looking at specific case studies from Romania´s transition period after the fall of the communist regime (1989-mid 2000s), the paper uses lesbian anonymity to analyze how matters of representation were tackled within the LGBT+ mainstream movements in relation to other independent activist circles. The concept refers to the systematic non-acknowledgement of representational issues within the queer movements, the recognition of women´s contribution to the movement at a lower level, as well as to using the work and resources of women while not shaping opportunities of engagement in the decision process and keeping these voices at a certain distance from the public sphere. 

This contribution also explores what happens when the queer gatekeepers fail to engage with inside critiques concerning the selective erasure of certain categories of voices (trans, racialized people, sex workers, etc.). I argue that lesbian and, by extension, queer women anonymity offers the possibility of understanding the clashes between (and within) different LGBT+ groups in post-socialist spaces. 

Starting from the questions of how lesbian anonymity shapes these queer movements and why is it important to keep representational issues in mind while working against the attacks on non-normative sexualities, gender, women´s reproductive rights, etc., this article offers a necessary critique and argues against the replication of the representational gap within queer movements. 

Keywords: lesbian anonymity, Romania, LGBT+ activism