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Dykes
on Strike for On International Women’s Day women in many countries on every continent will take part in the third GLOBAL WOMEN’S STRIKE. . . We will take time off from waged and unwaged work, demanding A MILLENIUM WHICH VALUES ALL WOMEN’S WORK AND ALL WOMEN’S LIVES, and AN END TO NO PAY, LOW PAY AND TOO MUCH WORK. Lesbian women are everywhere … · One in three households worldwide is woman headed – no-one knows how many are lesbian, but we are in every country. We are mothers, housewives, farmers, students, sex workers, secretaries, nurses, teachers, bus drivers, 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 of different ages. · We do the same work as all women, caring for children, families, friends and communities, and we also do the additional work of confronting anti-lesbian and other discrimination. Most lesbian women in the world can't afford to live openly with our loved ones, and are forced to live double lives. Many of us have had to emigrate to live more openly lesbian lives. Lesbian women are striking … · For the right to have relationships and families with other women without economic, legal, and social discrimination and without violence or criminalization. · To make visible lesbian women’s contributions to every society and campaigns for change. · For all women to get the money and resources we need to have more Sexual and other choices. I’m coming out on 8 March because. . . "As a Black lesbian woman 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." ". . . The suspicion and disapproval we face if we’re lesbian single mothers and the fear of losing custody of our children makes us guard our lives more closely." "As a Native American lesbian mother I am tired of fighting against prejudices and discrimination, & of the homophobia my kids face; they’re afraid they’ll be made fun of or bullied at school so they don't bring their friends home." "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’. "Many of us do sex work because it pays better than other jobs available to women. But we live under constant fear that we’ll have our children taken away if we get arrested." "As disabled women we do unrecognised hidden work. We’re against the sort of caring which is more like 24 hour surveillance and often denies our sexuality and our sexual choices." "We’re homeless when we’re youth, often to escape violence and hostility. When we get old we might be out on the street again." "Every time I go back to my village it reminds me that you can only be lesbian in big cities (and sometimes not even that.)" "A co-worker circulated rumours that a gay man and I were working as nurses because we wanted to convert the children on the ward to being gay. People we worked with quit speaking to us. We had to force the union to help us." "My high school teacher accused me of having an "unhealthy" attachment to my girlfriend. Afraid of discovery we pretended we didn’t know each other. Soon we broke up." "As immigrants we don’t want to hide that we’re gay when we see our loved ones back home." International Wages Due Lesbians (IWDL) is helping to co-ordinate the GWS. We hope you'll join us – wherever you are. Get in touch, visit our website, invite us to speak to your group, help with publicity, etc. Let's stop the world – and change it! Wages Due Strike link Lesbian and Bisexual Women Home
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