Lesbians and Exile — Joan Nestle

Fiction. Poetry. Prose. Anthology. LGBT Studies. Living as a lesbian is still a dangerous business in many parts of the world, especially when lesbian lives become enmeshed in agendas of national purification that make scapegoats of lesbians and nonconformists more broadly. In other instances, simply being a lesbian is not necessarily the most pressing issue in one's daily life. This is particularly true if a lesbian lives in, or is closely connected with, war zones, whether such zones result from armed conflict within or across national boundaries or from violence experienced in a socially and economically marginalized community. However, being a lesbian informs and complicates the responses to, and survival strategies developed in, such contexts. Thus the stories lesbians tell are marked by the criss-crossings of all their histories.