About this Archive

Lesbians Talk Issues (Scarlet Press, 1992-1996)

Lesbian politics in the 1990s looks set to produce a fast-changing agenda of issues and debates, contradictions and differences of opinion. The Lesbians Talk Issues series is designed to provide a forum in which topics of current interest within the international lesbian community can be dissected and discussed with immediacy and flexibility. (Call out for pamphlet proposals in the back of Lesbians Talk Queer Notions.)

Comprising seven pamphlets, the Lesbians Talk Issues series was published by feminist non-fiction publishers Scarlet Press, between 1992 and 1996. Through an approach reminiscent of feminist consciousness raising groups, the texts feature an impressive number of contributors (many still very vocal and well known), who address a wide range of topics such as the arrival of ‘queer’, SM dykes, early responses to HIV, transgender activism and the experiences of black and Asian lesbians.

The series offers a unique snapshot of lesbian experiences in Britain as culture wars played out in person at community spaces and events, the AIDs crisis and Section 28 cast long shadows over the early optimism of the Women’s Liberation Movement and Gay Liberation Front, and the country edged closer to the end of nearly two decades of Conservative rule.

Scarlet Press co-founder and Lesbians Talk Issues Series Editor, Vicky Wilson, outside Silver Moon Bookshop on Charing Cross Road in 1992. The window display behind her features Lesbians Talk Queer Notions.
Credit: Vicky Wilson

Lives From the Archives: Lesbians Talk Issues Revisited

On 30 March 2023, Bishopsgate Institute held a panel discussion event to celebrate all seven titles in the Lesbians Talk Issues series being digitised and made available on the Bishopsgate Institute collections. The panel consisted of Cherry Smyth, author of Lesbians Talk Queer Notions (1992), Pratibha Parmar, co-author of Lesbians Talk (Safer) Sex (1992) and Joelle Taylor, co-author of Lesbians Talk Violent Relationships (1994) for a discussion about their pamphlets and lesbian London in the 1990s. The panel was chaired by Nazmia Jamal.

You can now listen to the recording of this discussion below.