Lesbians at Work: 12 Sexy Stories of Love at the Office

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I said: ‘What?’ And she said: ‘Lesbians! You know, women with women.’ So I was, like: ‘Really? Really?’” Variables and classifications used in Census 2021 data about sexual orientation and gender identity.

It is presented by Sandi Toksvig, who recalls her own visits to the club, and has interviews with former members. It is sharp, snappy, sassy and sexy – oh, and of course, very sapphic, too. The Gateways Grind, we learn, was a particularly popular dance there where tightly meshed groin action became literally orgasmic. When I went to other people’s houses I would find them extraordinarily suffocating and conventional. There’d be this ghastly father who was a boring old fart and a mother who was terribly uptight,” she recalls. “I was glad to go home to the laughter and fun. There was a lot more conversation, and I had a lot more access to my parents than my friends did to theirs. I could say what I wanted as well.” Such joyful moments very nearly didn’t happen. In the late 80s, Dlugacz was on the cusp of shutting down Olivia Records, the California-based independent label she’d co-founded with a collective of nine other radical lesbians, which boldly celebrated lesbian relationships at a time when mothers risked losing custody of their children by coming out. As Cris Williamson, a founding member who still performs with Olivia, remembers, at the time “lesbians were losing their jobs, their children, their incomes”.

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We are responsible for carrying out the census in England and Wales, but will also release outputs for the UK in partnership with the Welsh Government, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). The census in Northern Ireland was also conducted on 21 March 2021, whereas Scotland’s census was moved to 20 March 2022. All UK census offices are working closely together to understand how this difference in reference dates will affect UK-wide population and housing statistics, in terms of both timing and scope. Response rate Since that first cruise in 1990, a four-night stay in the Bahamas, Olivia has established itself as one of the leaders in the LGBTQ+ travel industry. The company offers a range of all-inclusive vacations, from cruises carrying as many as 1,400 guests to small riverboats, alongside resorts and safaris. The entire ship or resort is hired out for each trip, a strategy intended to ensure guests feel free to be themselves. “The most important thing Olivia does is create an environment where women come and feel stronger when they leave,” says Judy Dlugacz, president of Olivia Travel, who’s been there since the beginning. Last year, Olivia Travel ran more than 30 trips, including to a resort on Providenciales, in the Turks and Caicos archipelago, and from Berlin to Budapest on a riverboat cruise. I’d come out when I was 17 and been disowned by my parents. I’d moved to London and been in and out relationships and casual flings. She was 40 and had been married for 10 years, with three children under the age of 10. The agency we worked for also represented her husband, an esteemed writer, so I knew I absolutely couldn’t go there.

When the club closed, Gina was very sad but knew that she couldn’t take it over by herself. The documentary Gateways Grind is a way of restoring its history, which is enmeshed with her own, and to see her parents again.

Perhaps it’s trite to say that “representation matters,” but some things are cliché because they’re true. The first time I ever saw lesbians onscreen was when my high school’s Gay Bisexual Straight Alliance played part of the first scene of the original L Word series. (The “sweet little figs” scene, in case you were wondering—the girls who get it get it.) Even so, it wasn’t until years later, when I first saw Blue Is the Warmest Color , that I actually found a queer story that reminded me of my own. In the office, nothing changed. Both of us swore not to tell anyone else. I dodged questions from friends about my relationship status like bullets - the lies were worth it for the delirium I felt when I was with her. Instead, at the first of those 15th anniversary concerts, in Seattle, Dlugacz marveled at the energy of the 2,000-strong crowd of women. “I’m going: ‘How can I stop doing this?’” she recalls. After the show, a woman came up to her and suggested doing a concert on the bay. It was this conversation that sparked Dlugacz’s idea to transform the Olivia brand into a travel company. Percentages are calculated from the total usual resident population aged 16 years and over. Because this question is voluntary percentages do not total 100 percent, as “Not Answered” has been excluded from this table. An abbreviation used to refer to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other minority sexual orientations (for example, asexual). Sexual orientation