Lesbian Visibility Week: 5 amazing queer women who have appeared in Attitude

Monday 22 April to Sunday 28 April 2024 marks Lesbian Visibility Week a movement originating out of West Hollywood in 1990 focusing on gay women.

It has since grown into a global, inclusive event, uplifting ‘incredible LGBTQIA women and non-binary people from every generation, in every field and in every country around the world’, as per organisers.

To celebrate the occasion – and to mark the 30-year anniversary of Attitude – we’ve taken a trip down memory lane with some of our favourite queer women who have appeared on our pages. From Sex and the City icon Cynthia Nixon to Olympian Nicola Adams, these are the ladies who changed the world – and then told Attitude all about it!

1 Hayley Kiyoko, pop star – July 2022

“I’ve had a lot of friends in the industry who have reached out and come out to me directly and privately. I’m honoured to be that safe space for them to feel understood and acknowledged. Coming out is everyone’s own journey. You do it constantly and share it with the people you want to share it with.

“As a queer person, you go through so much effort to accept and love yourself, to get to that point — but then you have to navigate the rest of the world. How do you want to present? How do you want to dress? Who you are is ever evolving.”

2 Cynthia Nixon, Sex and the City star – September 2020

“Falling in love with my wife was one of the great delights and surprises of my life, but it didn’t seem like I became a whole new person, or like some door had been unlocked.

“It was like: ‘I have fallen in love with different people in my life and they’ve all been men before. Now, this is a woman and she is amazing.’ So I feel like ‘queer’ is an umbrella term, and it includes my formerly straight self, too.”

3 Alex Scott – October 2023

“I was being asked questions, ‘You need to label what you are; you need to come out.’ But I was like, ‘No, actually, I don’t need to — I’m writing a story [her memoir] about love.’

“I hope that we get to a stage where everyone can just choose to love who they want to love and not feel that they have to then explain that to anyone.”

4 Beth Ditto, Gossip frontwoman – June 2009

“It was really hard for me to come out the closet as a femme and I know that sounds crazy. But there were [only] so many ways to be the right kind of dyke. I was suppressing that side of myself, the femininity, the person who was really interested in fashion.

“I would Patty Duke bouffant my hair in secrecy before I went to school. I would spend hours making it up and taking it all off before I left the house because I was so resistant to that side of being feminine.”

5 Nicola Adams, Olympian – November 2014

“It’s good to be able to inspire them [young people] to just be themselves. I think it’s nice to have someone for girls to look up to, who they can relate to as well.

“[…] As long as you’ve got your friends and family behind you, you can achieve anything, and don’t let anyone deter you from your dreams.”