How a helpline became a sanctuary for queer women

Elizabeth Lovatt uncovered a world of anonymous call logs after digging through a library archive, as stories shared with the Lesbian Line were revealed.

- Zoya Raza-Sheikh

On a Saturday in 1994, a 68-year-old woman called a special phone line set up to support British lesbians – and not for the first time. We don’t know her name but can safely assume that she chose to be anonymous, like many of the helpline’s other callers. After speaking with her, volunteers Sam, Ros and Hannah wrote in their log notes that day: “She seems to be getting a bit less depressed, but very slowly.”

The mystery woman had recently experienced a bereavement and had been using the Lesbian Line service to talk about her late husband, Carl, and more recently, the loss of her “special friend”, Joan. The log details several follow-up calls, with workers offering suggestions for support, including lesbian bereavement groups and counselling sessions. We know that they gave her a rare space – maybe her only space – to talk about Joan.

In Thank You For Calling The Lesbian Line, author Elizabeth Lovatt brings to life forgotten logs of heartwarming (and tragic) lesbian stories tucked away at the Finsbury library archive in north London. These women – of all ages and backgrounds – called the Lesbian Line with questions about their sexuality from 1993 to 1998. They discovered the line (which was only able to run for two days a week due to a lack of volunteers) largely via word of mouth or through phone book listings: as the word “lesbian” was still considered taboo, callers would find the Lesbian Line listed under “women’s topics” within the phone book.