This month, the Five Leaves Bookshop and Notts Queer History Archive will host author Elizabeth Lovatt at Nottingham Central Library, where she will speak about her new book on the historical importance of switchboards to Nottingham’s gay and lesbian community. Here Elizabeth tells us about this frequently overlooked corner of queer history.
We think nothing of a search on socials to find ‘nearest gay bar’ these days, but it wasn’t always so easy. In pre-Internet days phone lines like Nottingham Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and Lesbian Line were a lifeline. Staffed by volunteers, the phoneline provided help available nowhere else in a world hostile to the LGBTQ+ community.
Forward to today we are right back there amid diversity, inclusion and equality backlash, the second Trump presidency, and the terrifying control Reform has on local councils like Nottinghamshire.
Elizabeth Lovatt’s new book, Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line, celebrates the significant contributions made by such phone lines. There is no better time for it as Notts LGBT+ Network turns fifty this year. Our lesbian line (RIP) was born from a switchboard in a tiny room at the top of the Women’s Centre on Chaucer Street.
Elizabeth explains why they were needed: “The Lesbian Lines usually began due to a lack of accessible information and support for lesbians. The earliest lines were set up in the early 70s, so when there was no internet and limited ways for lesbians to find each other and information about their community, especially if you lived outside of a larger city or knew no other lesbians.
“Some of the lines started as offshoots from mixed gay and lesbian phone lines, where it was felt that there wasn’t enough emphasis on specific lesbian issues, or that the women who called might not be able to speak to another lesbian, depending on who was on shift.
“Others grew out of women’s centres or other lesbian community groups,” Lovatt explains. “The need for a phone line service specifically for queer women gave a space to combine resources and community knowledge around issues that specifically affected lesbian and queer women such as motherhood, caring responsibilities, work, housing, sexual health, sexual and emotional abuse, and later the impact HIV/AIDS had on the lesbian community.”
We need to see the past with clear eyes. Not to vilify or romanticise but face head on the realities of our communities and the structures in place that can exclude others to help better understand the present moment
Lovatt’s research centres around the queer researcher’s holy grail - the Lesbian Line logbooks. This is a record of those who called and, wonderfully, the internal politics of the volunteers.
“The logbooks and records of the lesbian lines are a vital history of ordinary lesbian life,” Lovatt explains. “It’s startling to hear about the conversations lesbians were having thirty years ago and to find sometimes that little has changed: women calling up to talk about whether they were gay or not, lesbians wanting advice on how to come out to their parents, women needing support going through a break-up or just someone ringing to chat about a great queer book they’ve just read.”
Elizabeth’s book doesn’t shy away from discussing the more complex issues featured in the logbooks, including racism, biphobia and transphobia. Discussion via the Lesbian Line may have been the reason for Nottingham welcoming a Black lesbian group in the late 1980s, and trans meet-up groups have been operational in the city since the early 70s.
“We need to see the past with clear eyes,” Elizabeth adds. “Not to vilify or romanticise but face head on the realities of our communities and the structures in place that can exclude others to help better understand the present moment.”
Sadly, the Lesbian Line didn’t survive…but why?
“Multiple factors contributed to their closure,” says Elizabeth.
Many reported a lack of new volunteers and even a decline in phone calls during this time, perhaps due to a growing sense in the 90s that lesbian liberation had been achieved. There were difficulties with funding - all of the lines were volunteer-run. The major impact, however, was the development of the internet, as many of the information services shifted online.”
Switchboards continue to operate in the UK, showing that there is still a need to offer phone services alongside other forms of communication like email and instant messaging. I think there’s something really important and intimate about a phone call that allows you to have a one-on-one conversation with someone, that is still so vital for many people.”
The Nottingham Lesbian and Gay Switchboard however, lives on today rebranded as the Notts LGBT+ Network. A spokesperson told LeftLion about their ethos for outreach to Nottingham:
“At our core, we've provided a confidential, empathetic space for LGBT+ people to seek advice, support, and solidarity — particularly in times when societal prejudice can still force many to live in fear or isolation. Providing support and signposting to expert resources on issues like coming out, mental health, hate crime, housing, and navigating services, especially for those who are disabled, elderly, or refugees.”
The Five Leaves interview with Elizabeth Lovatt will take place at Nottingham Central Library on Thursday 19 June. Stalls manned by the Notts LGBT+ Network, Notts Queer History Archive and the Nottingham Feminist Archive will also be present.
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