A parade of more than 500 women strode down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood recently, chanting and carrying signs that left no doubt about their message.
"What do we want?" yelled one woman.
"Dyke power!," screamed some of the crowd.
"When do we want it?"
"Now!"
While motorists blocked by the marchers gaped at them, gay men stood on the sidelines, encouraging the women. Some of the men joined the marchers and took up the chant themselves.
As the parade wound down at Santa Monica and San Vicente, lesbians gathered around a stage that had been set up for Gay Pride Weekend activities.
"This is lesbian guerrilla warfare," said Jeanne Cordova, who published the newspaper Lesbian Tide from 1971 to 1980 and now publishes the Community Yellow Pages, a gay and lesbian directory for Southern California.
"We're no longer going to be invisible to straight America, and we're no longer going to be invisible to gay men," Cordova told the screaming crowd.
Lesbians are outnumbered by the gay men who live and socialize in West Hollywood, which has earned the nickname "Boys Town" in the homosexual community. But lesbians are pushing to have a greater presence in the city. With support from the city's elected officials, lesbians have organized an annual Lesbian Visibility Week since 1990 and, starting this year, sponsor lesbian events--from a prom to erotic readings--year-round.
"Part of the reason we started [Lesbian Visibility Week] was because there was a lot of attention for the gay male community, but not as much for lesbians," said Mayor John Heilman. "It's unlikely that we'll ever have as many lesbians as we have gay men. But we do want lesbians to feel safe here. We try to sponsor different programs that meet the needs of the groups who live in West Hollywood."
Lesbian Visibility Week is not uniformly lauded. Some heterosexuals--Gloria Goldsmith, the chairwoman of West Hollywood's Fine Arts Board, for one--say they do not entirely understand lesbians' desire to be more visible. Such efforts Balkanize society, Goldsmith said.
And the visibility week is criticized by some African American, Latina and Asian American lesbians, who complain that the events do not reflect their cultures.
But the concept is supported by the gay community and by many straight residents as well. Lester Hirsch, chairman of the West Hollywood Senior Advisory Council, said that as long as lesbian events do not disturb the neighbors with loud music, he has no problem with them.
"We're not against their visibility or their organizing and promoting their week," Hirsch said. "I think they should consider making the Gay Pride parade the Gay and Lesbian parade." West Hollywood does not keep official statistics on sexual orientation, but a 1994 community study in the city of 36,000 people showed that 4% of the 2,000 respondents were lesbian.
That compares to the 32% of respondents who identified themselves as gay men, 62% as heterosexual and 3% as bisexual.
Like their male counterparts in the homosexual community, lesbians consider West Hollywood safer than many other neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Although pockets of lesbians live and socialize in other places--Silver Lake and Long Beach, for example--West Hollywood is well-known as a gathering place for homosexuals. It is a place where lesbians can hold hands and kiss without fear.
But gay men dominate the scene in West Hollywood. Lesbians say the overwhelming presence of men discourages them from taking a strong role in the community and from becoming a more cohesive group.
West Hollywood's recent Gay Pride parade illustrated the vastness of the city's gay male scene--with most of the floats oriented toward gay men and the crowd predominantly male.
Gay men generally seem to sympathize with lesbians' effort to increase their visibility, some of them referring to lesbians as "sisters" and likening their plight to that of gay men.
During lesbian week, events are organized by a steering committee that includes representatives from the city's Lesbian and Gay Advisory Council, an appointed body selected by the City Council.
West Hollywood continues to finance the week's activities, but the city now contracts with the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center to manage the events.
The week is not just social. The events give lesbians a chance to make business contacts and celebrate their accomplishments, organizers say. And when the week is over, lesbians can contribute to the economic prosperity of other lesbians in West Hollywood by supporting their businesses and organizations.
The week brings attention to the lesbian community as a whole.
"It comes down to the fact that those who are visible get the dollars . . . more funding comes in for men's events," said Christine DuBois, 30, who helps organize Lesbian Visibility Week. "But visibility is also for the lesbians who are still trying to come out--reaching out to them so that if they see more [female] couples walking around holding hands, they'll know it's OK."
