Here’s a first for 2026 : the first-ever International Rebel Dykes Day is set to take place on 29 January and will honour the history of dykes and Rebel Dykes all over the world. They are a group of women we first came across in 2021 when we reviewed Siobhan Fahey.’s documentary of the same name (see the review HERE) . In the opening minutes of this powerful film we hear a voice that says ‘ we were young, working-class and poor: we were dykes NOT lesbians.” It is a statement of fact, but there is a slight edge to it which we take as a warning not to misinterpret who this group of queer women really were.
They were a group of empowered young gay women who started a whole squatting movement in the rundown working-class area of Brixton, They identified as queer or dykes who outwardly (at least) seemed fierce as they tried to essentially get the same facilities and bars that gay men had assumed as their right by then. They came from the world of punk, and from art schools and the very last thing they wanted to do was recreate the discreet semi-closeted queer spaces like The Gateway London’s oldest and only lesbian bar.
Fuelled by anti-Thatcher resistance, solidarity with AIDS activism and other social causes like workers’ rights and nuclear disarmament, they protested as hard as they partied and found themselves on the front pages of the national press on several occasions – most notably after invading the BBC and abseiling into the House of Lords to fight the much reviled Section 28.
“It’s very hard to pin it down,” producer of the Rebel Dykes documentary film Siobhan Fahey – said of the word ‘dyke’. “It’s words like punks, activists and outsiders, perhaps people who don’t always spend their time within lesbian communities, perhaps more in the straight world and they’re the dyke within the straight world. You know, the lass at the festival who drives the lorry.”
“It’s great that being a lesbian has become much more accepted,” she continued, “and the world is very different, but it seems to be always that the version of – and it’s the same with gay men as well – lesbians that [straight people] accept are the ones that are most socially acceptable: the ones that look just like them.”
“I do think there’s a gap for all of the queer women, all the non binary and trans bikers, punks, musicians, actors, all of those who don’t fit into the word lesbian,” Fahey said of creating International Rebel Dykes Day.
“I just think we need a day.”
The date of the International Rebel Dykes Day, 29 January, coincides with the anniversary of the opening of the legendary lesbian S&M club night, Chain Reaction, back in 1987. From erotic leather and strip performances to live sex shows, the club left a hedonistic and radical legacy on those who attend with many lifelong friendships still intact – and outrageous stories to boot. It, however, was not welcomed with open arms by all queer women withj some protesting that it was a tool of patriarchal oppression.
Fahey has stated that International Rebel Dykes Day is a bit of a leap into the unknown. “We don’t know if it will work, but dyke culture has always been built that way. This is an opportunity for the DIY Dyke community to come together to create memories, joy, and make space together.”
Leave a Reply