Lesbians in Love and Compromising Situations
Organisation in South Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lesbians in Love and Compromising Situations (LILACS) was a social and political group for lesbians, founded in 1983 as "an offshoot of the gay students' association" at the University of Cape Town.[1]
| Formation | 1983 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Cape Town |
LILACS was the first South African lesbian-only organisation,[2][3][4] part of a larger movement of LGBTQ+ organising in South Africa in the 1980s.[5][4]
The group disbanded in 1985[4] because members could not agree whether the group should use the label "feminist" and be politically active with other liberation organisations, or whether it should serve only as a space for socialising.[3]
Activist and librarian Julia Nicol and human rights activist Sheila Lapinsky helped to establish LILACS.[3][6] Nicol and Lapinsky went on to organise with OLGA (the Organizations for Lesbian and Gay Activists).[3][6]
The GALA Queer Archive (GALA) at the University of the Witwatersrand holds photographs, tapes, papers, and clothing related to LILACS, in the Julia Nicol and Sheila Lapinsky collections.[7][8][6][9]