DANIELLE MUSTARDE FINDS OUT WHAT VISIBILITY LOOKS LIKE FOR LGBTQI PEOPLE IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

“Growing up, I never saw anyone like me on TV/in films/in my community”. How many times have you said or heard those words? I have, hundreds of times. We’re lucky that in the UK, LGBTQI people are relatively visible in the public sphere. It’s not unusual to see the odd same-sex couple holding hands while walking down the street in our cities and, even the most heteronormative of households recognise and celebrate names like Stephen Fry, Nicola Adams and Clare Balding. Yet, even in the UK, where significant progress has been made and which scores highly on IGLA-Europe’s Rainbow Europe Index (ilga-europe.org/rainboweurope), we still face homo-, bi- and transphobia; we still suffer from higher levels of mental health issues than the general population; and heterosexuality is still very much the default setting.

What about lez/bi communities around the world? What does visibility look like in places where LGBTQI rights are slowing or, worse still, moving backwards? “The legal context for and lived experiences of LGBT people differ greatly around the world,” writes Stonewall. “Huge challenges remain on a global level, and LGBT people face discrimination everywhere.” In an effort to explore some of those challenges and those lived experiences, we spoke to a handful of women-loving women living (and loving) outside of Europe.

ELYSE & MARIA, COSTA RICA

DJ Elyse Rich, 46, and her wife, María Fernanda Castro, also 46, got married in the US last year. They did so because same-sex marriage still isn’t legal in their home country of Costa Rica – yet. Despite this, the couple have led the way for their local community and held the first “inclusive, public gay event” in Monteverde Cloud Forest. In fact, Elyse and María had planned to hold a celebration on 26 May 2020, when marriage equality is due but, that celebration will likely be postponed due to the pandemic.