8 October marks International Lesbian Day – a day to celebrate our history and culture.
BY GRACE CROWLEY, IMAGE BY GETTY IMAGES VIA CANVA
This year has been exceptionally dykey and I have loved every moment of it. There have been so many invaluable lesbian contributions made this year that have really helped to put us on the map. To celebrate the day, I am telling you all about my favourite lesbian moment in 2024 – the release of Queer Brewing’s Dyke Renaissance.
This year, lesbians have been loud. When a new bar in Hackney opened its doors, hundreds of London lesbians flocked to it, desperate for more lesbian spaces. Chappell Roan has been dominating the charts with songs about rejecting compulsory heterosexuality and wanting to be with women. Lesbian historian Eleanor Medhurst released Unsuitable, a book that takes readers on a journey through lesbian fashion trends. BBC’s I Kissed A Girl debuted and put 10 sapphic women on prime-time television. Billie Eilish released the sensual song ‘LUNCH’ and wrote a delicious feature on Charli Xcx’s ‘Guess’. We watched Julia Fox come out as a lesbian on TikTok and saw Reneé Rapp and Towa Bird’s on-stage chemistry turn into a relationship. It really has been “wall-to-wall lesbians”!
My favourite moment of this all however happened in April this year, when Queer Brewing released a beer named Dyke Renaissance, the perfect drink for a sexy sapphic summer. Brewed with Idaho 7 and Pacific Sunrise hops, it is a delicious and fruity (duh) 4.4% pale ale. The reason I love this release so much is that beer, this historically male-centric market, has been “lesbian-ised”. There is no escape from us now – we’re on your radio, we’re in your bookshops and now you are drinking our beer. This felt like such a turning point. Lesbians are making their marks in places we haven’t been welcome in before and this is only the beginning.
Queer Brewing is a queer and trans-owned brewery in London. They work to diversify and make space for queer people in beer. They have a selection of different craft beers, each with gorgeously gay names: Pride Pils, Limp Wrist and Existence As A Radical Act. Founder Lily Waite-Marsden writes on the website that: “Craft beer is still overwhelmingly white, male, able-bodied, straight, and cisgender” and that she uses Queer Brewing to truly inject diversity into the industry. As a self-proclaimed “renowned homosexual” and trans woman, Waite-Marsden’s success is true lesbian joy in action and her work to keep pushing lesbian voices is remarkable.
The impact of Dyke Renaissance is not contained to this summer, or even just 2024. It serves as a beacon of hope for the future of lesbian visibility. This summer was spectacularly queer because we are finally winning the fight to be seen. This beer may just seem like a beer, but it is so much more. It is forcing ourselves to be seen in places we have been rejected from before. It is again taking traditionally “masculine” things and making them for us. Lesbians take these things and make them cool and finally, the world is looking. It was seen even in this summer’s fashion trends! It was beyond exciting to see ourselves represented this summer and I, along with many others, cannot wait for more to come.
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