A new voice for Seattle lesbians

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Seattle has one of the largest gay and lesbian populations in the country, but there’s a part of that community that feels like it doesn’t have a voice.

“The stigma is that if you’re a lesbian you’re dirty, or it’s taboo. You don’t ever say the L word, the lesbian word. You don’t ever talk about that,” says Sarah Toce.

Toce is a local journalist behind the new online news venture The Seattle Lesbian. It’s a straightforward name with this provocative image at the top of their website’s home page.

“It’s designed to be provocative,” she says. “We want people to know that we are provocative as a community. We’re women, we’re proud of our sexuality. We’re proud of our brains.”

The news site will deal with a range of issues, including court decisions on the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays serving our country. The military is now accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation’s history. Articles on bullying and suicide, politics, parenting tips and celebrity interviews are also a part of the news venture.

She thought there was a need for this kind of site because although there is more acceptance of gay men in the community and in the media, that’s not the case for lesbians.

“You might see the funny gay character on television, you may not see the caring responsible mother figure lesbian or friend in the news,” says Toce.

She’s personally experienced discrimination and harassment. That was also part of her motivation for launching the first site of its kind in Seattle dedicated to lesbians.

“My wife and I were walking along Alki recently and somebody yelled out of their car, ‘lesbians.’ That’s going to happen,” Toce says.

It’s part of the civil rights fight that lesbians are going through now as people learn that “we’re just normal people who just happen to like the same sex,” she says.

The site launched last week, and already has some advertiser support.