BUILDING A LESBIAN COMMUNITY IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA ...

The focus on outreach to a cross-section ofwomen includes the number ofrural women who find
out about Womonspace through the newsletter and by word ofmouth. Rural lesbian Catherine
explains:
My partner and I were just hanging around and living together. For about six years and
we never really saw a lot oflesbians, only two or three. And, I am one ofthose that came
from the rural area. It just got to the point where we were so isolated that we had to
move out and identify with others. I guess that I would have to say that I was very
intimidated at first ... but I found that Womonspace offered a certain space for us. It was
very important to us to have a woman-only space. [It] was very comforting. Once a month
we'd meet with the coffee group. 10
To what extent a person identifies with anyone group varies from individual to individual. In any
case, Womonspace offered an alternative to both clubs and mixed groups in the Edmonton area.
Joan explains:
The development ofa women's group was imminent. It was bound to happen. You
can't have a group ofpeople as large as we without something coming out ofit and it
wasn't goingto come out ofthe established groups .... None ofus [members] were
strong enough to fight within those groups.ll
The emergence ofa collective extended the social space made available to Edmonton lesbians.
The use ofa physical space provided members with support and an opportunity to make
connections with other lesbians.
Often lesbians are divided along lines ofage, race, ethnicity, class and political
persuasions. Social historian Becki Ross writes:
Lesbian community, or, more accurately, communities, tend to revolve around small
friendship groups, some ofwhich self-identify loosely as anarchist, socialist, gay
liberationists, environmentalists, anti-racist, separatist, or radical, while others, such as the
10 NLPC, Catherine, [pseudo.], Interview by Noelle Lucas, 4 June 1999.
11 Chittock, 7.
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