ILIS Herstory

About ILIS Herstory

Discover our lesbian and feminist herstory - to shape the future ! Lesbians have always been involved in the activism for women's rights, LGBTQI rights, social justice, access to healthcare and medicines, sexual and reproductive rights, environmentalism, peace, decolonial struggles and anti-racist vigilance. Strangely enough they are way too often erased, forgotten, and overlooked. This is what is known as the “lesbian invisibility”. And this is precisely why Evien Tjabbes, a long-standing member of ILIS and now actively involved in the current international lesbian network, called EL*C, which we will discuss shortly, convinced Virginie Jortay and Malin Björk to gather the traces and write our ILIS HERSTORY. ILIS was an incredible lesbian network founded in 1980 that organised international conferences and disseminated information worldwide. ILIS undeniably contributed to lesbian visibility and laid the foundations for struggles that are still relevant today. In this five-episode podcast, we invite you to discover the remarkable herstory of ILIS, the first international lesbian network, which too few of us know about - and which continues to echo in today´s lesbian movements and organisations. Timeline and documentation (https://ihlia.nl/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Learning-from-the-past-Retrieving-the-herstory-of-international-of-international-lesbian-organising-The-International-Lesbian-Information-Service-1980-1998.pdf) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

Publisher

Virginie Jortay

Category

arts · history · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 May 2026

Latest episode

26 May 2026

Latest episodes

5 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 May 2026

   The End and what comes next

   After the Geneva events, the ILIS secretariat returns to Amsterdam. The work to empower black, migrant and refugee lesbians continued, and ILIS contributes to developing lesbian networks in both Latin America (https://conferenciamujer.cepal.org/16/en) and Asia (https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/asian-lesbian-network-holds-its-first-conference). The newsletter reached its peak circulation, and on the political front, the demands put forward by the associations began to receive a positive response. But the energy starts to wane and the secretariat does not rotate anymore. In 1998 the incredible ILIS network ceases its activities, taking care to deposit their precious archives at the IHLIA (https://ihlia.nl/en/). ILIS undeniably played a fundamental role in lesbian visibility. So the question remains: why do lesbians disappear from history? To write our Herstory, we return to the starting point and ask today’s activists and researchers what we can learn. Featuring, in order of appearance : Shelley Anderson ; Anne Krul ; Evien Tjabbes ; Sylvia Borren ; Silvia Yuri Casalino ; Dragana Todorovic ; Joëlle sambi ; Adriana Churampi ; Paola Bacchetta ; Rina Nissim ; Elena Biagini ; Lepa Mlađenović ; Haidy Möller ; Suzana Tratnik Extracts and borrows : Berverly Ditsie (Beverly Ditsie) ; Elena Biagini (https://flax-foundation.net/awardees/elena-biagini/) To go further : some pictures of the Bejing conference 1995 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720316991718/) The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

2. 

   26 May 2026

   Going further, always better !

   Whether at the UN Conference in Nairobi or the ILIS work in Amsterdam, the issue of racism is paramount. Too often white and middle-class, lesbians tend to view the world through their own lens, which obviously does not suit everyone. Issues of class and race come up at every meeting, and, recognizing that these issues are essential, the Vanille-Fraise Collective (https://www.rts.ch/archives/grands-formats/10534402-notre-histoire-compte.html) organized the great Geneva conference in 1986. There were 800 of them—800 lesbians marching through the streets of Geneva… Featuring, in order of appearance : Lepa Mlađenović ; Anne Krul ; Rina Nissim ; Sylvia Borren ; Evien Tjabbes ; Shelley Anderson ; Adriana Churampi Extracts and borrows : Pauline Oliveros ; Gloria Anzaldua by Nancy Rodrigez - Borderlands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSXh8-a8H4M) ; Loses ends To go further : some picture of the Nairobi Conference 1985 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720323230329/) The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

3. 

   19 May 2026

   Power and Scope

   ILIS is expanding rapidly. The organization’s secretariat is rotating. It moves to Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris… The newsletter is reaching more and more people, and activists are travelling to expand their activities across every continent. The autonomous collective Vanille-Fraise (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clit_007) is preparing to hold a major ILIS conference in Geneva. Meanwhile, ILIS members are traveling to Nairobi to attend the third UN World Conference on Women. They intend to openly identify as lesbians at the UN and defend their cause. Featuring, in order of appearance : Sylvia Borren ; Paola Bacchetta ; Evien Tjabbes ; Anne Krul ; Rina Nissim ; Suzana Tratnik ; Lepa Mlađenović Extracts and borrows : Berkeley Library Dialogue in Nairobi (https://avplayer.lib.berkeley.edu/Pacifica/b23306773) ; Laurie Anderson ; Nicol Miquel - Chez Nicole (Chez Nicole. Une histoire de bars lesbiens, à paraître aux éditions Hystériques et associéEs) ; Cindy Lauper The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

4. 

   19 May 2026

   The Beginnings, celebration and Joy

   We meet the pioneers of ILIS who, with the support of the local lesbian group Interpot, organised the very first international lesbian conference in Amsterdam. That was in 1980. ILIS began to take shape, published its first newsletters, and expanded its network. It was decided that the next conference would be held in Turin. Up to this point, ILIS is still a subgroup of the I-G-A (which would later become ILGA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lesbian,_Gay,_Bisexual,_Trans_and_Intersex_Association)), but upon arriving in Italy, the issue of independence is on everyone’s lips. How can we create spaces of our own and take the time to build a lesbian community when the goals of some seem to differ from those of others? ILIS splits from ILGA and becomes fully autonomous. Featuring, in order of appearance Evien Tjabbes ; Sylvia Borren ; Haidy Möller ; Paola Bacchetta ; Eva Isaksson read by Sari Kouvo ; Rina Nissim. Extracts and borrows : Teacher Eliane Morissens (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_%C3%89liane_Morissens) ; Foreigner ; Lesbian Nation To go further : some picture from the Turin conference 1981 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720316682507/) The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

5. 

   11 May 2026

   From the present to the past

   We start in 2017 at the annual ILGA-Europe (https://www.ilga-europe.org/) conference in Cyprus. Eighty lesbians come together and decide to form an independent group. And so EL*C (https://lesbiangenius.org/) is born. Propelled by their enthusiasm, the new network announces that it will organise the first ever international lesbian conference. The first? No it is actually not, as a Dutch activist points out - and introduces them to the existence of ILIS, a lesbian network active many years ago. ILIS? But who knows about ILIS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lesbian_Information_Service)? Apart from those who were part of it, subsequent generations of lesbians have never heard of this exceptional activist network, which has almost been erased from history. But memories and people remain. That is why we set out to meet those who, for 18 years, worked tirelessly to raise the profile of lesbians and defend their rights. Featuring, in order of appearance : Evien Tjabbes ; Dragana Todorovicz ; Joëlle Sambi ; Silvia Yuri Casalino ; Haidy Möller ; Sylvia Borren ; Lepa Mlađenović. Extracts and borrows : EL*C conference Vienna 2017 : History of Lesbian Movement in Europe (https://www.okto.tv/de/sendereihe/queerwatch/video/59dcd38baee66/european-lesbian-conference-2017-history-of-lesbian-movement-in-europe) with Maria von Känel ; Propellerheads ; Meredith Monk ; Adrienne Rich - Planetarium To go further : Some pictures from the Amsterdam Conference in 1980 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bi_ilga_history_collection/albums/72177720316686043/) The narrative voice : Roberta Miss with Peggy Pierrot for additional voice Written, made and edited : Virginie Jortay with the complicity of Malin Björk and Evien Tjabbes Music and audio post production : Teresa Ferraro Illustration : © Marieke van Ballegooijen and the eye of An/Ash Smolar Produced by Groupe Kuru and Stichting Vesta, with the support of Mamacash and EL*C. Big up to Carine Demange from Radio Campus. Thanx a lot to la Scam - Belgique diffusion.ilis@groupe-kuru.art Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.

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