Spreading the L word: Why this new magazine for queer women matters
CBC Arts talks to the two women behind the all-too-rare new Montreal publication
Late last year, the 230-page inaugural edition Lez Spread The Word (LSTW) found its way to shops and bookstores in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Yellowknife, as well as New York (Artbook @MoMA PS1, for one), Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin, London and Paris. With Canadian queer icons Tegan and Sara on two different covers, the bilingual magazine now represents something all-too-rare in any media landscape: something produced for queer women by queer women.
In honour of International Women's Day, CBC Arts talked to LSTW publisher Florence Gagnon and co-editor in chief Stéphanie Verge about both the genesis of their passion project — and why what it represents is as important as ever.
So let's start out with the genesis of Lez Spread The Word, both the organization and the magazine. What is it, how did it come about and what was the process of getting it off the ground?
Florence Gagnon: I launched Lez Spread the Word (LSTW) the organization five years ago, when I was 23. It grew out of a desire to offer up positive role models and reflect the present-day realities of queer women.
Our first project was a website for lesbians — something I'd always wanted to do — for people to use as an online resource for news and entertainment. In 2014, we began throwing a monthly event called "Où sont les femmes?" ("Where are the women?") at bars in Montreal to give women an opportunity to gather and meet one another. It was a big success and we now have parties twice a month in Montreal and once every two months in Quebec City.
That same year, we launched an eight-part web series called Féminin/Féminin with filmmaker Chloé Robichaud, who I met when we were both attending Concordia University. It's a dramedy that looks at the intersecting lives of a dozen or so characters; it can be viewed on ici.tou.tv in Canada and on France4 in Europe. Then, in 2016, LSTW co-produced a play called Coco, about a group of 30-something friends.
These projects have a number of things in common: they are about women and have largely been created by women for women; they explore contemporary queer life in Quebec; and they've all served to kickstart or further conversations about LGBTQ+ communities.
After we closed Coco, I realized that we weren't done yet. We needed to create something tangible that would mark our time and place in history — we needed a print magazine. There are 20 or so Montreal-based queer women who make up LSTW and this was another opportunity for a number of us to gather and create something innovative for our communities.
There aren't a million magazines out there devoted to women who love women — there aren't even 20 magazines. It's natural for people to want to see their stories reflected back at them, and that's what we want to do here.- Stéphanie Verge
What kind of stories do you want to tell with this magazine? Why was it important for you to launch it?
Stéphanie Verge: From the very beginning, the LSTW team has been committed to moving forward with initiatives that advocate for LGBTQ+ communities and initiatives that mirror our realities. That's true now more than ever, given the current political climate. There aren't a million magazines out there devoted to women who love women — there aren't even 20 magazines. It's natural for people to want to see their stories reflected back at them, and that's what we want to do here. In our inaugural issue, there is an article about a Cameroonian refugee who came to Canada after being persecuted for her homosexuality, another about police response to homophobic crimes and another about the lack of safe sex between women who have sex with women. And yet we also have a fashion spread, a Q&A with former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and a timeline of lesbian bars in Montreal. Those are just a few of our offerings — and they're just the beginning. We want to keep telling a multiplicity of stories. These stories aren't necessarily being told elsewhere.
Publications for queer women (and films and social events for queer women) are much more rare than their queer male counterparts, seemingly more now than 10 years ago. Why do you think that is?
FG: That's a question that comes up a lot. Why have so many, if not all, of the key lesbian bars shut down? Why don't we have much of a presence in mainstream culture or the media? It's confounding, because when new projects and initiatives are launched, the reaction is positive, particularly within our communities. We don't have the answer, but we are trying to address the lack of options and the lack of diversity. For example, we're committed, as much as possible, to offering up intergenerational points of view, which doesn't happen all that often in queer communities. And going forward, we want to devote even more of our energy to representing each letter and symbol in LGBTQ+.
The print publication industry has struggled in recent years...What are your thoughts on how LSTW will avoid problems that have plagued other magazines?
FG: LSTW started as a website. Our content has always lived online, whether as a column, a film review or a web series. Venturing into "traditional" media like print gives us a bump in credibility and we're really proud of the magazine, but it isn't our sole focus.
SV: Most magazines in Canada are weeklies, monthlies or quarterlies. LSTW is slated to appear once a year and as such we view it kind of as a keepsake — a coffee-table archive for our communities. Focusing on an annual production schedule takes the pressure off, both financially and in terms of the workload (which is important because the magazine is largely self-financed and we all have other jobs). At this point, the magazine isn't a moneymaking venture; it's a passion project.
There's so much that sets LSTW apart from other publications in the Canadian, North American or even international market. We're choosing to shine a spotlight on Canada's lesbian culture from coast to coast to coast, to promote diversity and to celebrate role models. We're choosing to spend the time and the resources to ensure that all of our content is bilingual (French and English). And we're choosing to have high production values, from the paper stock to the photography. We know how unique we are — and we're confident other people will realize that too.
Find out more about Lez Spread The Word here.