Inspirational lesbians you should follow

At Howard Kennedy, inclusion and diversity is a key part of our personality. We are proud to celebrate our LGBTQ+ colleagues. June 2021 is our Pride Awareness Month. It's an opportunity for us to learn and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, as well as hopefully educate and inform others. In a series of articles, we will be educating on each initialism that makes up LGBTQ+. 

In this first blog, we will be celebrating 'L'. This, of course, represents lesbian culture, movements and communities. We want to celebrate the lesbian community by showing you some lesbian influencers who deserve your following on social media. 

Teddy Edwardes

Teddy Edwardes is a model and businesswomen. She founded LICK events, a club exclusively for women and non-binary people, with a strict 'no cis men' policy. Teddy campaigns for the better inclusion of lesbian women in London. Queer women tend to be left out, with the focus on gay bars and out-of-date stereotypes surrounding lesbians. LICK Events also focuses heavily on the inclusion of BAME women. Teddy has over 50k followers on Instagram, and you can follow her here.

Allie and Sam

Allie and Sam are pioneers for lesbian couple representation. On Instagram, they share their story and relationship. Allie and Sam openly talk about their journey with IVF and the extra steps involved for a lesbian couple when they want to become parents. They spread awareness of the costs of IVF, as well as the various steps and milestones they have reached. Allie and Sam have 230k followers on Instagram and you can follow their story here.

Drea Bloom

Drea is an LGBTQ+ mental health advocate and life coach. Her Instagram page is full of art in all its forms- music, theatre, poetry, as well as tips and tricks to navigate life and relationships. Drea is married to Ronnie, who is also a life coach and actor. Together they make a power couple who are unapologetically head over heels for each other. You can follow Drea here.

Lady Phyll

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, who often goes by Lady Phyll, is a British activist and co-founder of UK Black Pride. She is considered one of the most prominent lesbian activists in Britain. Lady Phyll raises issues of racism in the LGBTQ+ community and as the co-founder of Black Pride, she also educates on how white people can best show solidarity. Lady Phyll calls white allies- both queer and straight- 'social disruptors' and asks social disruptors to do their homework, speak to the black LGBT community and understand why Black Pride exists. Her work is pioneering and deserves as much attention as possible. You can follow Lady Phyll here to keep up to date with her campaigns, stories and the UK Black Pride celebrations.

Ziggy

Ziggy is a poet and spoken word artist, who uses her Instagram account to document her journey from a religious, anti-LGBT environment to living her true, authentic self and accepting her sexuality. Ziggy teaches younger generations that it is okay to come out to their families despite their fears. In one of her Instagram poems, she says "people come and go. Those who accept you, will stick around and love you unconditionally". You can follow Ziggy and read her poetry here.

This article was written by Netanya Cramer (Paralegal in Real Estate) and Alex Basford (Paralegal in Real Estate).