Jackson, W and Monk, H (2025) The Lesbians and Policing Project: Police monitoring in defence of dangerous lesbian-ness in 1980s London. Journal of Lesbian Studies. ISSN 1089-4160

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Abstract

This article provides a case study of The Lesbians and Policing Project [LesPop], a police monitoring organisation that existed in London between 1984 and 1990. Drawing on archives held at Glasgow Women’s Library, the article reviews the activities of LesPop and outlines its aims and objectives. We consider both its origins and its demise in the political context of Britain in the 1980s. In doing so, we argue that LesPop offers an important, and hitherto unexamined, contribution to lesbian history in Britain. Centralising the experiences of lesbians in London in an era of state-sanctioned homophobia, LesPop provides a case study in lesbian political and community organising and engagement with, or resistance to, the carceral state. Understanding how LesPop sought to monitor and research the police and in turn, educate and organise lesbians, reveals much about the regulation of sexuality in the pursuit of social order and illustrates the importance then, and now, of grassroots efforts to challenge homophobia and hold the police to account.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Journal of Lesbian Studies. Jackson, W., & Monk, H. (2025). The Lesbians and Policing Project: police monitoring in defence of dangerous lesbian-ness in 1980s London. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2024.2448064. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International - Creative Commons ), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1699 Other Studies in Human Society; Public Health
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV7231 Criminal Justice Administrations > HV7551 Police. Detectives. Constabulary
Divisions:	Justice Studies (from Sep 19)
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis Group
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2025 11:49
Last Modified:	20 Jan 2025 14:45
DOI or ID number:	10.1080/10894160.2024.2448064
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25167

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