CNN —Lesbian Visibility Week, celebrated each year at the end of April, was first observed in California in 1990 and is marked around the world and in lesbian living rooms across America — including mine. Many laws have criminalized gay men but not women, leaving us in slightly safer territory. Gay men are also more likely to be victims of hate crimes and violence. Gay men might be criminalized, but gay women have long been targeted, sometimes in heinous ways that fly under the radar of the law, and which go unprosecuted. On this Lesbian Visibility Week, I am grateful both to be seen and to slip quietly under the radar, unnoticed.

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Persons: Allison Hope’s, Allison Hope, James, “, God, we’ve, We’ve, ” We’ve, I’ve, Jodie Foster, Lily Tomlin, Kate McKinnon, Lea DeLaria, Wanda Sykes, We’re, ” Organizations: New Yorker, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Slate, Gay Locations: New, California, America