What To Know About Lesbian Visibility Week 2026
This year’s annual Lesbian Visibility Week kicks off with hundreds of events across the country, reminding us that visibility boosts belonging and safety.
Featured Image: Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Back for its third edition, partnered with The Curve Foundation, Lesbian Visibility Week North America is kicking off on Monday, April 20 and running through Sunday, April 26, with a range of events throughout the country.
This year’s theme—Health & Wellbeing—is a reminder that for LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people, caring for themselves and one another is an act of defiance, and it’s what sustains the community. Lesbian Visibility Week is a yearly reminder that visibility boosts belonging and safety.
Related: Lesbian Visibility Day: Reflecting On Our Past And Looking To Our Future
The first US Lesbian Visibility Week was founded in the ’90s by queer groups in Southern California. Much like today’s iteration, the event created programming that centered queer women—softball, lesbian line dancing, and a “Dykes and Their Dogs” pet show. While the event trickled out in the late ’90s, it reappeared in 2008 when activist Amy Ellis suggested Lesbian Visibility be celebrated on April 26.
Now celebrated throughout the world, Lesbian Visibility Week is bigger than ever. This year’s festivities kicked off with a lesbian flag raising at The Center in New York City, followed by a panel with the Sirens women’s+ motorcycle club. It doesn’t end there, this year there are hundreds of events still to come across the country—Wellness Wednesday’s nature walks and sound baths; Coast-to-Coast Queereoke taking place simultaneously at lesbian bars nationwide on April 23; the second annual Queer Women in Sports Day featuring watch parties, sports panels and more on April 25; and the special lighting events on San Francisco’s City Hall, Niagara Falls and New York’s Monuments.
Visit the LVW26 calendar at LesbianVisibility.org for even more events in cities such as New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Seattle, Houston, Portland, Provincetown, Winnipeg, and beyond.
