LESBIAN INFORMATION LINE - VANCOUVER, BC - CALL NOW:
(604) 734-1016
LESBIAN INFORMATION LINE - VANCOUVER, BC - CALL NOW: (604) 734-1016
Vancouver’s Lesbian Information Line (LIL) launched in 1976 at (604) 734-1016, open Thursdays and Sundays from 7 to 10 pm. It was a women’s group founded with the intention of becoming a resource for women across the Vancouver area, providing counselling, resources, and ways to engage with the local lesbian community. LIL also ran events including dances, socials, and workshops for things like public speaking, counselling, and letter writing.
Launched in 1976, Vancouver’s Lesbian Information Line (LIL) was available to lesbians in both rural and urban parts of the Vancouver area who could call in anonymously to ask questions without the fear of social repercussions. The phone line was designed to reach “women who are not yet involved in the women’s community. Women isolated in the suburbs, in marriages, in closeted relationships, who are new in town, or any woman struggling alone” with her sexuality [1].
LIL became a resource for lesbians to anonymously discuss coming out, in addition to being a place to learn about the lives of fellow lesbians, get information on meeting and becoming involved in the queer community.
1983/10 News Article Update on Lesbian Information Line.
Lesbian Information Line Flyer.
In an open letter titled “Update on Lesbian Information Line,” LIL describes its counselling philosophy as a “comprehensive suitable service to all lesbians in their varying stages of coming out” [2]. Founded and initially funded by Dorrie Brannock, Susan Western, Lee MacKay, and Laurel Kimberly, LIL began as a small collective of lesbians intent on building a visible presence in the Vancouver community by making themselves available to discuss lesbian concerns [2]. In developing itself as a resource, LIL’s phoneline created an environment in which the caller might believe in and ultimately build a reality where they could openly identify as a lesbian in their community.
As one promotional flyer from 1983 stated: “Many of us at the moment work and live most of our lives in the straight, male world and LIL is like a haven from all of this [3].” For callers and volunteers alike, LIL became a space and a resource unencumbered by the rules of the straight male world that dictated how they were expected to live their lives.
LIL’s phoneline was the initial spark for the collective’s efforts to expand into a physical space where they could run community events. Both educational and social in nature, events included dances and workshops in areas like public speaking, counselling, letter writing, bookkeeping, resource gathering, and advertising—helping community members develop a variety of skills that had not previously been made available to them. Additionally, from 1986 to 1987, the collective ran Cafe LIL out of the Vancouver Lesbian Network on Monday nights [4].
LIL also founded “a lesbian softball league that [became] an important hub for Vancouver's lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual community and was the largest queer-friendly softball league in the country” [5]. The league created the opportunity for lesbians to participate openly in their community, meet other lesbians, and connect with LIL for future community projects.
Ad for the Lesbian Information Line.
LIL’s phone line was about building visibility—it was the first listing in the Vancouver phone book that had “lesbian” in the title [6] —and reaching other lesbians who were isolated geographically or due to social stigma. LIL’s establishment predates Vancouver’s Pride March (the first in Canada) by two months, demonstrating its pioneering collective nature for lesbian rights and visibility across the country. Despite the phone line’s closure in 1987, it was integral to building visibility for the greater queer community in Vancouver.
Bibliography
[5] Azpiri, Jon. “It's how you play the game.” The Georgia Straight, August 1, 2007, https://www.straight.com/article-103813/its-how-you-play-the-game#. Accessed June 8, 2025.
[1] Millward, Liz. Making a Scene: Lesbians and Community Across Canada, 1964-84. UBC Press, 2016.
[4] Rankin, Pauline. “Lesbian Information Line Not in Service.” Angles September (1987): 9. Archives of Sexuality and Gender, link.gale.com/apps/doc/MIGBGQ233334977/AHSI?u=rpu_main&sid=summon. Accessed March 4, 2025.