Lesbian phone
A lesbian telephone is a telephone advice center for lesbians and women who are coming out. The idea arose in the women's movement .
Lesbian telephones provide information and advice on all topics of lesbian life, in particular on internal and external coming-out ( i.e. on finding one's identity, problems with parents or children, difficulties at work, etc.). Most phones also provide information about offers and events in their region.
Consultation requests from relatives and friends are also answered by lesbian telephones. Lesbian telephones are also a point of contact for multipliers , initiatives, associations and organizations who want to deal with different aspects of lesbian life.
Inquiries that go beyond the scope of a consultation or the possibilities of the counselor will be referred to suitable offices. The lesbian telephones maintain extensive files for this purpose.
Most lesbian telephones also offer coming-out groups, in which the participants can deal with their internal and external coming-out. The other offers of the phones are sometimes very different.
Volunteers work on many phones . Only a few counseling centers receive financial support that enables full-time counselors to be employed. The employees often have a socio-educational or psychological-therapeutic professional background. But there are also many who have qualified in further training for advisory work or group leadership. The basis of the counseling work is always personal experience as a lesbian woman.
In Germany there are such offers in 18 cities, as well as in Austria and Switzerland.
See also
literature
- Astrid Schultz: Lesbian telephones and counseling centers in the Federal Republic of Germany as emancipatory projects , diploma thesis in educational sciences , Hamburg, 1989.