About Lesbians on the Loose

Lesbians on the Loose

Lesbians on the Loose — universally known as LOTL — is Australia's longest-lived lesbian magazine, a Sydney-born publication that grew from a grassroots 8-page black-and-white newsletter in 1989 into the country's most-read lesbian magazine. Covering news, politics, social issues, celebrity interviews, entertainment, pop culture, style and travel, it became the lesbian community's journal of record across three decades of print before transitioning to digital media and video, where the brand continues today as LOTL and LOTL Studio.

Overview

Lesbians on the Loose (lotl.com) was a free monthly print magazine for most of its life, set out to keep lesbians informed about activities and events within the community. Its content spanned news, politics and social issues alongside celebrity interviews and stories on entertainment, pop culture, style and travel — plus the famous printed personals in the back of the magazine that served as a dating hub, and a monthly events calendar. At its peak it reached a circulation of 20,000 copies with a national readership of 60,000, making it the most-read lesbian magazine in Australia.

History

The magazine first appeared in Sydney in January 1990 (first conceived in December 1989), published by Frances Rand and Jackie Scherer — previously known as Jaz Ishtar — with an initial run of 1,000 copies. The title came from Rand and Ishtar's name for their own friendship group, a deliberate bid for community warmth. The origin was practical: in late-1980s Sydney, Rand and Scherer enjoyed the city's lesbian bars but relied on word of mouth to hear about social events or new venues. They started the newsletter to provide a regular source of information — and in doing so helped the community itself grow, allowing "movement of ideas and information to reach and influence a much wider audience."

The context was a community bursting to express itself. After decades of gay bashings, AIDS and the secrecy imposed when homosexuality was illegal, by the end of the 1980s the queer community was, in the words of a later documentary, "bursting at the seams to be able to express themselves in their whole entirety." LOTL filled a gap the existing press didn't: the available magazines were gay-male-oriented papers like the Sydney Star Observer or the politically-lined Lesbian Network. LOTL's publishers wanted to reach the wider lesbian community — including lesbians with limited contact with others — to bridge divisions, inform and create discussion. As editor Frances Rand put it, the main problem lesbians faced was visibility, with most focus on gay men — partly, she believed, because of AIDS' devastating impact on the gay male community and the high profile of groups like ACT UP.

Scherer left soon after issue one; Rand continued as publisher until joined by Barbara Farrelly — previously editor of the Sydney Star Observer, and Rand's partner — in 1994. Rand had quit her ABC job in 1993 to work on LOTL full-time. The magazine grew rapidly, reaching 20,000 copies by the end of the decade. Rand and Farrelly upheld professional journalistic standards, aiming for neutrality in community debates and positioning the magazine as the lesbian community's "journal of record" — while also studying their readers with surveys every couple of years. The advertising base told its own story of community growth: a community of lesbian businesses grew up alongside the magazine — venues, travel agencies, physiotherapists, hairdressers, lawyers, cleaners, counsellors — and lesbian groups proliferated for every interest from belly dancing to religion, with support groups for older lesbians, Indigenous lesbians, disabled lesbians and lesbians with cancer.

In 1998 Rand and Farrelly sold the magazine to Silke Bader, who remained publisher into at least 2019. In 2010 Bader bought Curve, the American lesbian magazine, merging the back offices while publishing continued under two separate titles — the magazines usually sharing cover stories but running country-specific content. In 2019 the titles were separated and Bader sold Curve back to its original US owner in 2020. LOTL was relaunched and published five more print issues in 2021 before stopping print production; at the end of 2021 it launched the video podcast Queer Conversation.

The early years

The numbers tell the growth story. The first issue, January 1990: eight pages, 1,000 copies, produced by a group of four women in Sydney. A 1991 profile found it at 28 pages, circulation up to 3,000 with an estimated readership of 8,000 — already "the biggest and most widely read lesbian magazine in Australia," produced monthly and circulated free. By the middle of the decade it was a 60-page monthly with a glossy cover, a print run of 20,000 and a national readership of 60,000. The early editorial mix, per that 1991 account, emphasised topical issues in short, information-based articles with fewer long in-depth pieces — an open forum deliberately designed for breadth. Early coverage included increased violence against lesbians, lesbian parenting, sadomasochism and sexuality, alongside broader issues like conservation and unemployment; forthcoming issues promised the Lesbian Conference, immigration law changes for lesbian couples, lesbian sex workers and the NSW elections. Contributions were invited from the whole community via PO Box 798, Newtown — the classic community-paper invitation that made readers into writers.

Journalism and impact

LOTL broke stories that the mainstream press followed: lesbians adopting, celebrity comings-out, the first out lesbian to run for parliament. Its investigative news under Rand and Farrelly — "soon finding mainstream media following their stories" — helped normalise homosexuality in Australian public life. Coverage ranged from the hardships faced by Muslim lesbians to anti-discrimination law changes, from increased violence against lesbians to lesbian parenting. The magazine's firsts accumulated over nearly 30 years, and its cultural status was recognised in documentary form: a 2006 short film, Lesbians on the Loose, traced its journey "from a cheaply photocopied street rag to a glossy magazine"; the Brooklyn Film Festival's 2023 documentary short chronicled its origins; and episode 3 of the ABC Television documentary series Kweens of the Queer Underground tells the LOTL story.

The first nine years of the magazine have been digitised on the National Library of Australia's Trove — the first lesbian publication to be digitised there, sharing space with historic editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Women's Weekly — with a complete digital archive at lotl.com/archive.

Coverage and Audience

Based in Sydney, LOTL served a national Australian readership of lesbians and queer women, with international write-ins confirming its overseas following. Its audience spanned the community's full diversity — the magazine's open-forum ethos deliberately bridged the gaps between different lesbian subcultures and scenes.

Ownership

The magazine was founded by Frances Rand and Jackie Scherer (Jaz Ishtar); Rand and Barbara Farrelly ran it from 1994 before selling to Silke Bader in 1998. Bader published it through the Curve merger years and the 2021 print finale. The brand now operates as LOTL Studio. Further ownership and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The brand continues at lotl.com with a complete digital archive, alongside the Queer Conversation video podcast launched in late 2021. The Trove digitisation of its first nine years gives the early issues permanent public accessibility.

Sources and Further Reading

• Wikipedia, "Lesbians on the Loose" — history, ownership, digitisation and media coverage.
• Brooklyn Film Festival, "Lesbians on the Loose" (2023) — documentary synopsis and origins.
• Green Left Weekly, "An open forum for the lesbian community" (1991) — the early magazine and its mission.
• ACU Research Bank — academic account of LOTL's 1990s growth and business model.