Welcome to L Community
We asked for one arch. They said no.
L Community is the UK's largest lesbian network: over 20,000 women across our app, events and Meetup groups, a decade of events, and the only lesbian app that verifies every member as female.
In March 2025 we asked Southwark Council for one disused railway arch, 0.25% of their vacant stock, to build the country's first female-only lesbian venue. They refused. That refusal is now before the High Court.
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The legal case is live
This is the first UK challenge to test Schedule 3 of the Equality Act 2010 for a female-only lesbian space, and the first since the Supreme Court confirmed in For Women Scotland (2025) that "woman" in law means biological sex.
A ruling in our favour sets binding precedent: councils must apply Schedule 3 lawfully when they allocate public assets.
Support goes into running L Community: the app, hosting, moderation, safeguarding and the events programme.
This legal case exists because the platform exists. Help keep it running.
Support the PlatformWe built it from nothing
- The world's only female-only lesbian app, verification-secured.
- A legally sound safeguarding framework, written from scratch.
- A Community Interest Company structured to hold a women-only venue.
- Ten years of events, run week in, week out, now nationwide.
- Lesbian Pride, launched independently, twice.
We are not part of a wider LGBT+ platform. We are not state-backed. We are women who watched our spaces disappear and started again from nothing.
One arch out of hundreds
- One disused railway arch in Southwark.
- Around 1,000 sq ft, with water and electricity.
- No public funding.
- No public access.
- A private, female-only lesbian space under Schedule 3 of the Equality Act 2010.
Southwark controls hundreds of arches. We asked for one. Our proposal met every legal test: same-sex only, and necessary for privacy, dignity and safety. The council offered mixed-sex spaces instead, with no lawful right to exclude men.
We did all of it the long way round. The safeguarding policy, the legal framework, the operating model, the CIC, all of it was in place before we asked for a room. Over 350 professionals backed the application.
A picnic in a public park
Weeks after the refusal, we held a lawful, peaceful picnic in a Southwark park. No banners. No speeches. Women sitting on the grass in daylight.
Southwark warned us that dispersal powers could be used, and that those attending risked fines or arrest. For a lesbian meetup serving lemonade on the pavement.
£3.14 million in LGBTQ+ grants. Nothing for lesbians
Since 2020, Southwark has awarded over £3.14 million in LGBTQ+ grant funding. On our reading of the published allocations, no part of it went to lesbian-specific provision. No funding. No venue. No dedicated safeguarding.
We have never argued that anyone else should get less. We have argued that lesbians should not get nothing.
We are not asking for special treatment
Elected representatives across three parties have backed the principle behind this case.
MPs from the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative benches have backed the principle behind this case, alongside over 350 professionals who supported the original application. The Leader of the Opposition's office formally acknowledged our submission and put the issue on record for ministerial reference.
Their statements are published in full on the legal case page.
Where the case stands
In October 2025 we filed a judicial review claim in the Administrative Court, the process used to challenge a public body when it breaches equality law. The claim has been issued, sealed and served as Watson v London Borough of Southwark, and is now active before the High Court.
Two years of work went into this before a single court form was filed. The CIC is formed. The EHRC complaint is in. Safeguarding is locked down. This was never a campaign. It was infrastructure, and we are seeing it through.
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