A Short Organum for Lez Out July

21 Jul 2025 - Joyce Laurie

Full disclosure: when I started talking about “lez out july” last year I had a boyfriend. A “lesbian boyfriend,” but a guy. In fact, everyone kind of knew me as the girl who had a boyfriend, even those I was interested in lezzing out with. I felt I was in a beautiful lesbian world – Ridgewood in the lazy, horny days of summer – but I wasn’t of it. And so LOJ did double duty: it was definitely an assurance to myself to practice a broader lesbian sexuality, but also a way to let other lezzes know my intentions. 

As my posts started to break containment, and LOJ took on a life of its own, I was initially happy to see it go. I was perhaps not the perfect representative. But then I saw a trend in the replies: people using it as a form of self-flagellation. “I’m failing Lez Out July, I haven’t even kissed a girl this year.” Or like, “I went on a date with a man, I’m losing at Lez Out July.” 

As I saw it, there was an initial misapprehension here. Lez Out July was only ever about setting intentions, recognizing when there are opportunities to be taken. WWLD - what would Lez do? 

It also wasn’t strictly about sex. Sexuality, sure, but in the expansive ways that lesbians practice it. Self-actualization, the honing of a craft, meandering conversations about art and literature. The way shared aesthetic preferences pass into compatibility, the way seeing a lesbian get unselfconsciously carried away by their interests feels like exhibitionism and voyeurism at the same time. Being in the world with confidence, and encouraging others to do the same, is lezzing out enough.

Of course, let’s not beat around the bush, baby. I’m a particular kind of lesbian, and chances are you are too. When LOJ fully took off, it began to lose a crucial bit of context: its origin in t4t circles. And this kind of exacerbates the problem of its reception: who has a greater propensity to fear their own sexual confidence, or lack thereof, than trans women? Who has better cause to worry about their relationship to broader lesbian culture? 

I happen to think that trans women make really great lesbians. To elaborate too far on this point would be to plagiarize Andrea Long Chu, but consider: who wants it more than us? We leave it all on the field. In my experience, we can create L-Word charts that begin to pose Borgesian problems of representation, and our considered attempts at group cohesion make us look a lot like lesbian social movements of old.

Of the many different ways we relate to lesbianism, some of them are totally ours. When asked by Them Dot Us Magazine if I had a message to the people, it went something like:

“I would like to re-up my affirmation that T4T lesbianism is such a cool thing. The thigh high, dog girl autism stuff, we shouldn’t stigmatize or act like it’s a lesser version. It’s a valid expression of lesbianism by our people.”

Everything after the first line was “edited out for clarity,” presumably because the cis interviewer didn’t know what I meant, or didn’t want to run the words “thigh high dog girl autism” in a Condé Nast publication. Fair’s fair! But the point stands: there’s a really good baby here, and the bathwater is tepid at worst. We’re just beginning to see what trans lesbian culture can do, and what it can look like.

So double down! Lez out, on every front available to you. Let your guard down and let the lesbians around you surprise you. Be ready to see your friends in a new light (wait, what kind of look did she just give me?) Take book and smut recommendations from your community’s designated archivist (if you don’t have one, one will be assigned to you). Throw a party in your apartment and leave the bedroom door open. Couchsurf for a weekend in the cities where the girls are hot (to a real lez, all of them). 

We only have so many summers, and this is a time of year where everyone leaves their heart open. Make it worth her while, make it worth yours.