Greenham Common

The Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a defining moment in lesbian and feminist history in the UK. Set up in 1981 by a group of Welsh women protesting the arrival of American cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, the camp quickly evolved into a powerful symbol of women-led, anti-nuclear, and queer resistance. While not exclusively a lesbian space, many of the women involved were lesbians, and the camp became a safe and radical space where lesbian identity and politics could be openly expressed—something still rare at the time. It challenged not only the militarization of land and bodies but also the patriarchal structures within wider society and within the peace movement itself.

For many women, Greenham was a political awakening—a space where sexuality, feminism, and anti-war activism merged. Living communally, often in harsh conditions, the women resisted the military through acts of civil disobedience: cutting through fences, dancing on missile silos, and forming human chains around the base. The press often labeled them "lesbian troublemakers," which they reclaimed with pride. The camp rejected hierarchy and embraced a kind of anarchic, queer autonomy that deeply influenced later activist movements. Today, Greenham is remembered not just as a protest, but as a living experiment in queer feminist solidarity, where lesbians could resist and reimagine the world together—on their own terms.