In the movie “Albert Nobbs” an extraordinary Glenn Close is in the role of a woman who dresses up like a butler to find a job at the Dublin Morrison’s Hotel at the end of 1800.

She is able to let us imagine what should be at those times the problems for a lesbian in living her life and find a partner.

Reality tougher than movie fiction

But often reality was even tougher: up to 1861, moreover, in Victorian England, the male or female homosexuality was considered a crime punishable with the death penalty and in fact thousand were the death row inmates in the three centuries when the law was in force.

Up to 1967, moreover, the “ultra-civilized” England punished with the jail sodomy and any other sexual action for other purposes than the procreative. Not that things were better in other countries.

In Italy, only in 1887 the crime of sexual actions not for procreative purposes definitely came abolished, particularly lechery between two males. Still now in the US the “anti-sodomy” law even if since 2003 officially recognized anti-constitutional, remains in the penal codes of 13 states.

Lesbian couples, against the law romances

Vintage photos of lesbian couples are then very rare testimonies, up to a few decades ago, the will to be “against the law” to try to realize their love. A love that even today too many still consider being “unnatural”, when it should be clear that love can't be classified by race, age, gender, and faith or political ideas.

That's why we tried to pay tribute to those brave women with a gallery that we hope every Fanwave follower can like and that we wish you would like to spread around because we believe that is better make love than war, always and with anyone your heart chooses to love.