Heard the one about gay people and how good looking they are? Apparently no one remembered to tell the lesbians. Or how about another so-called rib-tickler that ricochets round the school corridors, past the office water-cooler and into the streets: Do you know what drag is? It's when a man wears everything a lesbian won't. If I’d been given a pound for every time I’ve been told a variation of this joke, I’d be as wealthy as an RBS banker.

Recently the BBC’s Liza Tarbuck said she worried that some people might think that she was a lesbian because of the way she dresses. She didn’t tell listeners what she chooses to wear – the upside perhaps of being a radio presenter – but one can only assume she favours masculine clothing. If I was Liza, I’d be more concerned about looking like an idiot but with Tory devotee Jimmy Tarbuck for a father, perhaps we should extend some compassion her way.

Following complaints about Tarbuck’s comments, the BBC issued a statement saying it agreed that they were not acceptable and apologised for any offence caused. ‘We take complaints of this nature very seriously, and as a result, a conversation has been had with both the producer and the executive producer, in an effort to ensure that there is no repetition,’ it added.

In January, a programme that contained numerous insulting comments about lesbians forced Peter Tatchell and Conservative stalwart Ann Widdecombe to ask the state broadcaster to issue another apology.
The BBC3 programme, The Most Annoying People of 2008, featured the actor Lindsay Lohan and her partner, Sam Ronson, at number 43, where they joined Vladimir Putin and his judo DVD, and Des O'Connor. The list was meant to be lighthearted, but the BBC didn't offer a convincing reason to justify the celesbian couple’s inclusion in the show, aside from the shame that some men feel because lesbian Ronson bagged herself the ‘former man-eater’ Lohan. DJ Spoony, a presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live, said: ‘Let the munters and mingers get each other. That's cool because nobody wants them.’
Referring to Lohan and Ronson, he added: ‘But when they're hot and fit… do you know what I mean, and Hollywood superstars, they should be saved for guys like… not me… for other guys.’
Another interviewee, the former porn actor Ron Jeremy, suggested he could turn lesbians straight and described how he would ejaculate over the couple in the unlikely event that he should be asked to join them for a threesome.
Gay men too are frequent villains, often berating lesbians for not conforming to so-called conventional norms of beauty or gender expression. Two plays I saw last year written by gay men contained barbed banter about ‘unattractive butches’ and lesbians who don’t wear make-up. The subtext being that these women don’t deserve to be treated with respect.
One heterosexual male journalist picked up on the term ‘lesbophobic’, in a slightly mocking fashion. Yet for those of us who have been at the receiving end of countless such comments, lesbophobia is as old as Sappho's poetry.
What is particularly interesting about these incidents is that they show up how differently prejudice against gay men and lesbians is experienced, and how sexism underpins this.
Lesbians are still viewed as social pariahs by many, who believe women should a) look conventionally pretty and b) be available to them for sex in fantasy or reality, and that c) lesbians undermine and emasculate men. The fact that the BBC has so far refused to issue an apology about the BBC3 programme, stating that the comments don't reflect the views of the BBC and were meant without malice and in a lighthearted way, is simply not acceptable.
The nature of the comments was juvenile and misogynistic, apparently now BBC standard fare following the Brand-Rossgate fiasco and the new Horne and Corden show, which gleefully lampoons so-called gay stereotypes, yet as long as the Beeb remains silent it tacitly condones anti-lesbian (and homophobic) hatred.
Horne and Corden’s latest project, Lesbian Vampire Killers demonstrates again the way that lesbians are considered fair game. Universally panned by the critics, the film’s so-called jokes seem to hinge on the fear of being ‘bummed,’ lesbians ‘stealing’ women away from men, or sub-Carry On camera shots of Corden sniggering at lesbian cleavage.
The media regulator Ofcom is now investigating whether the anti-lesbian slurs on BBC3 broke its broadcasting code, which sets standards for the content of all television programmes. Three months on, it’s still under investigation. Prejudice against lesbians isn't taken seriously because lesbians aren't taken seriously.
These examples may sound like harmless banter but, like an irritating pop tune that stays lodged in the head, these ‘jokes’ have a nasty habit of sticking around in our emotional memory. I am growing increasingly weary of the dismissive epithets. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that repetitive negative messages about ourselves are likely to contribute to low self-esteem.
Research by Stonewall indicates that the drip drip effect of this type of culturally endorsed jibe impacts on self-esteem and, at the very least, leads to an increased incidence of mental health issues among lesbians. According to a new survey by Stonewall into teachers’ perspectives on homophobic bullying, overtly homophobic language appears to be widespread in schools.
Ninety per cent of secondary school teachers said that pupils in their schools are being bullied, harassed or called names because they are perceived to be gay or lesbian. Even children at primary schools are berated with homo- and lesbophobic language, say 44% of staff. It doesn’t seem to matter that these youngsters don’t understand what they’re talking about – girls who aren’t ‘girly’ enough are regularly being made to feel bad about themselves.
If lesbians are routinely exposed to the cultural amniotic fluid of pejorative language, a confident sense of self is unlikely to flourish. We create our lives with our thoughts and our thoughts add powerfully to the creation of the world. If people tell you that you’re ugly, or abnormal, or not feminine enough to be considered a real and valued woman in society, the odds are that you’re going to believe that you are in some way inferior to other non-lesbian women and ergo you may start to conduct yourself with these thoughts in mind.
Given this start in life common to most lesbians, despite the sweeping reversal of anti-gay legislation, it’s no surprise to learn from Stonewall’s recent Lesbian Health Survey – sample size 6000, the biggest ever to be undertaken in Britain – that half of lesbian and bisexual women under 20 have self-harmed, compared with one in 15 of teenagers in general.
Gay and bisexual women under 20 are eight times more likely to have attempted suicide than teenagers generally. Childline estimates that 0.12 people under 18 have attempted suicide.
When it comes to drug use, we’re five times more likely to have taken drugs than women generally – with 40 per cent of us drinking three times a week, compared to a quarter of women in general, and we’re four times more likely to suffer from an eating disorder.
These are shocking figures, the like of which should have the national media fulminating about how Britain is failing its young lesbians, as it would do if the same statistics were found among kids in general. Yet, since the report came out, few merit this parlous state of affairs as cause for concern. Only DIVA, the BBC Radio’s Women’s Hour, a smattering of other gay media and the health trade title, the Nursing Standard, have so far covered the story.
Examples of institutionalised lesbophobia, direct and indirect are everywhere. In the health sector 50% of lesbians polled by Stonewall say their doctor or health professional assumed they were heterosexual. One in five lesbian and bisexual women who have not had a cervical smear test have been told, wrongly, by healthcare practitioners that they are not at risk. One in fifty have been refused a test. Fifteen per cent of lesbian and bisexual women over 25 – almost double the number of women in general – have never had a cervical smear test. Lesbophobia underpins the decision