"Usually you get scrutinised. Not always, but plenty enough, you get homophobic comments, you get verbal sexual harassment, and sometimes you get physically attacked. Whenever these things happen to me it is disruptive, often upsetting and confusing, and  sometimes extremely frightening. It always leaves me feeling powerless. One way I deal with it is to report everything. I have the GALOP Shoutline in my mobile and if it’s out of hours I leave a message. It really helps. Thank goodness nothing has happened for a while."

Annie continues, "I used to work in Bermondsey and I was a little wary of holding hands around here. As Elly described, occasionally we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of attention we got. It’s a matter of chance who you encounter, and  thankfully most days are lucky days, though it’s clear that lesbians holding hands aren’t normal in most areas of London yet – most people look for longer than usual!  One thing that is very obvious to me is that having David walking with us gave us the protection of male privilege, regardless of whether that male is gay or straight. We were having a great time and it took an effort to stop chatting with him and walk apart from him to really gauge public reaction. It could have been a very different story had we been walking alone, later in the evening, and with fewer witnesses."