Lesbian Custody: Breaking The Silence

Lesbian mothers in the 70s and 80s faced deeply rooted prejudice, hostility around their identity, and often experienced challenging custody battles with judges who considered them unfit parents because of their sexuality. 

Join us to learn about (or remember) an all-too-close period of lesbian history at this screening of Melanie Chait’s ground-breaking 1984 film Breaking the Silence, followed by a panel discussion. The documentary gives a voice to women from varying ages, races and backgrounds, some who discovered their sexuality after having kids and others who decided to have children in the face of homophobic social expectations. It offers an engaging and compelling picture of an area of female existence which, in many cases, has remained untold due to women’s very real fears of losing their children. 

Melanie will be joined by Clare Lynch, (A Family Matter), journalist Sophie Wilkinson and chair Helen Trevorrow (The Dark Network), to explore the experiences of these women, the creation of space for them to tell their stories, and relevance and warnings for the current times in the challenges they faced. 

3-Day Festival and Saturday Pass holders: This event is free to attend with your pass, but advance registration is required as places are limited. Please book a Pass Holder Free Registration ticket to reserve your place. Without a reservation, we cannot guarantee entry.

Melanie Chait is an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker whose work covers personal narratives and broader social and environmental themes, women’s experiences and LGBTQ+ identities. Over a career spanning several decades, she has directed films globally for Channel 4, BBC, Amnesty International, Ford Foundation, EU. Her first film for Channel 4 (1982), Veronica 4 Rose portrayed the lives of teenage lesbians. Followed by Breaking the Silence (1984) exposing challenges faced by lesbian mothers by providing a voice for women from diverse backgrounds, showcasing their strength and resilience in the face of bigotry and is considered groundbreaking in contributing to an increased awareness and understanding of their plight. Melanie returned to South Africa at the end of Apartheid when her persona non grata restriction was lifted and founded the multi-award-winning Big Fish Film School for unemployed youth. She continues to make films and has sat on various industry boards and juries including The Emmy Awards. She is a former Fulbright Scholar with a D.Phil from Oxford University focussing on ‘Independence Movements and Identity Politics’ and now lives between South Africa and the UK. 

Claire Lynch has spent her career teaching literature in universities. She is the author of Small: On Motherhoods. She lives in Windsor with her wife and three daughters. In her first novel, A Family Matter, Claire uses real-life transcripts from 1980s lesbian custody trials to lend a voice to the many thousands of women who were forced to remain silent, bound by the prejudice of ‘different times’. Winner of the Nero Gold Prize 2025, the book shouts injustice from its pages. 

Sophie Wilkinson is a lesbian journalist with 15 years’ experience reporting on all manner of things. She’s written for the likes of the BBC, The Times, The Guardian, Private Eye, London Centric, The i Paper and The Telegraph. She is particularly drawn to stories about abuses of power and women’s rights. In late 2024, the award-nominated BBC Radio 4 documentary she presented and co-produced, Missing Pieces: The Lesbian Mothers Scandal was released. In the doc, she spoke to women who’d experienced this separation, as well as some of their children and the legal experts who sought to represent them. The documentary has prompted MPs to call for the mothers to get an apology during official debates. 

Helen Trevorrow (chair) is a writer based in Brighton. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy. Helen writes about women, work and ethics. Her first novel, In The Wake is a feminist crime thriller that explores sexuality, family and alcoholism. Her second novel, New Brighton is a speculative thriller set in a dystopian near-future. Her third novel, The Dark Network explores motherhood against the backdrop of ethics and bad decisions in the workplace. All novels feature queer protagonists. Helen loves 1980s sci-fi movies and nice stationery. She lives in Hove with her partner and daughter. Helen has been involved in the running of Brighton’s Rainbow Families parenting group for many years.