It’s a great day to meet friends in the park. The women are in high spirits, chatting animatedly, playfully sketching patterns on each other using body paint, and sharing a picnic. Also unsurprising is the prevalence of Tegan and Sara and Ani DiFranco mentions, as well as cult fave TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which featured one of the first lesbian kiss scenes on U.S. television. It largely relies on internet shorthand, obscure symbols used by lesbians around the world. Nella would send these images and emoticons to other women. Those in the know would respond. Tourists from neighbouring Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo can be found enjoying the nightlife in the clubs or the five-star hotel bars.

US government records say that a lesbian couple was arrested in 2012 but released. Other than that, little else is documented. But she needn’t have worried. Leila didn’t lose her friendship. The two agreed to draw a line under the embarrassing episode. Watching the YouTube videos had confirmed to Niya that she was not alone. But where were the other gay women in Burundi? Another oft-recited stereotype is that lesbians are known to process everything to death. Q: How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: I don’t know. Should we use LEDs? What wattage? Are these recyclable? Maybe this is a sign we should be lowering our carbon footprint. Let’s make a pro and con list of solar panel options and revisit this next year. She and a few other women go out to speak to lesbian and bisexual women in the villages. They hear about them through loose local networks, both on and offline, and through friends of friends.

Get the Video RSS feed

But when he looked at her quizzically, she says the full realisation of who she is hit her. I am a lesbian, Leila told herself.

Niya’s father was away a lot, leaving her mother in charge of the family. Niya preferred friendships with boys but these never developed into crushes. Nella sends a photo to the BBC using an encrypted app. She's pictured sitting on a chair with young children around her.Nella is now divorced but others in the group remain married. Their husbands are not aware of their sexuality. The BBC messaged Niya to tell her that we would be using images of a violet to illustrate the memes. We chose the symbol - which differs vastly from the symbols the women use - because lesbian women in the 1900s were said to give violets to their girlfriends. But! While it’s true that lesbians have less frequent sex than their straight counterparts, lesbian sex lasts far longer: