Sharne Roberts

I’m a butch lesbian who was born and raised in Northampton. I’m a bit of a geek who loves spending their free time listening to horror fiction podcasts, playing video games and doing arts and crafts.

I also love reading and learning about LGBT history as I feel it is important for us to be knowledgable about the roots of our community.

Growing up I always knew I was attracted to women and definitely leaned towards being a tomboy. While at the time I didn’t have the words for what I was feeling, there were definitely signs of my butch-ness in my early youth. I grew up with a very independent single mother who was self-sufficient while my male figures were her gay and bisexual friends, as a result traditional gender roles were never a thing I was expected to perform. It also meant that I never felt a need to typically “come out”, although I alternated between considering myself bisexual and pansexual until I turned 23 when I officially embraced calling myself a butch lesbian. Butch encompasses my entire identity, being masculine in a way that is not inherently male but is so intricately tied to my love and camaraderie for other lesbians. Butches have a rich history based in subverting the rules of the heteronormative and patriarchal societies they lived in and continue to do so to this day. I could probably talk for hours on what being butch means to me and our history in the community (and happily do so if asked) but to be so unapologetically myself and so visibly non-conforming often feels to be exactly what being butch is all about.