Francesca Curtis & Phyllis Papps

Photograph via The Australian Queer Archives

This week’s notable figures are Francesca Curtis (left) (1931-2021) and Phyllis Papps (right) (1944-2026), lifelong partners, fierce activists, and the trailblazing founders of the Australasian Lesbian Movement.

In October 1970, they made Australian media history on the ABC’s This Day Tonight by becoming the first lesbians to publicly come out on national television.

Braving immense societal stigma, they established Australia’s very first political organisation specifically for lesbians, and spent over five decades campaigning together for visibility, law reform, and women’s rights.