urSistaCircle is a social networking site for lesbians of color worldwide. There are websites specifically catering to only Asian or African American lesbians. But generally these sites simply dispense information or listings. OurSistaCircle encourages networking, promoting businesses and ideas and advocates a supportive and respectful environment. Nicole Breedlove, creator of the site, explains: “Like many single lesbians, I turned to the internet to find friends, support, advice and yes, even love. I joined many sites but encountered the same issue. Many of the sites had very few lesbians of color as members. And if they were members, they had not logged on for many months. Needless to say my friend requests and messages went unanswered. Frustrated, I tried in vain to find a social networking site that only catered to lesbians of color. I found a lot of regular sites for Black lesbians but no one had a dedicated social networking site for all lesbians of color. I decided to create one. On October 28, 2009 Oursistacircle was born. We lesbians of color deal with not only gender and sexuality but we also deal with racism. I wanted to create a safe, respectful, and fun place where we can discuss those issues. Unfortunately I have to deal with a lot of hate mail and racist comments because of this decision. My reply is always the same – “We are all sistas, but we must recognize that lesbians of color have issues that are unique to us.” If the correspondence is incredibly racist or insulting, my short reply is: my money, my site, my decision. My members are able to blog, join or establish a group or forum, video chat, post events and announcements, post pics and video, read news as it relates to gays and lesbians, play games and of course meet other lesbians of color around the world. This site is unique in that I have to approve all pics and video prior to posting. There is no nudity or vulgar pictures allowed on the site. I believe in this site so much that I do not charge members to join or for any of the services. I am paying for it out of my own pocket. I am doing all of this while working full time. We currently have 4700 members located in Canada, the US, Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, Greece, Jamaica, Germany, Suriname, the UK, Trinidad and other countries. The goal is to have one million members on the site by the following year. I hope to reach that goal shortly!”
