Lesbian for a Year: Brooke Hemphill spends 12 months as a lesbian for new book
MEET Brooke Hemphill, the ‘straight’ Sydneysider who kissed a girl and liked it so much she spent the next year living as a lesbian.
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MEET the ‘straight’ Sydney woman who kissed a girl and liked it so much she spent the next year living as a lesbian.
In 2010, Brooke Hemphill was living in Potts Point and working as a dating, relationships and sex columnist when she “unexpectedly” had a one-night stand with a woman that led to a year of “sexual exploration”.
She said the year of “dating only women” was not a planned experiment, but rather a fit of passion, and she decided to write a book about it, she told The Wentworth Courier.
“I have always been fascinated with dating and relationships and sex, but in terms of writing this book it was an experience that unexpectedly happened to me,” said the 35-year-old.
“It wasn’t like I woke up one day and thought, right I am going to do this for the next 12 months, it kind of just happened. And after talking to other people about it I realised that there are a lot of people who have similar stories or can relate to it, or have thought about doing something similar, so I decided to write a book.”
It charts her year of dating women — from wild dance parties, to a lesbian reality show, a year of no men, an illicit affair and a broken heart, Hemphill charts her sexual discovery.
But the title of her book, Lesbian For A Year has seen her criticised from the large Sydney gay and lesbian community, something she had anticipated.
“It is a bit of a tricky one and I understand that a lot of people who identify as lesbian have issues with the title of the book,” she said.
“I have been getting a lot of feedback on Twitter and so forth about how you can’t really be a lesbian for a year and you are either straight or you’re bisexual or you’re a lesbian for a lifetime.
My book Lesbian for a Year is now available for pre order: http://t.co/XKDipcDBzP pic.twitter.com/wznl1WO9JY
— Brooke Hemphill (@broohem) August 15, 2014“But in my experience I had a one-night stand with a woman, woke up in the morning found her in my bed and thought, how did that happen?”
A couple of weeks later she was working on the pilot for a television show which followed a group of Sydney-based lesbians which she described as “very enticing and intoxicating experience. During the filming, which occurred during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras she “met a girl and we started dating, we ended up going out together for about six months”.
“In that time I continued to kind of question what my sexuality was, was I gay? Or bisexual? Was I a straight girl kind of going through a phase, so the book kind of explores that journey.”
While she has copped flak for the title and assertions about being a part-time lesbian she said it was not all about Katy Perry songs and divas locking lips, but rather, had a serious message about breaking down barriers and stereotypes.
“Generally, I think with everything that is going on in the country in relation to gay marriage if everyone went out and spent some time hooking up with their own gender we would probably be in a much more tolerant place and it would open up much more conversation and dialogue around this,” she said.
The Petersham resident finished the book in a relationship with a man, but said she hasn’t “put a label” on her sexuality.
“Connection with a person, not their gender, it could be male it could be female, I generally find I am more attracted to people’s personalities than gender or looks,” she said.
“Some people would suggest that it puts a finality to what my label should be, but I think it is a bit more fluid than that and who knows what the future holds.”
Originally published as Lesbian for a Year: Brooke Hemphill spends 12 months as a lesbian for new book