Nicole Mowbray came out as a lesbian in 1986 in Melbourne, Australia. She was 19 at the time and came out to a thriving lesbian community. In the intervening 40 years, she has watched that thriving community go underground in order to keep males out. It is now illegal for lesbians to have public single sex spaces and there is now nowhere for young lesbians to find their community. Nicole joined the Lesbian Action Group in order to try to turn this around and has been involved in the ensuing legal action. She worked professionally as an academic librarian and multimedia designer and has also been involved in the environmental movement as a climate leader and grower of trees."