On May 31, 2016, the South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation hosted Dr. Angela Steidele's public lecture about Anne Lister and her travel in Georgia.
Anne Lister (1791-1840), of lesser Yorkshire gentry, has been called the first modern lesbian. In her diary she described in minute details her many love affairs with other women. A daring lover she also was a daring traveler. Together with her 'wife' Ann Walker she toured Scandinavia and Russia and finally Georgia (Tbilisi, Ratcha-Lechkhumi, Zugdidi). On her way to Mestia, on horseback, she fell ill. She died around Kutaisi on September 22, 1840.