In this October edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have:
- FMG Inc. statement on the 78ers trademark issue: “78ers” belongs to all 78ers
- Karl Zlotkowski on our next Salon78 forum: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978
- Robyn Kennedy on Where did the name “78ers” come from?
- Barry Charles’ account of the InterPride AGM and Conference
- Our statement on the arrests and fines at the Community Action for Rainbow Rights 10 October Rally against the Anti-Trans One Nation Bill
- Our tribute to Kendall Lovett on his passing
- A link to Sydney Arts Students Society's diverse sexuality and genders literary magazine 1978, with Foreword by Diane Minnis and Ken Davis
- Calendar of Events.
Diane Minnis
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In late 2017 a small group trademarked the term “78ers SEVENTYEIGHTERS”. This was done without consultation with the wider 78er community and they are trying to limit who can use the term 78ers.
Recently, a representative of the Original 78ers Collective Inc. (which incorporated in late 2017, with no connection to First Mardi Gras Inc.) has asked Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to pay them a licence fee for using the term 78ers.
Our legal advice is that the term 78ers describes a group of people, not a product or service, and that claiming an exclusive trademark on a descriptor for a group of people is not legally enforceable. In addition, registering a name as a trademark where the name is already in use, even if not trademarked, can constitute misleading or deceptive conduct. In this case, the ACCC can issue fines as well as force a change to the trademarked term.
Later in this newsletter, Robyn Kennedy details how the name 78ers has been in use for over 20 years. This matter was extensively discussed at out recent AGM.
On 19 September 2020, at the Annual General Meeting of First Mardi Gras Inc., the following motion was carried unanimously: “That this meeting of First Mardi Gras Inc. believes that the term 78ers cannot be appropriated or licensed for exclusive use by any one group, since it belongs to all 78ers.”
Following our AGM, Co-Chairs Diane Minnis and Ken Davis met with SGLMG CEO, Albert Kruger, and Board member Louis Hudson.
We understand that a person said to be representing the Original 78ers Collective is asserting that SGLMG needs their permission to use the term 78ers, including for SGLMG‘s elected advisory 78ers Committee. SGLMG has previously been “granted” a licence by this group to use the term 78ers for the 2018 season. Albert Kruger told us that no royalties had been paid on that occasion.
In light of the unenforceability of the trademark and extensive prior usage of 78ers, we urged Mardi Gras to strenuously reject the demand for a licence payment or any restriction on their use of the term 78ers.
The claim by some members of the Original 78ers Collective Inc. to claim exclusive ownership of the term 78ers lacks any merit and is unethical. This represents an insult to all of us that fought so hard for our identity. We encourage all 78ers to use 78ers as frequently and appropriately as they wish.
By Diane Minnis and Ken Davis
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs
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Salon78 goes Zoom!
Our series of forums on issues of interest to 78ers and our friends returns in November 2020. This time we will be hosting the event by Zoom, which means that for the first time the audience of Salon78 will extend beyond Sydney to the rest of Australia, and the world.
Our theme is Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978. Our speakers will bring recollections of the people and events that created the Australian LGBTIQ movement, and developed a community consciousness that took to the streets in the 70’s. Our aim is to show that without these pioneers, there would be no Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Melbourne Midsumma.
Given the scale of this topic, we have divided the forum into two sessions:
- Part 1 – 3pm, Sunday 29 November 2020
- Part 2 – 3pm, Sunday 6 December 2020
The event will be free, but we will be asking for registration via Eventbrite, Facebook or to info@78ers.org.au. Keep an eye out for updates in the next two weeks!
By Karl Zlotkowski
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member
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In 1997, around 30 people who had participated in the events of 1978 began meeting to plan commemorative activities for the 20th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras Parade in 1998.
Fairly early on the group decided that they needed a name and the term “78ers” came into being. The name 78ers appeared on meeting minutes, newsletters and correspondence including an application to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for funding.
The 78ers formed various sub-committees which produced a website, an exhibition, and the publication It Was a Riot. This booklet documented the background leading up to the first Mardi Gras Parade, what took place on the night of the Parade as well as the subsequent protest rallies and marches. The publication included numerous photos including many that were previously unpublished.
The 78ers Festival Events Group aimed to ensure that It Was a Riot remained accessible in perpetuity by depositing copies with the National Library of Australia. Copyright of the publication by the 78ers Festival Events Group is recognised in Library’s citation, with copyright held until 2068.
This recognition clearly establishes pre-existing use of the name 78ers which, along with numerous other examples, demonstrates that any attempt to claim ownership of the name is invalid.
By Robyn Kennedy
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member
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InterPride AGM and Conference 2020
The AGM and Conference of InterPride, the international association of Pride organisers, was held on 1-11 October, 2020. First Mardi Gras Inc. is a member organisation and the AGM sessions were attended by Barry Charles, Robyn Kennedy and Helen Gollan.
Of course, this year the conference was held online.
InterPride membership has changed dramatically in the last 5 years. Membership has more than doubled to 374 groups in 2020 and regions outside North America now account for 49% of members compared to 29% in 2015. In 2020, however Board positions have largely continued to be based in North America.
The organisation therefore needs to go through a structural and cultural change. A Strategic Planning Task Force co-chaired by our own Robyn Kennedy presented ideas, involving re-balancing of regions and greater outreach to developing Pride groups. These proposals were responded to on the last day.
There were a number of sessions held over the 11 days, covering topics such as Seniors, People with Special Needs, Health promotion at LGBTIQ Festivals and Combating Racism. These sessions were recorded and information on the list and videos is provided below.
Highlights of the final General Sessions were the:
- discussion on proposed changes outlined by the Strategic Planning Task Force
- a stunning presentation from Copenhagen on their plans for World Pride in August 2021
- election of Board members, with Robyn Kennedy elected Vice-President - Global Outreach and Partnerships, and
- plans for future World Pride events.
There was controversy over the last of these items. Since last year’s vote for Sydney in 2023, the Board of InterPride decided to award a WorldPride to Montreal for 2024. There was significant criticism of this decision given that the vote to award Montreal a WorldPride title was influenced by participation of Board members with a material conflict of interest and that the Standing Rules require a vote of the membership to award WorldPride. Before the AGM finished it was decided to take the decision back to the whole membership.
Another idea presented for discussion was that WorldPride be held every year instead of every two years. In 2019 a number of us went to New York where it coincided with the 50 year anniversary of Stonewall. The next WorldPride is in Copenhagen in 2021 and then Sydney in 2023 at Mardi Gras time.
There were some objections to the idea of annual WorldPrides given that that 2 year gaps ensured that smaller cities could develop viable bids and attract visitors. If WorldPride were to be held annually the financial risk to hosting cities may increase.
InterPride AGM Workshops
Around 25 workshops covering diverse topics were conducted during the InterPride AGM held in early October. Recordings and slide sets are available for most of these workshops with topics including:
- Pride and Prejudice - Are LGBTQIA+ Elders the Forgotten Population (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Sherri Rase
- Combating Racism within the Queer community (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Richard Bell
- Living Proudly, Living Longer: Incorporating LGBTQ Health Promotion at Pride Events (Workshop Recording)Speakers: Adrian Shanker
- Solidarity at Stake - How Your Pride Can Change the World (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Stein Runar Østigaard, Antonio Mihajlov, Mina Skouen, Valentina
- Volunteer Empowerment: Building A Powerful Volunteer-Led Organization (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Melanie Mijares, Bob Leyh
- Organizing Pride Events in a Conservative Society (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Rahul Upadhyay
- Criminalization of same-sex relations: covid-19 and its impact on access to justice for LGBT persons in Uganda (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Adrian Jjuuko
- 2Spirit/Indigenous LGBTQ+ Resurgence in the 21st Century (Workshop Recording) Speakers: Albert McLeod
If you would like a copy of the workshop recording and presentation for any of these workshops and/or a full list of topics presented please contact Robyn Kennedy at robyn.kennedy@interpride.org.
By Barry Charles
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary
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Help Pay Protestor's Fines
Community Action for Rainbow Rights organised a rally and march on 10 October 2020 against the anti-trans One Nation Bill in the NSW Parliament. If passed, the bill will increase discrimination against many, and in particular, increase repression of gender diverse children in schools.
First Mardi Gras Inc., together with other organisations, endorsed the rally and opposed the court ruling against this protest. NSW allows many much larger gatherings of people at sporting events, without the masks, distancing, and preventive measures the rally organisers put in place. So why should political protests be subject to different rules?
On the Saturday, hundreds of people took part in the rally in Taylor Square and marched down Oxford Street. The police arrested two participants and heavily fined eleven people.
This shows a proclivity to discriminatory authoritarianism that predates the Coronavirus pandemic. The police actions compound the thrust of the One Nation Bill, which is designed to curtail social and political freedoms.
Community Action for Rainbow Rights has now set up a Go Fund Me campaign to help pay the fines at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/73xau-community-action-for-rainbow-rights-fighting-fund?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet.
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Vale Kendall Lovett
6.10.1922 – 21.10.2020
A life of activism for social justice |
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Mannie De Saxe (L) and Kendall Lovett (R). Photo David Urquhart, ALGA
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First Mardi Gras Inc. is sad to report that a few weeks after turning 98, 78er Kendall Lovett has passed away. Ken is survived by his partner of 27 years, Mannie De Saxe.
Ken was a tireless activist and campaigner for LGBTIQ, refugee and human rights. Most demos we went to from the late 70s onwards had Ken’s placards, banners, slogan vests or people-shaped placards – all in his distinctive calligraphy.
Ken was a lovely supportive colleague in the Gay Solidarity Group (GSG), which organised the first Mardi Gras and coordinated the massive Drop the Charges campaign that followed.
Ken joined GSG after the first Mardi Gras in 1978, and was arrested in the August demonstration in Taylor Square. Often during Mardi Gras parades and demonstrations, Kendall was waiting on alert with bail money ready. Ken stayed active in GSG, later renamed Lesbian and Gay Solidarity into the 2000s, after he and Mannie moved to Melbourne.
Ken had been active in Gay Liberation after he returned to Sydney from the UK in the late 1960s, where he was part of the move for homosexual law reform. He took part in the 1972 demonstration outside St Clement’s Anglican Church at Mosman after they had dismissed Peter Bonsall-Boone from staff. Kendall’s main political activism prior to GSG in 1978 was in a resident action group saving Woolloomooloo from developers, with the support of the Builders’ Labourers Federation Green Bans in the early 1970s.
Ken was very active at the time of the nationalist bicentenary in 1988, helping organise a big queer contingent in the First Nations mobilisation, around the slogan “200 years of oppression and bad taste.” He was involved in Enola Gay, the peace and antinuclear activist group, and founded “Inside Out” a network supporting gay and lesbian prisoners. Ken was one of the people in GSG who was very involved with international solidarity. He sustained a long correspondence with anti-Apartheid gay activist Simon Nkoli when he was in prison in South Africa on treason charges.
In the early 1980s Ken and GSG were active in organising around inclusion of homosexuality in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act, in demanding removal of the anti-buggery law and in responding to the rise of the Christian Right. Just prior to American Jerry Falwell’s visit in 1982, Kendall and Leigh Raymond registered the name, Moral Majority, and used it to campaign against Fred Nile and Falwell.
Ken also supported the Gaywaves radio program on 2SER FM over many years. He provided a weekly news bulletin – GRINS (Gay Radio Information News Service) – sometimes as a collective effort, but mainly as a one-man band, week in and week out. This was circulated to other lesbian and gay media across the country.
Ken was a key member of the Sydney collective of Gay Community News (1980-82) and the organising body for the Sixth National Conference of Lesbians and Homosexual Men in Sydney (1980). He was also a correspondent to gay newspapers overseas and the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA).
In October 1982 Ken and GSG supported Roberta Perkins and the Australian Transsexual Association (ATA), in staging the first transgender protest in Australia, in Manly. The protest was held to challenge a judgement against two transwomen, who a Magistrate had ruled were men. In response the NSW Attorney-General said that ‘Attorneys-General of the six states had committed to new legislation to recognise the validity of sex changes’.
In 1985 the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence canonised him, in recognition of his extensive gay activism, as St Kendall the Constant.
Kendall formed a relationship with Mannie De Saxe, a revolutionary socialist and Jewish anti-Zionist activist from South Africa, after they met in GSG. Both of them remained active in lesbian and gay, and other social justice, causes. They volunteered to help people with AIDS, and founded SPAIDS, which planted a memorial grove of trees in Sydney Park.
After retiring from his job at Choice magazine, Ken moved to Newcastle. Twenty years ago, Ken and Mannie moved to live together in Melbourne and in recent years had practical home support from other activists and friends.
Ken and Mannie have been very engaged in the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. They have made big contributions to the struggle to improve services for older lesbian, transgender and gay people. Ken and Mannie were featured in the “2 of Us” in Good Weekend magazine on 10 March 2007.But they were very angry in 2009 when Social Security, as part of a path to marriage equality, decided they were a couple and cut their pensions, even though they had been independent tax payers.
Ken and his long-term support for LGBTIQ and other social change struggles will be sadly missed. Our condolences to Mannie and to Ken’s many friends.
By Diane Minnis and Ken Davis
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs
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Kendall Lovett (L) and Mannie De Saxe (R) holding the Lesbian and Gay Solidarity banner at an 'Out of Iraq' rally for peace, Melbourne, 2005. Photo John Story, ALGA
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Sydney Arts Students Society's (SASS) diverse sexuality and genders literary magazine 1978 was published on Aug 29, 2020.
1978 includes a Foreword by Diane Minnis and Ken Davis. We were pretty chuffed that SASS were encouraged by our struggles in 1978 to name their literary magazine after the events of that momentous year. Click here to see 1978.
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Calendar of Events
- General Meeting of First Mardi Gras Inc. – 4pm, Saturday 21 November by Zoom
- Opening of Coming out in the 70s: Early Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia Exhibition at the State Library – Saturday 28 November
- Salon78 forum: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978, Part 1 – 3pm, Sunday 29 November by Zoom
- Annual General Meeting of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (including changes to their Constitution) – 11am, Saturday 5 December by Zoom
- Salon78 forum: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978, Part 2 – 3pm, Sunday 6 December by Zoom
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