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First Mardi Gras Inc. are devastated to advise of the passing of Betty Hounslow on 27 July. Betty had an underlying health condition that took an unexpected turn in recent weeks. Our deepest condolences to Betty's partner Kate Harrison, and to Betty’s sister Mary Hounslow, who were with her when she died, and to her family and many friends and comrades.
Betty was an absolute icon and made an outstanding contribution in so many progressive groups, including the Queensland Anti-Freeway Movement; the Queensland Solidarity Group, Sydney; the New Left Party; Socialist Lesbians, later Socialist Lesbians and Male Homosexuals; and the Gay Liberation Quire. Betty was the founder of the the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force and assisted in the development of the AIDS Council of NSW between 1985-1990.
Betty was the Chair of the domestic violence service RDVSA for a period, and until recently she was the Chair of the Asylum Seekers Centre and a Board member of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA. She was also an elected Vice President of the Australian Council for International Development.
A 78er, Betty was actively involved in the protests after the 1978 Mardi Gras arrests, and played a significant role in the organisation of the 1981 Mardi Gras Parade. She was an inaugural Management Committee member of First Mardi Gras Inc. and an elected member of the Mardi Gras 78ers Committee. Only a month ago, Betty spoke at our launch of Voices from 1978, having contributed her memories of 1978 to the book.
Betty was a Sister of Mercy for a short time in Queensland in the early 70s. She was later officially canonised by Mother Inferior of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as Saint Betty Therese of the Holy Face (of Jesus), for her work on gay and lesbian immigration.
After coming to Sydney from Queensland, Betty worked in a variety of roles including roles at Marrickville Legal Centre and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, as the CEO at ACOSS, and in senior positions at the Fred Hollows Foundation. She also spent a period in Cambodia in the early 1990s working for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia on human rights issues. Betty was awarded the Justice Medal in 2003 for outstanding achievement in improving access to justice in NSW, particularly for socially and economically disadvantaged people, and she was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013.
Betty was a force of nature in all her activist and professional endeavours and will be greatly missed.
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