In this November edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have:
- Registration information for our Salon78 forums: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978
- Robert French and Robyn Kennedy’s update on the Coming Out in the 70s Exhibition at the State Library
- Diane Minnis on Mardi Gras 2021 at the SCG
- Ken Davis and Diane Minnis on the SGLMG AGM and Constitution Changes
- Robyn Kennedy’s report on InterPride and Oceania InterPride
- Calendar of Events.
Diane Minnis
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Our Salon78 forums: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978 will be held by Zoom over two sessions on Sunday 29 November and Sunday 6 December.
Our speakers will bring their 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.
In Part 1 on Sunday 29 November, we will hear from:
- Robert French – The historical timeline of early activism: late 1960s to mid 1970s
- Abbie Pobjoy – Australasian Lesbian Movement from 1969
- Gabrielle (Gaby) Antolovich and Barry Charles – Emerging activism: CAMP Inc., Women’s and Gay Liberation
- Dennis Altman – US influences and the early Sydney scene.
In Part 2 on Sunday 6 December, we will hear from:
- Jamie Gardiner – UK experience, HLRC and “Equality for Homosexuals. Now.”
- Jude Munro – Early Melbourne Gay Liberation
- Diane Minnis – Early lesbian activism in Melbourne and Sydney
- Robyn Kennedy – Progression from early activism, CAMP Inc. 1974 onwards
- Ken Davis – Progression from early activism to the triggers for 1978.
At the end of each session, we will take questions from the audience but these will be written questions through the Zoom chat function.
The events are free, but we will be asking for registration via Eventbrite, Facebook or to info@78ers.org.au. Here are the Eventbrite registration links to the forum’s two sessions:
Karl Zlotkowski, Barry Charles and Diane Minnis
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members
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In an important celebration of Fifty Years of Visibility, the State Library’s exhibition Coming Out in the 70’s exhibition is about to open. It is divided into three sections – Being Seen, Being Heard and Being Together. The event will be held in the Library’s Paintings Gallery and opens on Saturday 28 November 2020, running to Sunday 16 May 2021.
78ers Robert French, Garry Wotherspoon and Robyn Kennedy have been members of the Advisory Committee for the exhibition. Robyn says: “The State Library has collected an enormous amount of gay and lesbian material from the 1970s including posters, photographs, personal papers, oral history and ephemera such as badges. It’s a fantastic record of our stories.”
Robert explains “As this year marks the beginnings of 50 years of visibility of the LGBTQ community in Australia, the State Library of NSW is commemorating this significant anniversary with an exhibition, Coming Out in the ‘70s. The exhibition specifically looks at the forgotten years, the early years of activism before the 1978 Mardi Gras and the formation of such groups CAMP Inc, Gay Liberation and Radicalesbians.
It tells the story of those vibrant, sometimes raucous, times and the beginnings of the march from Liberation to Equality.”
The State Library is promoting the exhibition as follows: “Gay and lesbian life went public in the 1970s. Speaking up and standing out, gay men and women took to the streets proudly demanding to be seen, heard and accepted.
This exhibition tells their story. Drawing from the library’s little-known collections of gay and lesbian posters, photographs, personal papers, oral history and ephemera, it pays tribute to the people and events that drove this profound social change, offering rich and compelling context for continuing debates and issues around LGBTQI+ experience and life today.”
OPEN: 28 November 2020 to 16 May 2021
ADMISSION: FREE
NOTE: There is a maximum of 13 people allowed into the gallery at any one time – based on current NSW health guidelines.
If you would like to get together with a group of 78ers, partners and friends for a guided tour, let us know at info@78ers.org.au and we will organise it with the State Library.
Robert French and Robyn Kennedy
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member and Committee Member
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On Sunday 8 November, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras launched its 2021 season at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Yvonne Weldon, from the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, gave the Welcome to Country flanked by colourful representatives of regular Parade groups.
Mardi Gras CEO, Albert Kruger then announced that a scaled-down 2021 Parade would circle the SCG on 6 March 2021, with marchers later joining the seated audience. This will allow NSW Health Covid-safe procedures to be followed.
There will be no big floats as trucks and buses cannot fit through the entrances to the ground. Golf buggies will be able to carry less able participants, including as many as possible of the 78ers contingent who usually travel on the bus.
Other speakers included Lord Mayor Clover Moore and NSW MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich. Greens Party MP for Newtown, Jenny Leong, was also in attendance. I would have liked to seen Penny Sharpe representing Labor at the event, as she has played a key role in law reforms benefiting the NSW LGBTIQ community.
At the launch, there was colourful electronic signage around the ground and we were told that SBS will have lots of cameras to cover the Parade for the live broadcast.
The next day, all Mardi Gras members, including 78er Lifetime Members, were sent an email with a code to access seating tickets. 78er members are allowed 4 free tickets. General member tickets are $20, with 4 tickets for $50.
On 11 November, the Mardi Gras elected 78ers Committee met and I raised the issue of 78ers who aren’t Mardi Gras members and their access to free tickets. Mardi Gras staff assured us that there would be plenty of seating tickets for 78er non-Mardi Gras members.
Parade production staff also attended the meeting and explained the assembly and access processes. If you are marching, you will need to have a seat ticket. All 78er contingent members will need to sign in for Covid tracing and wear masks when assembling and when seated.
The Parade route is about the same length as our usual march up Oxford Street to the 78ers seating, but it is flat rather than uphill. Mardi Gras will allow up to 80 people in our 78ers group.
The 78ers Committee will send out a Parade registration form to all 78ers in mid-December 2020.
The Covid pandemic is preventing us marching along the Parade’s historic Oxford Street route. However, this smaller and less publicly accessible event ensures that we will still have 43 unbroken years of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.
Diane Minnis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
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Above: Yvonne Weldon giving the Welcome to Country. Below: Parade participants at the Launch. Photos Diane Minnis
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In our August 2020 Newsletter, we reported on the Mardi Gras consultations on their proposed Constitution changes. There were concerns about some of the proposed amendments including:
- New members having to wait for 6 months before being granted voting rights
- The number of Board members being increased to 10 (currently 8) with the 2 extra members appointed by the Board through an EOI process. This isn’t democratic and would allow Board members who are not re-elected to then be appointed.
- The Board appointment of a Treasurer if elected members do not have those skills, bringing the proposed number of non-elected Board members to 3.
In this article the writers comment on the final proposed Constitution changes put forward by the SGLMG Board as well as changes and motions proposed by others. First Mardi Gras Inc. urges all 78ers to review the proposals themselves and participate in voting at the upcoming Mardi Gras AGM, to be held online on 5 December 2020.
Special Resolutions Proposed by the Board (require 75% of the vote to pass)
A repeated suggestion in the Constitution consultations was a 3-month waiting period before new members can vote – a common provision in the rules of unions and political parties. In the notice paper for the SGLMG AGM, Mardi Gras has now settled on 4-month waiting period, which is better than 6 months.
Appointing extra Board members rather than electing them is now off the table. There is a proposal for the number of Directors to be increased to 9, with a tenth Director; a Treasurer, to be separately elected.
We believe that increasing the number of Directors is much needed, given the workload of the Board and the organisation. However, having a separately elected Treasurer goes against contemporary governance standards for all Boards, including those of not-for-profit community organisations. All Board members need to have the ability to understand balance sheets and profit and loss statements in order to carry out their duties as Directors. SGLMG can employ external finance experts to support the Board, as they currently do with the Company Secretarial function.
There is also a proposal to extend the Director’s terms from 2 to 3 years. Again, this is a sensible change, given the breadth of their roles.
Special Resolutions Proposed by Former Board Members (require 75% of the vote to pass)
There are three proposed changes from former Board members:
- To prohibit proxy votes being used to vote for Directors – we do not support this.
- To limit terms so that a Director may not seek re-election if they have served consecutive terms greater than six years or have been elected at three elections – this seems reasonable.
- To update the wording in the Constitution to reflect that used in the Australian Electoral Commission’s proportional representation voting system – this is a much needed clarification of the current wording and does not change the way votes are counted.
These special resolutions must be passed by at least 75% of the votes cast by members present at the AGM or there by proxy.
Ordinary Resolutions (require 50% of the vote to pass)
A series of Ordinary Resolutions, that require 50% of the vote to pass, have also been proposed.
The first of these is to vote for a list of 78ers to be granted Lifetime Membership of Mardi Gras. One of the roles of the elected 78ers Committee is to check that applicants for 78er Lifetime Membership are actually 78ers.
The remaining 8 motions are from Pride in Protest supporters. Half of these motions relate to terminating current Mardi Gras corporate sponsorship arrangements.
At last year’s AGM, Diane Minnis successfully moved a procedural motion to allow each part of a Pride in Protest motion to be voted on separately. The motion called on SGLMG to terminate a list of their then major corporate sponsors – one of which, Gilead, profiteers from the HIV and Hep C drugs they manufacture. The motion to terminate Gilead sponsorship was carried but the other sponsorship motions were not carried.
Mardi Gras needs sponsors but these corporations and government agencies need to behave ethically to the LGBTIQ community and be ethical in general. Groups of workers or volunteers from particular services or industries have always been a welcome feature of the Parade.
Another Pride in Protest motion repeats their demand to bar the NSW and Federal Police from having contingents in the Parade, in part in solidarity with international and Australian anti-racism campaigns. Some 78ers will support this but many of us have mixed feelings, as the most of the Police who march are the GLLOs and others who fight against homophobia inside the Police Force.
SGLMG Directors' Election
Elections for SGLMG Directors are open now, with electronic voting invitations sent to members by email. Four candidates are to be elected by preferential voting from 12 nominations. SGLMG needs a dedicated board of Directors that is diverse, representative, competent, talented and accountable. We urge all 78ers to vote.
SGLMG 78ers Committee Election
Nominations for three positions for a two-year term on the SGLMG 78ers Committee have now closed and results will be known this week. The 78ers elected will join Sallie Colechin, Diane Minnis and Helen Gollan who were elected last year for two years.
It is important that democratic processes are used to elect members of the 78ers Committee, as the Committee liaises between Mardi Gras and all 78ers.
Ken Davis and Diane Minnis
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs
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I have been elected to the Board of InterPride as Vice President Global Outreach and Partnerships (VPGOP). There are four VPGOP on the Board, each with responsibility for five of InterPride’s 20 regions. My responsibility is for growing and supporting Pride and Global Advisory Council members in Oceania (which includes Australia), Asia, the Middle East and two regions in Europe.
As a member of the Board, I have a greater role in influencing the policies and directions of InterPride. Recently, I gained the support of the Board to introduce a new system for scheduling meeting times, which have historically disadvantaged our region and Asia. Under a new approach to more inclusive practices, the new schedule will ensure that late night and early morning meetings are equitably distributed across time zones.
As a result of my election to the Board, I was required to stand down as a Global Advisory Council member for Region 20. Elections were recently held for a replacement representative. First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Diane Minnis was elected to the position. Diane will join Russell Weston, Co-Chair of First Nations Rainbow, as Regions 20’s representatives on the Global Advisory Council.
By Robyn Kennedy
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member
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Calendar of Events
- Coming out in the 70s: Early Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia Exhibition at the State Library – Saturday 28 November 2020 to 16 May 2021
- Salon78 forum: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978, Part 1 – 3pm, Sunday 29 November 2020 by Zoom
- Annual General Meeting of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (including changes to their Constitution) – 11am, Saturday 5 December 2020 by Zoom
- Salon78 forum: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978, Part 2 – 3pm, Sunday 6 December2020 by Zoom
- Parade registration for 78ers email – mid-December 2020
- First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 30 January by Zoom
- MG Fair Day (not yet approved by NSW Health) – Sunday 21 February 2021
- MG Parade and Party – Saturday 6 March 2021 (Party not yet approved).
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