Newsletter - February 2021

View this email in your browser February 2021 In this February edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, w e have: Karl Zlotkowski on 2021 Parade – Out Front and Visible! Diane Minnis on arrangements for Parade 2021 – Saturday 6 March Information on a mask offer from House of Priscilla Barry Charles on First Mardi Gras Membership Robert French on his LGBTQ History Walks A report on the City of Sydney Rainbow Flag Raising Ceremony Richard Riley on the Meet the 78ers forum with the SGLMG 78ers Committee Karl Zlotkowski on the NAS Skin Deep Exhibition Robyn Kennedy on Oceania InterPride Report on our Social Lunch Britt Kissun, Barry Charles and Karl Zlotkowski on our postponed 78ers Pawfect Dog Picnic New date for our Salon78 Forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Ticket give away for GIRLS CAN’T SURF | In Cinemas March 11 Bruce Carter’s memorial of early Mardi Gras poster designer Chris Jones Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis An unexpectedly large contingent of 78ers, partners and friends will lead this year’s Parade at the Sydney Cricket Ground, after the First Nations float. Our theme this year is Fifty Years of Visibility, and we will be carrying placards celebrating events from 1969, 1970 and 1971. Over the past two weeks, 78ers and the Mardi Gras Workshop team have prepped, painted, traced, printed, wired, blinged and sequinned a small thicket of signs. The last cheeky touches are being applied as we go to press. Huge thanks to our 78er volunteers Kell Boston, Lance Day, Diane Minnis, Karl Zlotkowski and professional sign-writer Karen Askew, and our friend Anne Morphett. Thanks too to Liz Carter and the Mardi Gras Workshop team – they go out of their way to help us, and working with them is a joy. This year we will be managing our Parade items more carefully on the night. Too many of our 78er props have been lost or borrowed over the years, and we should start preserving them as part of a historical collection. So this year, when we hand out a fabulous sign for you to carry, we will ask for it back at the end of the parade :-) Happy Mardi Gras! 78ers are Everywhere! Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Celebrating Fifty Years of Visibility In the 2021 Mardi Gras Parade, the 78ers contingent will carry placards celebrating Fifty Years of LGBTIQ+ Visibility, highlighting key events and people from 1969, 1970 and 1971. The first Australian activist LGBTIQ+ organisations were founded in 1969 – Australasian Lesbian Movement (ALM) and ACT Homosexual Law Reform Society and 1970 – Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP Inc.). Key members of ALM and CAMP Inc. “came out” and were interviewed on TV and in the press in 1970. They included John Ware, Michael Cass and Christabel Poll of CAMP Inc. and the ALM’s Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis. The first issue of CAMP Ink magazine was published in 1970, and by the end of 1971 CAMP groups (under various names) were established in all states. Dr Ian Black chaired the first AGM of CAMP Inc. on 9 January 1971 and the first gay demonstration in Australia was on 8 October 1971. In all these 50th Anniversary milestones, it is also worth noting that 2021 is the 40th Anniversary of the first Summer Mardi Gras. This year we have also been invited to accompany our entry into the stadium with appropriate music. We have chosen parts of (in homage to June 1978) Glad to be Gay, as well as another much loved classic that is today considered one of the anthems of 1970….You Don't Own Me!   What to Expect Since this year’s Parade will be held at the SCG (to comply with COVID health regulations), there are quite a few changes to our arrangements. This year all contingents have smaller numbers, although the 78ers will actually be the largest group in the Parade. 78er numbers have already reached our maximum and registration has now closed for our group. All 78ers who have registered to march will receive an email early next week with their Eventbrite ticket to gain access to the Marshalling Area. This is to ensure Covid compliance and the ticket can be printed or stored on a mobile device as an eticket. Six 78ers have volunteered to act as marshals for our group – Sallie Colechin, Helen Gollan, Robyn Kennedy, Maree Marsh, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski. We will be wearing pink armbands. Marchers will need to wear a mask (unless you have an exemption and the documentation to prove it), bring photo ID, your Eventbrite ticket and your seating ticket. Detailed assembly information will go out next week. We will be able to remove our masks after we enter the arena, but we must still maintain social distancing. 78ers who have applied for seating ticket/s should have received their Ticketek ticket email on Friday 26 February. If you have noted in the Parade registration survey that you do not have seating tickets, you will be emailed next week with a code to apply on Ticketek. If you have ordered a t-shirt and are marching, you can collect it in the 78ers Marshalling Area. If you have ordered a t-shirt and are watching on TV or going straight to seating, it has been posted to you. Some 78ers are collecting t-shirts from the Mardi Gras office. Please note that this year the Parade will be starting at 6pm and NOT 7.15pm as we do in Oxford Street. The SGLMG 78ers Committee asked for a late assembly time for us and this is 5.30pm. There will be some seats for us to sit on while we wait. The gates to the Marshalling Area close at 6pm. After we march, we go straight to our seats and there are places to purchase drinks/food in the SCG. In common with all other Parade participants, our members will be asked to comply with common-sense guidelines for behaviour. Drunken or abusive behaviour is never acceptable.  This will be a different experience, marching around the SCG and not up Oxford Street, but I’m sure it will feel pretty special celebrating an unbroken line of 44 Mardi Gras Parades!   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair House of Priscilla is offering a 20% discount to 78ers on its range of stylish face masks – elegant or blingy, it’s up to you! This offer applies to their standard stock items or special one-off items using your choice of fabric to match your Mardi Gras outfit. Turnaround is very quick – if you order soon they can have something for you in time for Mardi Gras. Use this link to tour their offering of stock items and place an order. https://houseofpriscilla.com.au/364-fashion-masks. If you’d like something special, phone them straight away to discuss possibilities or visit their studio at Level 1, 47 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 (Phone: 02 9286 3023). To obtain the 20% discount, use the promo code 78MG2021! If you order at the last minute and cannot collect it yourself before you march with us in the Parade (or don’t trust the post to reach you in time) we may be able to collect and deliver to you on the night. Tell House of Priscilla that this is what you want to do and email us at info@78ers.org.au.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member We’re not Just Queer in March! Whether we identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex or Queer. Whether we sometimes call ourselves a Poof or a Dyke. We know that we are not just around in February and March. Our lives and loves and struggles and triumphs are year round and year on year. 78ers, their partners, carers, friends and supporters know that what matters is that our community goes on growing and supporting each other. That the now and future stands on where we have come from and the pioneers of the past. Just as Mardi Gras means much more than the street parade and a ticket to a party. So First Mardi Gras Inc. is more than a once year community group. As well as assisting 78ers to have access to the annual parade, members of First Mardi Gras Inc. work throughout the year to represent our interests/concerns to Mardi Gras. We hold regular general meetings. See this newsletter for details. We respond to calls from many different organisations to provide speakers to explain our history and experience. Through our Salon78 forums we discuss and inform the community on the history and politics of LGBTIQ Rights in Australia.   We Need You If you are receiving or sharing this newsletter, please consider becoming more involved. Become a member and supporter of our community. Become a financial member of First Mardi Gras Inc.   Barry Charles 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary It was a privilege, on Friday 26 February, to lead an LGBTIQ History Walk for Vision Impaired People. It was organised by Guide Dogs NSW with the Pride History Group. Much to my pleasure, two participants brought their hounds! On the morning of Saturday 27 February I led the 10th annual ACON Spark Youth Group History Walk. We visited the Hyde Park Barracks and the Coming Out in the 70s exhibition at the State Library. Then in the afternoon, I led the second walk for Guide Dogs NSW – with not only more hounds but drag queens as well! But, I'm knackered, my legs ache, so I intend to stay home, with a closed door, for the next couple of days. Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 78ers Lance Day, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski attended the City of Sydney’s annual Rainbow Flag Raising Ceremony. They managed to insert themselves, representing 78ers of course, into the official photo with Lord Mayor Clover Moore, state MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich (both in front of the flag), Mardi Gras representatives and Councillors. Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair On Sunday 21 February, the SGLMG 78ers Committee held this Zoom webinar as part of this year’s Mardi Gras Festival. This was in place of our usual tent at Fair Day where many people come to ask about the events of 1978. Sadly Fair Day was not held this year due to Covid 19 restrictions. The Webinar was a great way for 78ers to continue our commitment to remember the significance of the first Mardi Gras and to keep alive the history of that event. We also acknowledge the community’s responses to the police arrests and bashings on the night, as well as three other events later that year. Louis Hudson, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board member, opened the webinar with an acknowledgment of country and welcomed the audience of 50 and the panellists Diane Minnis, Sallie Colechin, Penny Gulliver, Karl Zlotkowski and Richard Riley. Former SGLMG Board Member Brandon Bear moderated the webinar and explained that is was being recorded for later use and that people could use the chat function to ask questions. Matt Akersten from Mardi Gras developed the webinar presentation from photos and written material provided to him by panellists.   Events of 24 June 1978 Diane Minnis gave the background to the ‘day of International Gay Solidarity’ on June 24 1978. Diane described how a letter from activists in San Francisco to Ken Davis and Annie Talve asked that Sydney organise a day to coincide with that planned in San Francisco. The result was a dance on 23 June, a morning march from Sydney Town Hall, a public meeting at Paddington Town hall and the Festival, or Mardi Gras, that night in Taylor Square. All this was organised in a short time frame by the Gay Solidarity Group, a coalition of groups including Camp Inc. Diane shared her experience of the night time Mardi Gras describing the chaos that arose and her emotion at witnessing the impact on friends of the rough actions of the police. Sallie Colechin, using her own wonderful photos and others, described the events of the day. A thousand people marched down George Street in the morning in memory of the Stonewall riots in New York City in June 1969. After the march people went to Paddington Town Hall for a forum with politicians, lawyers and community leaders to discuss current laws and the essential reforms needed. In the evening 500 people gathered outside in Taylor Square to march with a permit to Hyde Park where speakers were also permitted. One truck led the then way with Glad to be Gay and Ode to a Gym Teacher blaring out as people from bars joined the festive parade. Sallie described the police mood changing with the march being rushed down the street and police then stopping the truck at Hyde Park. In response the crowd called “to the Cross”. There, Sal described it as bedlam with police without their identifying numbered badges roughly slamming people against vehicles, screaming, metal garbage bins banging as people were arrested and others tried to stop this happening. Penny Gulliver then gave an account of her night in the riot. She related desperate scenes of trying to prevent arrests with police grasping a friend’s upper body with Penny pulling her back by the legs. Penny also told how later TV coverage outside the Police Station outed her to her teaching employer and to her students. Her contract to teach self-defence was not renewed.   Drop the Charges Rally – 15 July 1978 Karl Zlotkowski spoke about the Drop the Charges rally on the morning of 15 July 1978 which ended up outside Darlinghurst Police Station.. There people chanted “Stop police attacks on gays women and blacks” and “Drop the charges”. Karl spoke of the “kettling” process of the police blocking exits and closing in to arrest marchers. Two thousand people marched that day and 14 were arrested.   Drop the Charges Rally – 27 August 1978 Richard Riley gave his account of the march on 27 August 1978 from the 4th National Homosexual Conference at Paddington Town Hall to Hyde Park. Three hundred people marched, mostly on the footpath, and chanted. Police cordoned off streets as we headed down Oxford Street and were met by an arc of police lines across Taylor Square. This was both to block marcher’s access to the Festival of Light rally in Hyde Park and to repeat the kettling practice Karl spoke of. Police declared the march illegal and ordered people to disperse but immediately moved in to arrest 104 of the 300 marchers. Some people got through to Hyde Park but many were arrested there while they tried to disrupt the Fred Nile Festival of Light rally. Those not arrested made their way back to Paddo Town Hall and organised the listing of who was arrested, where they were taken and bail money was raised on the spot.   The Aftermath After these accounts of the four events of 1978 that came to define the 78ers, Sallie spoke about the 20th anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. This was planned by people active in the 1978 events and people began calling themselves 78ers from the time of the planning meetings. These people also produced the “It was a RIOT!” booklet. Arising from this anniversary some 78ers appeared in an ABC documentary “Dancing in the Dark” and an exhibition was also organised. Diane appended the talks with an update of the success of having many of the charges ultimately being dropped in the following year and Summary Offences Act being repealed. Following the panellists’ presentations there was time to answer some of the questions the audience had put up in chat. Questions and discussions were had on the role of the police in the Mardi Gras, what could be done to keep younger people informed about the events of 1978, and other discussion points. There was also generous feedback on the chat line that we appreciated. A recording of the webinar was made and it is hoped this can be made available on the Mardi Gras website in the future.   Richard Riley 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member There is still time to view the Skin Deep photo exhibition at the Cell Block Theatre, inside the National Art School, opposite the infamous Darlinghurst Police Station on Forbes Street.   The showing of photographs by celebrated Sydney fashion photographer Waded, continues until Sunday 7 March. The images are vast, towering colour prints of tattooed models, including our own 78ers Britt Kissun and Geoff Ostling. They hang in a remarkable, echoing cathedral space of shadowed sandstone. Riveting.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The first meeting for 2021 of Oceania Pride was held on Monday 22 February 2021. The meeting was well attended by Pride organisers from across Australia including new members from First Nations organisations. Pride organisers from New Zealand and Fiji also attended.  The representative from Rainbow Pride Foundation Fiji (Isikeli Vouvalu) gave an excellent presentation about the extensive work being done by the organisation to address homophobia, discrimination, sexual health, barriers to employment and developing sustainable income sources for the LGBTQI community. The group is continuing to reach out to Pride organisations in the Pacific Islands to encourage participation in the network.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Social Lunch Our Social Lunch on Saturday 13 February, at the Terminus Hotel in Pyrmont, ended up being on a well-ventilated balcony instead of outdoors. About a dozen 78ers and partners braved the rain to attend and enjoyed a relaxed, pre-Mardi Gras social gathering. Photo: Garry Case. Our 78ers Pawfect Dog Picnic to be held on Saturday, 20 February, was postponed due to forecast rain. Event organisers, along with Steve Wiggins and his Dalmatians, went down to Hawthorne Dog Park, near Café Bones in case anyone did show up. Plans are afoot to reschedule the 78ers Pawfect Dog Picnic to April.    Britt Kissun, Barry Charles and Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member, Secretary and Committee Member The Salon78 forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Community vs Commercial Scene has been rescheduled to a less busy time of the year. The forum was due to take place on Zoom on Sunday 28 February 2021. It will now be held in late June 2021 – close to the anniversary of the first three Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parades and the Stonewall riot in New York in 1969. Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair GIRLS CAN’T SURF | In Cinemas March 11 | Ticket Giveaway This powerful and inspiring story is about a group of renegade surfers who challenged the male-dominated professional surfing world for the shared goal of equality and change. Directed by multiple award winner Christopher Nelius and featuring interviews with surfing greats Jodie Cooper, Pauline Menczer, Pam Burridge, Wendy Botha, Layne Beachley and more, GIRLS CAN’T SURF is a wild ride of clashing personalities, sexism, adventure and heartbreak, with each woman fighting against the odds to make their dreams of competing a reality. If you haven’t yet seen the trailer, check it out here. For a free double pass, email info@78ers.org.au – first in gets the pass! Australian poet, artist, editor and activist Chris Jones passed away in July 2013 and was survived by family, and friends, many of whom were unaware of his passing until very recently. Chris came to Sydney from Narrabri NSW in the early '70s to study photography and graphics, and soon became active in militant left politics through his membership of the Socialist Workers Party, coming out as gay and joining the Gay Solidarity Group. Committed to workers' rights, by 1979 Chris was a labourer in the sinter plant of the Wollongong Steelworks, and was well known on the factory floor for being the first out gay man to be a rank-and-file union rep for the Federated Ironworkers Association. Friends remember him coming home to scrub the red dust from his body after a shift at the steelworks before heading to the infamous front bar of the Wollongong Hotel, which served as the town's de-facto gay bar, sometimes in drag. In the '70s '80s and '90s, Chris's commitment to social justice as a gay socialist, and his photographic and graphics skills created some of the most recognisable radical images of the time. These include seminal works, like the poster for the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1978. One of his most notable pieces was the poster protesting charges at the 1982 police raid of Sydney gay sex venue Club 80. He regularly designed banners, flyers, t-shirts and badges for demonstrations and campaigns, including photographing the historic Jobs for Women campaign against Australian Iron and Steel at the Wollongong Steelworks. In his 30s, Chris did a BA Communications in Writing and Textual Theory at the University of Technology, Sydney. He helped form the Pink Ink writing collective there and co-edited Pink Ink: an anthology of lesbian and gay writers (1991, Wicked Women Publications). His poetry was published in Cargo (BlackWattle Press), Poetry Australia and Between U&S 2 (1988, UTS Writers Collective), and was read on Gaywaves, QueerTV Channel 31, and at Writers in the Park at Glebe's Harold Park Hotel. Launching his verse novel, The Times of Zenia Gold, at the Flinders Hotel in November 1992 for BlackWattle Press, the late Dorothy Porter, a mentor and admirer, described the work as "full frontal gay ghetto poetry". This quality was definitely on display in his best-known poem from that volume, the internationally anthologised 'I Am In Love With The Boy On The Magazine Cover'. Chris went on to work as editor of the newsletter of the New South Wales Users and AIDS Association, and under his direction it developed into the widely circulated magazine, NUAA News (later Users News). NUAA News was lauded as a particularly successful peer-education tool that both improved health awareness around HIV and Hep C issues and campaigned for the human rights of drug users. Estranged from friends in later years, Chris went back to seclusion in his Narrabri home and was last reported living on a boat at Soldiers Point. A friend, comrade, mentor, artist and poet, Chris Jones was well loved and widely admired for his gentle nature, fierce politics, fiery poetry and love for the LGBTIQ and the socialist movements. Oh and smack. Chris was a militant drug user, an aficionado of heroin, and remained from reports, every bit the radical outsider and boundary rider until his sadly unreported passing.   Bruce Carter 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 Skin Deep Exhibition – until Sunday 7 March 2021, National Art School Why Did She Have To Tell The World? with ALM’s Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis – Mardi Gras 2021 Film Festival on 3 March, ABC TV on Sunday March 14 at 8pm AEDT Mardi Gras Parade – Saturday 6 March 2021, Sydney Cricket Ground First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 17 April 2021 by Zoom 78ers Pawfect Dog Picnic – April 2021 TBC, Hawthorne Dog Park near Café Bones Salon78 Forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? – late June 2021 TBC, by Zoom.