,

Newsletter - June 2021

,
Newsletter - June 2021
View this email in your browser
cdcec3a2-a5f3-4dc7-94a1-f33e248b72de
June 2021
In this June edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have:
  • Karl Zlotkowski on the next Salon78: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer?
  • Barry Charles on the 5 June demo: Defend LGBTIQ rights in NSW: No right to discriminate!
  • Diane Minnis on the Copenhagen WorldPride 2021 webinar
  • Barry Charles on the Ageism in the LGBTIQ community forum
  • Karl Zlotkowski on Charles Sturt University Zoom with 78ers
  • Diane Minnis on the NSW ALP Rank and File Women’s Conference
  • Ken Davis’ tribute: Vale Danny Abood
  • Fiona Hulme’s review of Witches & Faggots, Dykes & Poofters
  • Details of the next Social Lunch on Sunday 4 July
  • Calendar of Events.
Diane Minnis
ec886134-e78f-cdf6-15b8-8b5c116f23e9
The Salon78 forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Community vs Commercial Scene will be held on Saturday 26 June 2021 – close to the anniversaries of the first three Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parades and the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969.

This Salon78 follows on from our forums in late 2020: Fifty Years of Visibility – Pioneers and Connections before 1978, where the emerging commercial gay and lesbian scene was noted.

After the third successful Mardi Gras parade in June 1980, it was decided to move the Parade to summer, instead having it in June – the Stonewall uprising anniversary.

The then Mardi Gras Committee held community consultations and activists were fairly evenly split between the move to summer or the Parade staying in June. Discussion included the impact of the commercial gay and lesbian scene on the Parade.

Then, forty years ago in 1981, the parade was shifted to February, with the name changed to the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras.

This year we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first summer Mardi Gras in 1981. At this Salon78 forum, we will hear from Susan Ardill and David Abello on the tumultuous community debates about the move to summer. Murray McLachlan will then speak about the changes to Mardi Gras that grew out of this major shift.

We had planned for this Salon78 forum to be an in-person event at the Colombian with a Zoom link so people outside Sydney could participate. But with the new Covid restrictions announced on 23 June, including 4 square metres per person, the venue will not accommodate our usual crowd.

Register on Eventbrite and we will send you a Zoom link on Saturday morning. After the forum, stay online for a chat.
 
Salon78: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Community vs Commercial Scene
When: 3pm, Saturday 26 June 2021
Register: to get the Zoom link at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/copy-of-why-did-mardi-gras-move-to-summer-tickets-159924110319
 
Karl Zlotkowski
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member
fb85bcd0-e0d8-c060-b3d9-90ed33d8ae87
702aa10b-f0ae-41a8-5b86-f20c17fcde77
On Saturday 5 June 2021 Community Action for Rainbow Reform (CARR) organised another rally; this time outside Sydney Town Hall, in their continuing campaign against the proposed Religious Freedoms legislation and the Education (Parental Rights) Bill currently being assessed by the NSW Parliament.

Members of First Mardi Gras Inc. attended with the famous 78ers banner (from the Mardi Gras 30th Anniversary) to support this campaign.

CARR gathered spokespeople from various organisations including First Mardi Gras Inc. to speak and show support.

I spoke and then we heard from David Bernie from the Council for Civil Liberties explaining the legislative background and effect of proposed changes. He particularly focused on the Education Bill which threatens teachers and social workers with dismissal if they even mention gender fluidity or provide support to transgender youth. 

Rev Josephine Inkpin from Pitt St Uniting Church emphasised that not all people of faith are in favour of the proposed bills. The actions proposed by the Bills were the antithesis of true spiritual teachings. Respect and support for transgender people is growing in many churches and Josephine spoke to the need for more support and care; not restrictions or abuse from right wing politicians and power-hungry religious leaders.

Penny Sharpe MLC, representing the ALP, nailed the point that schools can often and should be the safest space and time for a young person dealing with emerging sexuality and gender issues whereas their home environment may be unaccepting and threatening.

Teddy Cook spoke passionately for the transgender experience and the need to build a coalition of LGBTIQ forces to fight back on this legislation.

Also speaking and later marching behind the leading banner to Queens Square beside Jo Inkpin and myself was Jenny Leong, Greens MP.

Under the guise of religious rights, the forces of division, scapegoating and hate are marshalling in a rear-guard effort to turn back fifty years of LGBTIQ, Women’s, and Black rights advances. We must recognise that if they succeed against our transgender youth; they will eventually come against us all.
 
Next demonstration: Saturday, 14 August 2021, 1pm
Stop the "Religious Freedom" bills: No right to discriminate!
Town Hall, Sydney

Barry Charles
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary
0e777df3-512f-1485-2f11-96ddd743bf9f
f5a9342a-78a8-e46f-18b5-5440517e22b9
610ba273-e4cc-2ef6-3fc9-2e6c3c7a83b9
03271417-7e4b-e6df-313a-acd98d31ab29
Having attended WorldPride New York in 2019, I was looking forward to going to Copenhagen in August this year to take part in WorldPride 2021. But Covid and the fact that, shamefully, just over 4% of Australians have been fully vaccinated, has put paid to that.

WorldPride organisers have worked closely with the Danish and Swedish governments to modify all events to make them Covid-safe. Scandinavian and other European countries have a much higher vaccination rate than we do.

WorldPride, which includes a Human Rights Forum and Arts and Culture events, will be for the first time held together with the EuroGames. Events will be spread around Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmo, half an hour away by train in Sweden.

Covid induced changes to the WorldPride events:
  • mean they now have more venues and more events
  • includes replacing the WorldPride Parades with smaller walking marches
  • involves moving concerts to indoor venues whilst live-streaming to a ticketed viewing event in a park.
These changes will allow organisers to deliver safe events for all visitors and staff in August. The recently-announced European Union COVID19 passport enables anyone with an EU-approved vaccination to enter the Schengen Zone from late June.

More than 50 events will be available to watch online:
  • Six events including the Human Rights Conference will have an interactive livestream enabling active participation from anywhere in the world for registered delegates.
  • A new track of six webinars focusing on different human rights topics will take place in June and July.
  • Organisers are providing a one year VPN licence for up to 5,000 activists globally to enable them to participate.
  • Full details of WorldPride digital plans are at https://copenhagen2021.com/digital.
Check out the full webinar presentation at: https://copenhagen2021.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Prides-Webinar.pdf. And further information at: WorldPride & EuroGames | Copenhagen 2021.
 
Diane Minnis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
4e81debb-415c-3288-b80c-09a24f2c7ed2
20e4c46f-4aab-7668-1ba6-ef065ca05e4a
On 19 May 2021 ACON, under the umbrella of the LOVE Project, conducted a forum on the topic Eliminating LGBTIQ Ageism.

As background, the LOVE Project is the outreach program directed at the older LGBTIQ community conducted by ACON and at the end of this piece, I will list some of the events and services provided along with the link to their site.

The Ageism forum was held over a lunch at Glebe Town Hall and attended by a large crowd.

There were six speakers representing the diversity of the community. Jessica-Su Tang, Tom Hatfield, Gail Hewison, C. Moore Hardy, Suman Lahiry and Roy Starkey.

Contributions were mainly about living well and active as an aged LGBTIQ person. The most useful contribution came from Roy Starkey, who has a long history of community activism in the areas of care coordination and training in ageing, mental health and sexuality. He urged those seeking an aged care package to include their LGBTIQ identity in the Special Needs category in order to maximise the available benefits and ensure appropriate attention is given.

The session was not really about the political/social issue of Ageism. This was disappointing from my perspective as I believe we should respond politically to the current crises in aged care generally and the almost complete lack of response to LGBTIQ discrimination in the report of the Royal Commission on Aged Care (see my report in our April Newsletter).

Worldwide failures in providing a safe and accepting environment for LGBTIQ people in aged care stem from lack of respect and dismissal of older queers by our social and political institutions. Addressing ageism as a human rights issue particularly for LGBTIQ people will take concerted efforts to change the way all societies think about the objects of aged care.

As well as adequate and appropriate health and accommodation which we know from the Royal Commission is woefully lacking, we must ensure the last years of our lives are re-affirming of past struggles and successes, and that we can go on sharing our wonderful experience and knowledge of living open and free.

“The LOVE Project, ACON’s ageing initiative, aims to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) seniors to lead healthy, active and more social lives.”

These are some of the services available:
  • Healthy ageing information
  • Events and activities
  • Sharing stories and experiences
  • Make new friends
  • Finding LGBTQ welcoming services
  • Community Visitor Scheme
  • The LOVE Project
  • HIV & Ageing
  • HIV Counselling
  • LGBTIQ Counselling and Support
  • Substance Support Counselling
  • Care Coordination
  • Silver Rainbow LGBTI Aged Care Awareness Training
  • Legal Advice
  • Historical Violence Project 
For details see: www.loveproject.org.au, www.acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/ageing/.
 
Barry Charles
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary
303d0220-1239-1ecc-bb7a-835172b8e719
547a68d6-a210-ffb1-a762-4c4fa796adde
Last month three 78ers –  Barry Charles, Fiona Hulme and Karl Zlotkowski – took part in an on-ine forum convened by Dr Clifford Lewis of the Charles Sturt University Allies Network. A large audience of students and academics heard recollections of the events of 1978, and considered the relevance of the 78er experience to today, particularly in academic institutions.

Particular emphasis was placed on the role of educational institutions in creating an environment of inclusion and tolerance, particularly in situations where students have to deal with identity issues in isolated situations. This is of special importance to Charles Sturt University, given that its campuses are based in regional areas and many of its students can be confronted by homophobia in small communities.

Feedback on the event was very positive, and hopefully more events can be scheduled in the future to build on the experience. A recording and transcript can be found here: https://charlessturt.zoom.us/rec/share/0zGJe3cIPFkpLjQGRcQmHlMpWKIFye_w7feVNaokxqZGs8aSTMuUslfnULFJQVsB._OF4uB5nAznww3tk.
 
Karl Zlotkowski
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member
140c20c6-9c2a-11de-26ca-4bfed9b94b82
On the weekend of 29-30 May 2021 the NSW ALP Rank and File Women’s Conference 2021 was held at at the NSW Teachers Federation. The well-attended conference aimed to create a space for Labor women to debate and advance policy on issues that matter to women and to demonstrate grassroots democracy in action.

I was asked to speak in a workshop and was joined by Penny Sharpe MLC to present Only Activism and Labor in Power have Produced LGBTIQ+ Reforms. I addressed NSW and Federal reforms in the 70s, 80s and early 90s as well as early LGBTIQ+ activism, and  Penny covered more recent Labor reforms in NSW and the struggles for a pro-marriage equality policy within the ALP. What follows are extracts from both presentations.
 
Labor reforms in the 70s, 80s and early 90s
What was evident from the early 70s is the alliances that LGBTIQ+ activists formed – with the women’s, student and trade union movements, the ALP and progressive groups like the Council for Civil Liberties. These alliances and coalitions were key to winning the gains that we made.

With the upsurge of activism following the first Mardi Gras, these alliances became even more important. Gay rights became a broader political and civil rights issue. We were campaigning for our democratic right to protest, and we were campaigning against police powers – a big issue in NSW.

The Gay Trade Union Group was formed at the 4th National Homosexual Conference in 1978 and soon began putting up motions in unions and ALP branches on lesbian and gay rights issues – particularly homosexual law reform. Of course law reform efforts had been underway since the before formation of the ACT Homosexual Law Reform Society in June 1969. And in October 1973, under the Whitlam Labor government, the ALP’s Moss Cass and Bill Hayden, with former Liberal PM John Gorton, successfully passed a federal parliamentary resolution in favour of homosexual law reform.

In May 1979, the NSW Labor government repealed the Summary Offences Act, which was the legal framework that Police used to arrest 78ers. It was also used against Indigenous people, sex workers, witchcraft, demonstrations, displays of same sex affection and enabled entrapment in beats. After the repeal of the Act, NSW residents could just inform the Police they were having a demonstration and the Police could lodge any reasonable objection within a short time frame.

By 1982, grass roots action, along with research and lobbying, led to an amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. This made it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on the ground of perceived homosexuality in areas such as employment, education, provision of goods and services, accommodation and registered clubs. At the time, very few jurisdictions, interstate or overseas, had such laws.

Labor had wanted to include homosexuality as a ground in the initial legislation in 1977, but had been unsuccessful. The weaknesses in the anti-discrimination laws were the exemptions granted to religious employers and service providers. In 1996, the Carr Labor government made it unlawful to discriminate and vilify on the basis of homosexuality, transgender status, HIV/AIDS status and race.

The Gay Rights Lobby was formed in 1980 and its actions forced decriminalisation in 1984 and the establishment of the first Police/Gay Liaison Committee that year. This led to the introduction of NSW Police Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officers.

In 1984, the Wran Labor government amended the NSW Crimes Act to decriminalise sexual acts between consenting men over 18 in private, after many attempts by ALP politicians including Fred Miller (Bligh) and George Petersen (Kiama) in the preceding years. But it wasn’t until 2003 that the age of consent for homosexual sex was equalised and NSW was the second last state in Australia to enact this reform.

Following on from the reforms in NSW, citizens with non-Australian same gender partners were inspired to demand equality in immigration. In 1983 the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force was established, a model of grassroots activism, one of the most ethnically diverse lesbian and gay groups up to that time. Remarkably, in 1985 the Federal Labor Immigration Minister agreed on a pathway for validation of same gender partnerships, later creating a flexible immigration category of “interdependence”.

Australia was one of the first countries to recognise same gender partner immigration and persecution on grounds of sexuality or gender identification as grounds for asylum. 

By 1984, HIV had become a painful issue in Australia. Strong activism, by gay men and sex workers, prepared the ground for Labor Health Minister Neal Blewett to craft a bipartisan approach of partnership between affected communities, government and medicos. This enabled Australia to have one of the most pragmatic, effective responses to the pandemic.

In 1988 Labor’s Paul O’Grady was elected and became the first openly gay member of the New South Wales Parliament and strong advocate for reforms. A role later performed by Penny Sharpe (elected 2005) and Helen Westwood (elected 2007).

Since the late 1970s, under pressure from activists and unions, Labor Federal governments had been rolling back discrimination against lesbian and gay public servants, for example in DFAT overseas posts recognising same gender partnerships. In 1993, the Keating Labor government removed the ban on lesbians and gays in the military.
 
More recent Labor reforms
Legislative reforms have only occurred because of all the work done by activist groups. People put themselves on the line for the greater good and we have all benefitted from this. All of the kids who are able to be out in school are products of this history and this needs to be understood.

Labor has delivered every single piece of LGBTIQ+ reform in NSW:
  • In 1999 the Carr Labor government took steps to fix the issues that arose from the death and destruction of the AIDS epidemic. People were thrown out of their houses, not allowed to visit their partner in hospital because they weren’t recognised as partners and not allowed to go to their funeral. A series of reforms removed discrimination against same sex couples in all those areas.
  • Equal age of consent legislation was very hard-fought but Labor got that through in 2003.
  • One of the reforms that was very dear to me, and I came into parliament in 2005, was that I not recognised on my child's birth certificate as I was not their birth mother. Labor Premier Morris Iemma put forward legislation in 2008 that means that both parents in a same sex defacto relationship could be recognised on their child's birth certificate. I am now recognised on the birth certificates of my kids.

Also in 2008, under Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people was removed from every piece of legislation which defined relationships as being between a man and woman.

In 2010, NSW Labor introduced the Relationship Register. This enabled partners to prove their relationship in order to get the benefits of the Federal legislation.

I was very involved in 2010 with adoption law reform. Prior to having our own kids, we were foster carers and we had no way to adopt these children no matter how much we loved them.

In 2010 I worked with Clover Moore to co-sponsor a bill to allow same sex couples to be eligible to adopt children. Labor Premier Kristina Kenneally provided important support and suggested that Labor have a conscience vote as she knew that there would not be full consensus on adoption. There was a genuine attempt to work across the parties but the bill only passed by two votes – though Labor provided 90% of the votes.

In 2011 Labor Education Minister Verity Firth introduced Proud Schools to deal with bullying of LGBTIQ+ young people in our schools. It was a precursor to Safe Schools which was an important Labor achievement.

Since Labor lost government in NSW in 2011, LGBTIQ+ reform has been slow, with a few exceptions:
  • In 2012 the Legislative Council passed a motion in support of marriage equality
  • In 2014 the gay panic defence was removed
  • In 2016, I was part of a NSW Cross-Party Committee organised a Parliamentary apology for the arrests and police violence at the first Mardi Gras and related protests.
 
The marriage equality campaign
In 2004, John Howard announced his bill to make it illegal for same sex couples to marry. Unfortunately, Labor supported this and I, like many other members, was mortified and then put our energies into the campaign for marriage equality.

I worked with many other ALP members, Rainbow Labor and community organisations to get the numbers at the next National ALP Conference to commit to marriage equality.

In 2011, the policy change was approved at National Conference and marriage equality became a serious issue. Until you had a mainstream party who went to an election saying that they are going to fix this, marriage equality wasn’t taken seriously.

In 2015, Penny Wong led the charge to have a binding vote on marriage equality as Labor policy. But in 2017 it was the Liberal government that used a voluntary postal plebiscite to vote on marriage equality. The prolonged process of the plebiscite had very serious impacts on many LGBTIQ+ people. Luckily, Australians were ready and backed marriage equality very strongly.
 
Anti-trans discrimination
Current anti-discrimination legislation in NSW needs to be changed to include trans and gender diverse reforms and deal with exemptions in the law. Conversion therapy needs to be banned as kids are still being sent to dodgy therapies that try to pray away the gay and that do untold harm.

But the sad reality is that we have to defend what we have already won. One Nation’s Mark Latham is trying to use trans folk in our community as the battering ram for his culture wars and we have to stand up against this. We currently are up against the Religious Exemption Bill and the Parental Responsibility Bill. Fred Nile is being replaced by Lyle Shelton who has already flagged that he will introduce a bill to stop trans kids accessing medical treatment.

We have big work to do just defending our gains and we should get to it!
 
Conference motions
At the conference, motions were passed on LGBTIQ+ issues and included to:
  • Ban conversion practices on the basis of sexuality and gender identity
  • Assert that transphobia has no place in Labor
  • Stand in support of intersex Australians against non-consensual surgeries
  • Support gender marker self-identification
  • Oppose the Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020
  • Oppose the Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Religious Freedoms and Equality) Bill 2020.
78er Mary O’Sullivan spoke strongly when she moved the motion to oppose Latham’s Religious Freedoms and Equality Bill. No right to discrimination!
 
Diane Minnis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
d09b5d1f-ac89-1b51-52c4-26d9d52e1fdf
2ff5498b-8a15-c550-7025-b69dd28c25c4
Danny grew up in country NSW and came to Sydney when he was a teenager to develop a career as a fashion designer. In the early 70s he became key persona in the radical drag performance group, Sylvia and the Synthetics, along with Doris Fish, Jasper and Jacqueline Hyde. He made a unique impact on queer culture from the 70s onwards in Sydney, New York and California. Danny did not say he was a gay liberation protester, but his public and cultural interventions were revolutionary in terms of aesthetics, gender and sexuality.

Danny passed on 23 May and there was a moving funeral with family and old friends at Matraville on 28 May. https://www.sydneyfunerals.com/danny-abood 

Johnny Allen and others organised a fabulous celebration of Danny’s life at Kinsela’s on Sunday 20 June 2021. Downstairs was a beautiful installation of Danny’s pictures, posters, frocks, tsatskas and music. 78ers such as Toby Zoates, Jaqueline Hyde and Fabian LoSchiavo contributed. Danny’s cousin Paula Abood, Johnny Allen and photographer Julie Sundberg gave moving tributes. Hussain Kahil sang three songs by Lebanese diva Sabah. 

Danny’s life and his memorial are poignant moments in the cultural, subcultural and queer history of this city.
 
Ken Davis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
cadd582a-8b26-b6f7-6968-80a95f70cfb9
972bd254-ad25-0fe1-c22e-8bf329faaf63
2f7c91e2-eb6a-9266-65ff-22d8e408a073
On Saturday 22 May there was a free screening of Digby Duncan’s film Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters in the State Library of NSW auditorium. The film was introduced by Margot Riley, curator of the State Library’s exhibition Coming out in the 70's.

Amazingly, I had not seen Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters, which was released in 1980. It had footage of both the daytime march on 24 June 1978 and the “big event” – the night-time Mardi Gras.

I watched the film with mixed emotions, which I am sure it is for many of us. Scanning the screen for ourselves or friends, enjoying the nostalgia, but haunted by the violence and the cycle of protest and actions that the first Mardi Gras generated.

This film is not perfect but reflects the difficulties of film making at the time. I am grateful that it has been preserved for generations. Thank you, Digby Duncan. And thank you to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia for restoring the film in a digital format.

Following the screening, Margot led a guided tour of the exhibition.

I’m not sure if there is a word for the euphoric warm fuzziness of the exhibition, but with clothes like protest T-shirts, posters, and fabulous costumes  the nostalgia wave was very heady indeed.

In her introduction to the film, Margot had mentioned the much larger exhibition that the State Library is working on to coincide with WorldPride 2023 in Sydney. This exhibition will have a section on the women’s music scene. I hope to be able to work with the library to complete my film made in 1984 on Stray Dags, which includes live concert footage and interviews with each band member.
 
Fiona Hulme
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. member
b71d922e-d609-5933-c22a-9be1325961da
e0bc612c-0ecc-3fbe-cbb7-9e7a40227377
5355d593-2b1d-78dd-7e33-e76a31c2ed23
We enjoyed our June lunch at the easily accessible Terminus Hotel and plan to hold the next three lunches there – on the first Sundays of July, August and September.
Join us for our July social lunch on Sunday 4 July, 2021 at 1pm in the Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont. RSVP to: info@78ers.org.au.
There is a light rail stop with lift access in John Street Square and the 389 bus runs from Park St near Town Hall and stops across the road from the hotel.
At the 6 June Social Lunch. Clockwise from left: Maree Marsh, Bob Harvey, Bary Charles, Toby Zoates, Robyn Kennedy, Rebbell Barnes, Wanda Kluke, Diane Minnis, Robert Coleman, Ken Davis, Anne Morphett. Photo taken on Diane Minnis’ phone.
Calendar of Events