In this November edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have:
- Karl Zlotkowski on WorldPride 2023 – 100 Days to Go
- Bill Ashton on Christmas at Kinselas – 3pm, Sunday 11 December 2022
- Bob Harvey on Successful Tamworth Pride Fair Day and After Party
- Barry Charles on Newcastle and Hunter Pride Fair Day
- Barry Charles on Queer Crime History Walk: Gross Offences & Abominable Acts
- Diane Minnis on InterPride World Conference Guadalajara, Mexico
- Ken Davis on International Confederation of Trade Unions LGBTIQ+ Caucus
- Karl Zlotkowski on Voices from 1978
- Sue Jackson on Coming Out! Celebrating 50 Years of Gay Liberation, Melbourne
- Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges
- How to buy CAMP: Australia’s pioneer homosexual activists by Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister and early bird tickets for the CAMP play at the Seymour Centre
- How to buy tickets to The Coming Back Out Salon
- Calendar of Events.
Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay is on this weekend, 25-27 November 2022. If you would like to join other 78ers in the Parade, contact Helen Gollan at hcg78er@yahoo.com.
The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Sunday 27 November 2022, by Zoom. And Christmas at Kinselas is at 3pm, Sunday 11 December 2022, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au.
Diane Minnis and Sue Fletcher
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On 17 November the great and good (and others) from Sydney’s LGBTIQA+ community gathered at the Opera Bar for a bout of drinks and speeches, all to mark the beginning of a countdown to the start of WorldPride 2023 next February.
WorldPride 2023 bills itself as a global family reunion of LGBTIQA+ people and their allies, sponsored by InterPride – the International Association of Pride Organisers (of which SGLMG and First Mardi Gras Inc. are members). WorldPride 2023 will deliver a diverse festival coinciding with the 45th anniversary of Sydney’s Mardi Gras, also featuring an international Human Rights Conference over three days from the beginning of March.
At the Opera Bar drinks, the CEO of Sydney WorldPride, Kate Wickett, paid special tribute to the 78ers for their role in the birth of Sydney’s own Pride celebrations, and in particular acknowledged Robyn Kennedy for her support as InterPride Vice President, Global Outreach and Partnership Management. The 78ers themselves were there in force (and hard to miss).
With 100 days to go, First Mardi Gras Inc. is pushing hard to have 78ers included and acknowledged in all WorldPride Events. In particular we are firming up arrangements for a group of 78ers to join the Harbour Bridge Walk on Sunday 5 March. The logistics of this event are difficult, and the physical task of walking from North Sydney Station all the way to the Domain may be challenging for some.
If you’d like to join the Bridge walk (and associated photo-op) but feel you may need some help, please let us know at info@78ers.org.au as soon as possible. Likewise, if you’re from out of town and feel you may need help with the trip to Sydney for any WorldPride events; let us know as soon as you can.
Of course, all this is in addition to our own First Mardi Gras Inc. events next February: our Cocktail Party on 23 February and the launch of our new Voices from 1978 booklet that same day. And there are the main Mardi Gras events coordinated by the SGLMG 78ers Committee: Fair Day on Sunday 19 February and the Parade itself on Saturday 25 February (one week earlier than usual please note). This will be the biggest Festival for many years – our 45th. For more information about:
I’d also like to note that Penny Gulliver and I have been re-elected to the SGLMG 78ers Committee and Rebbell Barnes will also join us for our two-year term.
Karl Zlotkowski
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Secretary
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We are gathering for Christmas at Kinselas on Sunday 11 December at 3pm. Kinselas is at 383 Bourke St Darlinghurst, right on Taylor Square and close to bus stops and the ground floor venue is wheelchair accessible.
First Mardi Gras will again provide canapes and you can buy drinks at reasonable prices. You can also buy tickets in a raffle that will be drawn on the day and we now have a payment square to make this easier. Let us know if you can attend Christmas at Kinselas, from 3pm on Sunday 11 December 2022 by emailing info@78ers.org.au.
Bill Ashton
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member
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It was a long three year wait due to COVID restrictions, but Tamworth was finally able to hold its second Pride Fair Day at Bicentennial Park and its very first After Party that night at West Diggers Club.
Saturday, 29 October was a glorious sunny day for the LGBTIQA+ community and wider public at Bicentennial Park and Helen Golan and myself were the two representatives for the 78ers and we made our way to the park with the 78ers Fearless banner in the back of Helen’s ute.
Once we arrived, the banner was mounted on the main stage for Tamworth Pride. We mingled with the public and the queer community and we both thoroughly enjoyed meeting people and championing the 78ers legacy. Earlier in the morning, I sold many raffle tickets for Tamworth Pride and at the same time handed out our 78er information leaflet. The Fair Day itself truly epitomised the LGBTIQA+ community spirit of Tamworth and its surrounds and the growing strength of Tamworth Pride Inc. It attracted many hundreds of people.
Various organisations such as ACON , Rosalie House (deals with domestic violence and drug abuse issues), NSW SES, E- Mental Health in Practice (deals with mental health issues for young queer people), the Australian Drug Foundation, funded by NSW Health) and the Narrabri Police were among the many who had community stalls.
I managed to have a constructive discussion with a young police officer on the Narrabri Police Stall about the importance of maintaining a positive, ongoing relationship between the police and the LGBTIQA + community and he readily accepted my 78er info leaflet.
I was also able to engage in an informative conversation with a female Youth Mental Health Project Officer about the importance of mental health for young people in the LGBTIQA + community and after bringing up the subject of ageing in the queer community. I was provided with some useful follow up links.
For entertainment and amusement, the Fair Day presented a number of fabulous performers. The drag queens, Luci Dream and Sheila Works dazzled us with their performances whilst the country acts Loran Ryan, Matt Barrat and Evelyn Banoffee delivered heart rendering performances.
After midday a puppy show, and competition was hosted by our fabulous Miss Sparkles and the canines were all barking for a trophy.
Around 1pm it was time for a change of pace when the fun, friendly games were held between competing community organisations. Yours truly as a 78er helped the SES with the first round in a tug a war against the Rural Fire Department. Unfortunately, we lost the subsequent rounds.
The very first Tamworth Pride After Party at West Diggers Club was the climax of the day’s events. The event was decorated with glittery silver streamers and set out comfortably with tables, a cocktail bar and a large dance floor. It was reported to have been Tamworth’s Pride largest ever nighttime event.
Young DJ Angus Renton pumped out the dance tracks ranging from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and noughties. Two drag queens, Sheila Works and KA$HA dazzled us with performances.
Helen and myself were resplendent in 78er t-shirts with additional colourful attire. We chatted with many of the Tamworth LGBTIQA + locals and we were heartily welcomed as 78ers.
Overall, both the Tamworth Pride Fair Day and the After Party were a raging success and we look forward to welcoming even more 78ers to these events next year.
Bob Harvey
Tamworth based 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member
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Two weeks of events and celebrations concluded on the weekend of 5-6 November 2022 for Newcastle Pride. For the first time since 2019 the largest LGBTIQA+ event in NSW outside of Sydney was able to go ahead post-COVID. The last weekend of the festival included the Fair Day at Gregson Park in Hamilton and a spectacular event it was. With 2,000 to 3,000 attending and up to a hundred stalls and marquees.
As is becoming common at these events across the country, the 78ers had a marquee and First Mardi Gras Inc. was represented by locals Richard Riley and John Witte and visitors Helen Gollan, Karl Zlotkowski and Barry Charles. We received a grateful reception from many people coming by our tent and were able to discuss past and current milestones and issues with those attending.
Late in the afternoon Helen Gollan represented us on the mainstage and gave a rousing speech about our on-going commitment to building on the advances in gay rights achieved in the past 50+ years. Congratulations Helen!
Visitors to the fair included the local State and Federal MPs. Sharon Claydon, the Federal Labor Member had a long discussion with us about her support for the community.
The big day ended with a multi-themed dance party.
Barry Charles
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member
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On 5 November 2022 at 10am (before the Fair) I joined the Queer Crime History Walk organised brilliantly by the Hunter Rainbow History Group and led by 78er John Witte.
We met at the Newcastle Lock-Up in Hunter Street for a review and wander through the city surveying Newcastle’s rich queer history stretching back to Colonial times in the 19th century.
As a former port and penal detention hub, the Newcastle region had an amazingly full record of an underground gay life, which frequently came to the surface in the press and through police actions.
The Hunter Rainbow History Group does great work making sure we do not forget our past histories and experiences.
Barry Charles
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member
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InterPride’s 2022 Annual General Meeting and World Conference was hosted by Guadalajara Pride, from October 27-30, 2022, at the Hilton Guadalajara, Mexico. It was the first in-person AGM and World Conference in two years and the first time in InterPride’s history of hosting this annual event in a Latin American country.
Robyn Kennedy, who is a Vice President Global Outreach and Partnerships, and I, in my role as Global Advisory Committee rep for Oceania, attended the conference.
Guadalajara Pride certainly put on a well-organised and cost-effective conference, though the hotel where it was held was a bit out of the way.
There were a number of interesting workshops but the one that really moved me was presented by Anna Sharyhina from Kharkiv Pride in Ukraine. In Anna’s at times emotional presentation, she spoke about the impact of Putin’s invasion on her country. Anna is determined to continue working and travelling to get the story out on what is happening on the ground in Ukraine.
Anna talked about the work of Kharkiv Pride and Kyiv Pride in providing aid to their local communities and raising funds to provide blankets, heaters and generators; food for the elderly; medicines; to care for pets left behind and for laptops and phones for their own work.
The work of Anna and her team is inspiring and despite their struggles they also managed to organise a Pride celebration in the Metro station where people were sheltering from Russian bombing.
In the conference plenaries, we heard presentations from cities vying to hold future WorldPrides and InterPride conferences. In the light of Taiwan’s KH Pride withdrawing after winning the right to stage WorldPride 2025, there was a presentation by the runner-up in that ballot – Capital Pride in Washington DC. There was a vote on whether WorldPride 2025 would go ahead in Washington DC, particularly since there were two proposals to hold WorldPride in 2026.
Both Amsterdam and Orlando, Florida made their presentations and, after a 72-hour period where InterPride member organisations around the world were able to vote, Amsterdam was selected for WorldPride in 2026 and Washington DC was approved to hold a WorldPride in 2025.
So, the WorldPride every two years policy is out the window, but hopefully the Board will regularise it as a biennial event after 2026.
The other important issue discussed was the By-Law changes to put into effect the new structure of InterPride that was decided on at the Mid-Year Meeting in April 2022. After a very thorough strategic planning process, led by Robyn Kennedy, a major change to the current US-centric structure – with six regions in the US, the whole of Asia as one region and one region covering the whole of Oceania – was approved.
In the new structure, regional Pride platforms would be the members of InterPride and individuals pride organisations would be members of their regional body. There are existing Pride platforms in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. The European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) voted strongly at their recent AGM to become a Pride platform member of InterPride.
However, a group of US and Canadian delegates pushed to pass most of the By-Law changes but not those relating to the new structure. That decision has been held off for six months. I made a passionate speech urging a vote for equality in representation of areas but to no avail. I even asked one woman why she was objecting to the new structure and got a wish-washy response that she didn’t know enough about it – despite a series of zoom seminars run by Robyn and others.
The same US-centric sentiment also seems to have impacted the election for the Co-President position, vacated by the retirement of Linda DeMarcho. A US-based Vice President who has done very little work and who expressed doubts about the strategic planning process was elected over Robyn Kennedy, who as a Vice President contributed a huge amount, including leading the strategic planning and implementation process.
So, the struggle for an equitable structure for InterPride will continue. Meanwhile, Oceania Pride Organisers Inc. has been registered and will open for membership early in 2023.
Diane Minnis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
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At the congress of the International Confederation of Trade Unions in Melbourne (17-21 November) there was a meeting of around a hundred delegates on LGBTIQ+ union action with Will Stracke from Victoria, Stuart Applebaum from the American unions, Roberta Turi from the Italian metalworkers' union and speakers from union federations in Canada, Spain, and Brazil. Kwazi Adu-Amanjwah, the head of ITUC in Africa, spoke about campaigning against anti-queer laws in Ghana.
ITUC is the largest democratic organisation in the world with 200 million members in over 300 national affiliates in 165 countries. Congress reaffirmed resolutions against discrimination and inequality at work. Equality at work was a theme of the rally when PM Albanese addressed the congress.
Sharan Burrow from Australia ended her term as General Secretary. Sharan had pushed the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ equality within the global trade unions, as she had in the ACTU and Australian Education Union. She also brought the weight of the international union movement into the struggle for HIV treatments access.
Luca Visentini from UIL Italy was elected as the new General Secretary, and he also is clear about inclusion of LGBTIQ worker rights in the global trade union agenda.
Ken Davis
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair
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In celebration of 45 years since 1978, First Mardi Gras Inc. has assembled a collection of reflections, commentary and reminiscences from 78ers themselves. This 50-page booklet includes original photographs and recollections from veterans of 50 years of struggle. These are voices that range through passion, pain, laughter and joy. They are the voices of those who were there.
Publication, copyright First Mardi Gras Inc., is scheduled for February 2023, price $10. All enquiries and pre-publication orders to: info@78ers.org.au.
Karl Zlotkowski
78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary
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The Victorian Pride Centre, the Australian Queer Archives and the Pride Fund have put together a weekend of activities celebrating 1970’s LGBTIQ+ activism on the weekend 2-4 December to mark the 50th anniversary of Gay Liberation.
The 1970s was a transformative decade which saw the formation of activist organisations and social campaigns which paved the way and built the foundations for ongoing activism and campaigning. This will be a unique opportunity for people to come together and reflect on decades of activism, to celebrate many achievements and to look to the future of social justice and equity.
The weekend will include the launch of ‘The Making of the Victorian Pride Centre’ book and exhibition on Friday 2 December; ‘Coming Out! Celebrating 50 Years of Gay Liberation’: Then & Now Symposium presented by the Australian Queer Archives and featuring guest speakers, screenings on Saturday 3 December; and the ‘Sunday Sizzle’ social event with music, drinks and a BBQ on Sunday 4 December. Find out more and register for the launch and symposium via the links below.
All events will be held at the Victorian Pride Centre, 79–81 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda.
Whilst the activities are not confined to those who were involved in the 1970s, Jude Munro has been trying to ensure that people from those days who were involved in for example, Gay Liberation, Radicalesbians / Gay Women’s Group, Gay Teachers and Students Group, Camp Inc., Society 5, National Homosexual Conference, Australian Gay Archives, 78ers (and others you can think of) know about and can join in the weekend. Jude is conscious that people may not wish to have their e-mail addresses shared, as am I, so I am sending this direct to you. But it would be great if you can send your contact details to Jude at jude.munro123@gmail.com.
I hope to see you there – it could be a great reunion. Can you please forward this on to others who may be interested or who might know people who they can forward it to.
Weekend Events
Book Launch of The Making of the Victorian Pride Centre (invite only) – Friday 2 December, 6pm until 8pm
Book written by Dr Judith Buckrich and commissioned by The Pride Fund, accompanied by the launch of a new exhibition (with drinks and nibbles). Please RSVP by Monday 28 November. Register here for the book launch.
‘Coming Out! Celebrating 50 Years of Gay Liberation’: Then & Now Symposium – Saturday 3 December, 10am to 5.30pm
A day of guest speakers, panel discussions, screenings and re-connection to acknowledge 50 years since the beginnings of Gay Liberation in Melbourne – hear from those on the streets in 1972 through to today’s generation on activism and the impact of Gay Lib now. Presented by the Australian Queer Archives, with Gay Lib members and current LGBTIQ+ activists (followed by social drinks). Free but you need to register. Register here for the symposium. (https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=978620&).
‘Sunday Sizzle’ social event – Sunday 4 December, 1pm to 6pm
Festivities with music from the early days of Gay Liberation, a fundraising BBQ, and Gay Stuff Markets. Also including a Rainbow Flag raising ceremony at 1.30pm for activists to come together. (Bookings not required).
If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Pride Centre's Communications Coordinator, Max Hayward, via the email at comms@pridecentre.org.au
78er Sue Jackson
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78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). Postage is still $3.09 for up to five badges. To order badges, email your name, postal address and the number of badges required to info@78ers.org.au. Then make your payment by funds transfer. Use your name as the deposit reference. You can also post a cheque.
CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order, contact Robyn Kennedy at rk.am@bigpond.com. Please include your name, address and number of badges requested. Banking details for direct deposit will be provided.
Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton
78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members
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The Coming Back Out Salon is a spectacular social event celebrating LGBTIQ+ elders and for the first time, it’s coming to Sydney on 18 February 2023 in time for WorldPride! The Coming Back Out Salon is an afternoon of cultural significance in which the whole LGBTIQ+ community and allies can gather alongside LGBTIQ+ older people to eat, drink, dance, reminisce and dream together into the future. Start Sydney WorldPride by celebrating our older people in a truly inclusive way.
An incredible line-up including The Sydney Youth Orchestra, Robyn Archer, Deborah Cheetham, Paul Capsis, Nana Miss Koorie, Tina Del Twist, Nefertiti LaNegra with more to be announced.
Tickets: $40 + bf When: Saturday, 18 February 2023 Where: Sydney Town Hall
Dress Code: Fabulous! Purchase tickets here: Buy The Coming Back Out Salon tickets, NSW 2023 | Moshtix
The Coming Back Out Salon is produced and presented by All The Queens Men for Sydney WorldPride in association with ACON and the Love Project. Supported by Australia Council for the Arts, Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government Initiative, Create NSW and City of Sydney.
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Calendar of Events
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Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022, http://www.haymardigras.com.au/
- SGLMG Annual General Meeting – 9am, Saturday 26 November 2022, in-person and online
- First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Sunday 27 November 2022, by Zoom
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Coming Out! Celebrating 50 Years of Gay Liberation – a weekend of remembrance, togetherness and celebration of our diverse communities, 2-4 December, Victorian Pride Centre, comms@pridecentre.org.au
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First Mardi Gras Inc. Christmas at Kinselas – 3pm, Sunday 11 December 2022, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au
- First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party – 6.30-9.30pm, Thursday 23 February 2023
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Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride
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