Newsletter - December 2022

View this email in your browser December 2022 In this December edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Karl Zlotkowski on Out of the Bars! and onto the Bridge! Barry Charles and Garry Wotherspoon on the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes Photos from Christmas at Kinselas Diane Minnis on the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras AGM Michael Fenaughty on Queer Literacy for Young Adults in the Bush Robert French on ACT’s Naming of Lex Watson Circuit First Mardi Gras Inc. contribution to NSW Council for Civil Liberties statement on Jailing of Peaceful Climate Activists 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 Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events.  The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 14 January 2023, by Zoom.   Diane Minnis By now all 78ers should have heard from the SGLMG 78ers Committee that a 78er contingent will join the WorldPride 2023 Harbour Bridge walk on 5 March 2023. The final arrangements for this event are still coming together, but we can now confirm that the 78ers will meet at 0630 AM outside North Sydney Station, ready to join the opening smoking ceremony and then lead off across the Bridge at 0700. 78ers will not need to join the public ballot for tickets to join the Bridge Walk – places have already been reserved. The SGLMG 78ers Committee will contact 78ers early in the New Year to confirm their plans, and will liaise with Sydney WorldPride to organise ticketing. Please be aware that the walk is approximately 4.5 km, with some significant grades – all the way from North Sydney Station to the Domain. If you’d like to join but feel you might need assistance, or would like to borrow a wheelchair (and/or someone to push it) please let us know now. All this is in addition to planning for the 2023 Mardi Gras Parade, which will take place on Oxford Street one week earlier. 78ers have already been asked to signal their intention of joining the 78ers group in the parade – if you have not yet responded please do so as soon as possible. The parade will start from Liverpool Street, as it did in 2019. Mardi Gras are well advanced in planning access arrangements and ticketing, and 78ers have been allocated one of the largest groups in the parade. This year we will be featuring placards celebrating key events from the campaigns of 1973, in line with our ongoing ’50 Years of Visibility’ theme, along with many of our favourite signs and slogans from previous years. 2023 is the 45th anniversary of 1978 - Onto the Streets!   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Secretary Two 78ers, Barry Charles and Garry Wotherspoon, have given evidence to the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes. The Commission is investigating unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTIQ people (or people who were presumed to be LGBTIQ) in NSW between 1970 and 2010. The Commission was set up earlier this year, on the recommendation of State Parliament’s Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues, which had highlighted the fact that so many cases remain unsolved from the 88 deaths or suspected deaths of these men or trans* women, and which were potentially motivated by gay hate bias. Of particular interest for the Commission are the police responses to these cases over the decades. The push for this Inquiry was, in many ways, set in motion by ACON’s report, In Pursuit of Truth and Justice (2018), which in turn led to the Legislative Council’s own investigation and Report (tabled in Parliament in May 2021) that found that the NSW Police Force failed in its responsibility to properly investigate historical hate crimes. The Report also found that victims carry enduring physical, mental and emotional trauma as a result of their experiences. A team of independent barristers, solicitors and investigators has spent the last five months combing through more than a hundred thousand documents, drawn from 40 years of police files, coronial files, and other sources in relation to LGBTIQ hate-related deaths. The Commission started its first public hearing on 21 November 2022 and is continuing through December. Barry and Garry told the Commission of their own experiences, of growing up in a world hostile to homosexuals, their ‘coming out’ and developing their sense of ‘identity’, and of their own experiences with beats. It is important that the Commission hear stories like those of Barry’s and Garry’s. The wider Australian society knows so little about the ‘gay world’ and how our lives have been lived differently from theirs, especially in the past, when all elements of influence in society (the law, religion and the medical profession) were prejudiced against ‘dissident sexualities’. For gay men, their emotional and sexual lives were illegal. As Barry notes. “We were viewed as very serious criminals, worse than bank robbers. Sodomy (or Buggery as it was called) was liable to 14 years in prison.” Garry felt it was important that the Commission knew how far back the antagonistic actions of the police to our communities had been, documented going well back into the early years of the twentieth century: “not only did they harass gay women and men whenever they could, but they also acted as agents provocateurs with gay men, inciting them to commit acts they could be arrested for. And since inciting anyone to commit a homosexual act was illegal, they themselves were breaking the law, to get us to break the law”. Over the course of the Inquiry, there will be both public and private hearings at which various witnesses will give evidence and provide information. Other contributions have come from activists from later years. Dr Gary Cox and Bruce Grant for instance from GLRL and the Anti-Violence Project 1988-1990s. Carole Ruthchild also Co-Convenor of GLRL described in her submission “the invisibility of anti-lesbian violence” and the success of the Off Our Backs survey and report in highlighting and remedying that. The next session of the Commission began on 5 December 2022. On that day lawyers for the Police Commissioner tried to block evidence and investigation into Task Force Parabel (see First Mardi Gras Inc. statement below). The Commissioner John Sackar rejected completely this attempt to prevent him from a proper examination describing it as “offensive”. Assistant Commissioner Anthony Crandell, who headed Parabel, was then questioned over four days and the inadequacies and attempted cover-up of police actions during the period were revealed. All sessions are live streamed and previous days can be viewed at The Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes (nsw.gov.au). The Commission is appealing for the public to come forward with any information they may have into unsolved deaths over that period, which may have been LGBTIQ hate crimes. Families and friends of persons who have died because of LGBTIQ hate crimes in particular are encouraged to contact the Inquiry. Any person who has information relevant to a person who is suspected to have been murdered in NSW in the period between 1970 and 2010 for reason of their sexual or gender identity (or presumed sexual or gender identity) should contact the Inquiry. Information can be provided anonymously and confidentially. You may contact the Inquiry by: Email: contact@specialcommission.nsw.gov.au Mail: The Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001 Phone: call +61 2 9228 4855 and leave a voice message. The Commission is likely to bring down its findings in May 2023. It is important that acknowledging past wrongs by those who failed to protect and deliver justice to the state’s citizens is a necessary step towards healing. The Commission of Inquiry is a big step in that direction.   Garry Wotherspoon and Barry Charles 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Members 78ers Reject Police position at Crimes Inquiry (Statement issued 6 December 2022) 78ers, veterans of Sydney’s first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1978, have today condemned the position adopted by NSW police in hearings of the Special Commission inquiring into historical LGBTQI hate crimes.  Police have objected to aspects of the Inquiry relating to their own Strike Force Parabel Review and further, have claimed that the burden of responding to the Commission’s requests for information has put a strain on their workforce and financial resources. First Mardi Gras Inc., as an association representing 78ers, is particularly concerned that the NSW Police position is indicative of a continuing resistance to transparency of police operations, and an insensitivity within the force towards issues of profound importance to the LGBTQI community. When the then Police Commissioner Mick Fuller apologised to 78ers and the LGBTQI community for the behaviour of police in 1978 there was genuine hope that a cultural change might be underway. That was in 2018, and since then the community has seen little evidence that this change runs deep. Eight months after the 2022 Mardi Gras parade there has been no explanation for the treatment of Barbara Karpinski – a 78er – who was ejected from the reserved 78er viewing area. Although a personal apology was issued, there has been no clarification of who ordered this treatment and on what authority, or what actions have been taken to ensure it does not happen again. First Mardi Gras calls on the Board of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to review the inclusion of an official Police entry in the 2023 Mardi Gras parade and to take clear steps to ensure that the terms of its own Accord with NSW Police require police to demonstrate sensitivity and transparency in their dealings with the LGBTQI community.   First Mardi Gras Inc. A community association for 78ers The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras AGM on 26 November was an arduous event, particularly for those of us online. The sound quality was poor and the chair, same chap as last year, was not really skilled enough to manage a factious meeting. But the real problem was the lack of democracy. Pride in Protest (PiP) motions on notice were taken as questions and responded to dismissively by the (thankfully) outgoing Co-Chair and Board member Jesse Matheson. Other motions on notice were spoken to, no further speakers called for, and no votes taken. Mardi Gras mainstays like Liz Dodds and Kathy Sant objected to the PiP motions not being put. They were unlikely to be in agreement with PiP, but objected to this undemocratic action. I’m not sure if there was a vote to accept the Treasurer’s report and there was not a Returning Officer’s report, let alone a vote to accept it. It was good that voting was reopened during the meeting, but the online system should have been able to give a result before the end of the AGM. Towards the end of the meeting, Liz Dodds pointed out that, as a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, SGLMG had to maintain standards of transparency and accountability to their members. And they clearly did not at this AGM. During the meeting, SGLMG CEO Albert Kruger reported on Sydney WorldPride 2023 (SWP) and the Human Rights Conference. As you will see on one of the slides above, SWPs Arts curatorial priorities include 10% elders. This would not seem to apply to the Human Rights Conference which rejected the workshop application made by First Mardi Gras Inc. The fact that Sydney’s bid for WorldPride was based on the 2023 celebrations of the 45th anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and 50th anniversary of the first national Gay Pride Week has been ignored. Our workshop, Fifty years of Activism and International Solidarity, would have discussed the impacts of these events and the advances in human rights and legal reforms that they led to for our communities. All three of our presenters were involved in the campaigns around the first Mardi Gras, 45 years ago, and the upsurge of activism that followed. Two of our presenters took part in Gay Pride Week, 50 years ago. So much for your curatorial priorities to include 10% elders Sydney WorldPride!   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair During 2021 I was contemplating what I could do to improve the lives of LGBTIQ young people in Murtoa, a town of 900 people in the northwest of Victoria where I live. I’ve loved books and libraries from an early age. Books gave me access to all sorts of worlds beyond the restrictive heteronormative boundaries of my previous homes in Jerilderie and Crookwell. So, I hit upon the idea of donating a collection of LGBTIQ books suitable for a young adult readership to the Murtoa College Library. Murtoa College is a P-12 school and I contacted their Librarian, Jenny Reading. Jenny informed me that the existing LGBTIQ collection was modest, and that the College would love to have more LGBTIQ books. I then contacted The Bookshop, Darlinghurst, and staff members Noel and Graeme did a wonderful job of putting together a list of recommendations, ordering the books, and sending them to Jenny. When the collection of 50 books arrived at the College there was great excitement amongst the LGBTIQ students and the Murtoa College LGBTIQ Collection has become an excellent and widely used resource for LGBTIQ students. And as a number of graduating students took their favourite books with them, I’m in the midst of refreshing the Collection. I’ve also decided to expand the reach of this project: Horsham Secondary College has accepted my offer of a collection and is currently selecting the titles for it. I’m particularly excited about this as the College has over 1,000 students and therefore the books will reach a large audience. I’ve always loved books and libraries. And now I’m having a tangible impact on them and the lives of LGBTIQ young people in the bush through this important work.   Michael Fenaughty 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member The ACT Place Names Authority approached Lex Watson’s sister, Wendy Dundas, and I for our reaction to their proposal to name a street in Lex’s honour. Wendy approved and I corrected their draft citation. We recently received the following confirmation: On behalf of the ACT Place Names Advisory Committee, I am pleased to confirm the approval of the public place name Lex Watson Circuit in the ACT division (suburb) of Denman Prospect. The new place name commemorates Mr Lex Watson AM for his contributions as a gay rights activist for people living with AIDS and HIV and to homosexual law reform. The public place names approved at this time commemorate the nomenclature theme Activism and Reform. I was chuffed and Lex’s family were delighted at this tribute!   Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Over 220 organisations representing millions of members across the country have united to condemn the recent 15-month jail sentence for climate activist Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco and to express concern about increasing repression, including the recent introduction of new anti-protest laws in multiple states. On 2 December, Violet, from Fireproof Australia, was sentenced to 15 months in custody with a non-parole period of 8 months. Her appeal for bail was heard on 13th December. A solidarity action took place outside Downing Centre Court. We reject the claim from Premier Perrottet that protest should not inconvenience people and are concerned about the message this sends in a democracy. Peaceful but disruptive protests have won many of the rights we take for granted today, including the 8-hour day, voting rights, end to conscription, and to enjoy the forests and precious places we defended. Australia is a signatory to conventions protecting our right to freedom of movement, association, peaceful assembly, and political speech which the government must respect, and we must defend. We welcome the support from the UN and international human rights organisations, including the recent statement from Clement Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly who expressed “I am alarmed at NSW court's prison term against climate protester Deanna Coco and refusal to grant bail until a March 2023 appeal hearing. Peaceful protesters should never be criminalised or imprisoned.” Violet was charged with several offences, including disrupting vehicles, failing to comply with police direction and resisting or hindering police. The charges arose from her action blocking one lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for approximately 25 minutes. First Mardi Gras Inc. – a community association for 78ers said: If these laws were in place in 1978, we would have all ended up in gaol. As it was many of us did. Under the provisions of the NSW Summary Offences Act police were able to shut down protests, to judge whether a person's behaviour was offensive or not, and to entrap gay men with contrived homosexual advances. At the time there were over 100 convictions every year for sexual assault of a male person in NSW. Many ended with gaol terms of up to 14 years and others accepted court-directed homosexual aversion therapy. Radical social movements changed everything. They didn't have liability insurance or permission from the state.   From statement by NSW Council for Civil Liberties In 1972, the body of a murdered lecturer floats in the River Torrens, a young woman escapes a lobotomy to ‘cure’ her sexuality, and a single mum struggles to find her place in a society which brands her as ‘abnormal’. CAMP, a new play by Elias Jamieson Brown (Green Park) chronicles the birth of Australia's fierce gay and lesbian rights movement; the struggles, successes, and legacy of early Pride activists who risked family, careers, and imprisonment to achieve social change in Australia. Associate Producer: Robyn Kennedy. More info: CAMP | Siren Theatre Co EARLY BIRD TICKET OFFER: Purchase discount tickets now until December 23, 2022, by quoting CAMPSWP2023 at the checkout. Tickets available from SEYMOUR CENTRE MAKE A FULLY TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO PRODUCTION COSTS THROUGH Artist Project: Camp - a new play by Elias Jamieson Brown (australianculturalfund.org.au). 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. You can also post a cheque CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order, contact Robyn Kennedy. 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 Calendar of Events   First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 14 January 2023, by Zoom First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 5 February 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au The Coming Back Out Salon – 2-6pm, Saturday 18 February 2023, Sydney Town Hall, https://moshtix.com.au/.../the-coming-back-out-salon/143631 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day – 10am-9pm, Sunday 19 February 2023 First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party – 6.30-9.30pm, Thursday 23 February 2023, tickets available in January Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade – Saturday 25 February 2023 Sydney WorldPride Human Rights Conference – Wednesday to Friday 2-4 March 2023, https://sydneyworldpride.com/ Pride History Group Conference Reception – 6.30-9pm, Friday 3 March 2023, Pride History Conference — PRIDE HISTORY GROUP Pride History Group Conference – 9am-5.30pm, Saturday 4 March 2023, Marrickville Library Pavilion, Pride History Conference — PRIDE HISTORY GROUP  Sydney WorldPride Harbour Bridge March – Sunday 5 March 2023 Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras Parade and After Party – Saturday 11 March 2023, Wagga Mardi Gras | The biggest party Wagga's ever seen! Tropical Fruits (Lismore) Easter Party – April TBC 2023, Events - Tropical Fruits Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – September TBC 2023 Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - November 2022

View this email in your browser November 2022 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 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: Sydney WorldPride 2023, including the Festival Program https://sydneyworldpride.com/ InterPride: www.interpride.org/ourorganization. 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   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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. Calendar of Events   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 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 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 Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - October 2022

View this email in your browser October 2022 In this October edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Information on First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party – 6.30pm, Thursday 23 February 2023 Ken Davis and Diane Minnis on the First Mardi Gras Inc. AGM and Annual Report Karl Zlotkowski on 2023 – Back onto the Streets! Rebbell Barnes on Next Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 November 2022 Bill Ashton on Christmas at Kinselas – 3pm, Sunday 11 December 2022 Sue Fletcher on Coastal Twist Festival Diane Minnis on Formation of Oceania Pride Organisers Inc. Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister on the Launch of CAMP: Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists Information on the Antenna Documentary Film Festival Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. The next Social Lunch is at 12pm, Sunday 6 November, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au and the next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Sunday 27 November 2022, by Zoom.    Diane Minnis An enthusiastic group of members attended the First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting, held by Zoom on Saturday 15 October 2022. It was great to have a number of members from outside Sydney taking part again this year. The following Management Committee members were elected at the AGM: Co-Chairs: Diane Minnis and Ken Davis Secretary: Karl Zlotkowski, Treasurer: Richard Thode Committee Members: Robyn Kennedy, Rebbell Barnes, Sue Fletcher and David Abello. Thank you to outgoing Committee members Maree Marsh and Bill Ashton for their contributions. And welcome to new members Sue Fletcher and David Abello.   Diane Minnis and Ken Davis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs In the Co-Chairs report, we noted that our social activities were still constrained by Covid through the first half of the financial year.  78ers were able to be a real presence at the 45th Mardi Gras parade, held again in the Sydney Cricket Ground. We held two Salon78 Forums this year on Zoom: Gay Lib Comes Out 1972! Celebrating Rainbow History. We rallied and campaigned against anti-LGBTIQ Bills at a number of in-person and online events. 78ers also took part in the human Progress Flag to launch Sydney WorldPride 2023. Thanks to the photographers who allowed us to use their work. Download the 2022 Annual Report.   Next year’s parade will be back on Oxford Street, and it promises to the biggest celebration for many years. Next year is our 45th anniversary, and we intend to pull out all the stops. The SGLMG 78ers Committee continues to fine-tune arrangements with the Mardi Gras Parade team, always with the aim of ensuring the unique needs of 78ers are met, particularly in terms of accessibility. Next year we hope to see many 78ers who haven’t marched with us for some years, and we intend to make things as easy as we can. Our group will start from Liverpool Street, as we did in 2020. Access arrangements for the marshalling area will be similar to those at the SCG in 2021 and 2022 – we will be ticketed, and there will be priority entry. A dedicated accessible drop-off point will be located on Park Street, with level access across the park to our assembly point on Whitlam Square. The Dykes on Bikes will lead off at 7:15 and we will follow the First Nations group, carrying a new 45th Anniversary banner. The bus will be back for those who want to ride, and those of us on foot will have a forest of placards and flags to wave. Most of our old favourite signs will come out of storage and new signs will continue the theme of 50 Years of Visibility - this year celebrating events in 1973. For added bling, Mardi Gras has agreed to supply us all with sequined hats in a fetching shade of Mardi Gras Pink to match our t-shirts. And there will be a blast of popular music from 1973 when we reach Taylor Square – some of you may want to dance. Suzie Quatro has been mentioned… An email will go out in early December inviting 78ers to register for the parade and (for those still interested in such things) to apply for Party tickets from our allocation, which will be balloted in January. And there’s more: the 78ers will also be crossing the Harbour Bridge as a group behind our 45th Anniversary banner as part of the WorldPride 2023 celebrations. And we will be hosting our own cocktail party on 23 February, at which we will launch our new booklet of reminiscences: Voices from 1978. Watch this newsletter for details.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Secretary Even with some of our regulars away, a dozen 78ers and partners had a great catch-up at our Social Lunch on Sunday 2 October at Pyrmont’s Terminus Hotel (61 Harris Street). We now meet in a private and airy room, off the courtyard. Our last Social Lunch for 2022 will be on Sunday 6 November, from 12pm. On 11 December we will have Christmas at Kinselas and our first Social Lunch in 2023 will be on Sunday 5 February. Please RSVP through info@78ers.org.au.   Rebbell Barnes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member We were so impressed with the support we got from Kinselas for our Mardi Gras 44th Anniversary Drinks that we are going back for a Christmas event on Sunday 11 December. This time we will gather from 3pm on the ground floor and wheelchair accessible art deco Chapel Bar. Kinselas is at 383 Bourke St Darlinghurst, right on Taylor Square and close to bus stops. Kinselas will again play background music from the 1970s and 80s for our event. Canapes will be served mid-afternoon, 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 On hold for two years and billed as a celebration of difference, diversity and dazzle, Coastal Twist LGBTIQA arts and culture festival delivered a week-long Festival on the Central Coast, NSW. Seven days and nights, from 27 September to 3 October of queer activities in Umina Beach, Woy Woy and Ettalong Beach were a delight. Locals and visitors were able to enjoy a festival program that had community and arts at its heart, from beach-volleyball to doggy parades at the Coastal Carnie Day, visual and performing arts and so much more. This year Coastal Twist Festival highlights included: The Love Cabaret The Futurismo Surrealist Dance Party The Rainbow Youth Teens Dance Party Beach Party Picnic: Life’s A Beach Coastie Carnie Fair Day. It was joyful to see the growth in the number of local businesses from Wyong to Terrigal and Woy Woy to Long Jetty, participating through their Be the Change window displays. This innovation increased our queer visibility and gave shop-keepers an opportunity to demonstrate their support for the LGBTIQ community. On the final day more than 9,000 people attended Coastal Carnie at Umina Beach and we were lucky the rain stayed away! Performers strutted their stuff, vocalists sang loud and proud and visual artists exhibited (I hear there were a few red dots on opening night). Local artisans had markets in the retail space, dancing on the grass, drag story time in the family space was a hit and community groups were highly visible. I was lucky to catch up with friends and colleagues I hadn’t seen in many years and I hear I wasn’t the only one. Well done Coastal Twist and thanks to all the volunteers and supporters. If you weren’t there, consider Coastal Twist for your calendar next year.   Sue Fletcher 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Oceania Pride is an informal gathering of Pride organisers that has been meeting for two years. Some prides, but not all, are members of InterPride and organisations from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific have attended meetings. Oceania Pride meetings have updates on InterPride and presentations by member organisations. This year we had talks by Brisbane Pride, Sydney Queer Irish, on anti-LGBTIQ legislation in Australia and on the InterPride Strategic Plan. We have also had regular updates from Sydney WorldPride on events they are planning for WorldPride 2023. Under InterPride’s new Strategic Plan, Regional Pride Platforms will become the members of InterPride in place of individual organisations in those regions. Given these upcoming changes, financial members of InterPride in the region met in June to start the process of incorporating as a Pride Organisers Platform. A Constitution Working Group was formed, and Oceania Pride Organisers Inc. was registered on 26 September 2022. We will shortly be having a meeting of financial members of InterPride to start the process of inviting Pride organisers from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific to join the new Regional Pride Platform – Oceania Pride Organisers Inc.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair The events of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on June 24, 1978, are now recognised as an important milestone in the history of the Pride movement in Australia. But there has been much less focus on the years leading up to 1978. A new book, CAMP: Australia’s pioneer homosexual rights activists, by 78ers Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister, commemorates the achievements of the first national gay and lesbian rights organisation, known as CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution).  CAMP was founded in 1970 when sex between consenting male adults was illegal throughout Australia, carrying penalties of imprisonment for up to 14 years (with or without whipping). Lesbians were largely invisible, and their existence treated as an aberration and abhorrence. There was no anti-discrimination legislation, and psychosurgery aimed at ‘curing’ lesbians and gay men, was common practice. The prevailing attitudes of the time portrayed homosexual women and men as perverts, mentally ill and sinners. Unsurprisingly, prior to 1970, lesbians and gay men were reluctant to publicly come out; until then, there was no community where they could live openly and find support.   CAMP’s Role in Driving Social Change Following its establishment in Sydney, CAMP flourished, quickly spreading to other states and university campuses. CAMP was a literal lifesaver, with many of those featured in the book acknowledging that without CAMP, they may never have found a way to live comfortably as themselves. This new book provides an insight into the role of CAMP in driving social change through the lived experiences of individuals who each played a role in achieving the rights we enjoy today. These first-person stories are accompanied by specially commissioned portrait photographs, along with rare archival images. The book also includes the most comprehensive narrative of each branch of CAMP ever compiled, providing an important historical record of the origins of the Pride movement in Australia.   The Launch of the Book The launch of the book was held at the Dixson Room in NSW State Library, Sydney on Thursday 29 September. Ninety people including sponsors ACON, Mardi Gras and Sydney World Pride, some of the interviewees, photographers, editor, layout people and friends were represented. Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister shared the podium to talk about the importance of developing a book like this from a participant’s view rather than an observer’s perspective on history. They also emphasised the importance of telling women’s stories which are often neglected in accounts of our history. This concern about the equal inclusion of women’s stories was reiterated in the talks given by all three sponsors. Interviewees were thanked for their participation especially those that had come from interstate for the launch. Many books were sold and signed by the authors and the audience had time to catch up with people they hadn’t seen for ages and discuss the early 70’s over wine and sandwiches.   How to order CAMP Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists Book The book is available in hardback (288 pages) from September 29, 2022, at $49.95 per copy. For orders contact pridepublish@gmail.com.   Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister    78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member and Member Documentaries premiering at this year's festival (https://antennafestival.org/) which may be of interest to 78ers include: Senses of Cinema (stories of the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op) – 23 October Juanita Nielsen Now – 21 October and 5 November Nelly & Nadine – 22 October. 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. You can also post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order, contact Robyn Kennedy. Please include your name, address and number of badges requested.   Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members Calendar of Events Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – 7 October to 6 November 2022, Fair Day Saturday 5 November, Gregson Park, Home - Newcastle Pride Antenna Documentary Film Festival – 14-23 October 2022 Home - Antenna Festival ACON’s Parramatta Pride Picnic – 10:30am-7pm Saturday 22 October 2022, River Foreshore Reserve, Parramatta, Parramatta Pride Picnic | Facebook Tamworth Pride Fair Day – 9am-2pm, Saturday 29 October 2022, Bicentennial Park, entry via Kable Avenue Tamworth Pride After Party – 7pm-late, Saturday 29 October 2022, Wests Diggers Club Shepparton Out in the Open Festival – 31 October to 13 November 2022 http://outintheopen.org.au/ First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 November (first Sunday of each month) Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au 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 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 Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Annual Report 2021/2022

The First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual Report for FY 2022 has been released ahead of the upcoming Annual General Meeting. Download and view the report by clicking here.

Newsletter - September 2022

View this email in your browser September 2022 In this September edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Robyn Kennedy on EuroPride 2022 in Belgrade Ken Davis on Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is about social and cultural capital, not capital Helen Gollan on the Broken Heel Festival Bob Harvey on Tamworth Pride Fair Day and After Party – Saturday 29 October Toby Zoates’ review of Sydney Contemporary Art Fair 2022 Robert French with 40 Years On: Gay Rights Lobby Homosexuality: Myths & Realities Robyn Plaister and Diane Minnis with a Tribute to Sue Wills How to get your copy of CAMP: Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists Information on ACON’s LOVE Social Celebration – Tuesday 18 October Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. The First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 15 October 2022, by Zoom. And our next Social Lunch is at 12pm, Sunday 2 October, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au.   Diane Minnis The European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA), which licenses EuroPride to a different city each year, has hailed Belgrade EuroPride’s success and described it as the most important in the event’s 30 year history. EuroPride Belgrade – hosted by Belgrade Pride – ran from Monday 12 September when the rainbow flag was raised at the Palace of Serbia. More than 120 events took place throughout the week, culminating in the EuroPride March on Saturday 17 September followed by a closing concert. An estimated 7,000 people took part in the EuroPride March. Representatives of more than 50 Pride organisations were represented in the EuroPride March, including leaders of InterPride. The last three weeks have been tumultuous. In late August, Serbia’s President Vučić said that EuroPride was ‘cancelled’. Belgrade Pride and EPOA immediately challenged this, and confirmed it was not cancelled and all events were going ahead. Protests led by the Orthodox church and nationalist groups took place in Belgrade after Vučić’s statement. Then during EuroPride week, police officially banned the route of the march, but not the march itself. A new route could not be applied for because of a time limit. But then, on the day of the EuroPride March, lesbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said she was personally authorising the March and that she could “guarantee the safety of everyone on the streets of Belgrade today”. More than 7,000 police in full riot gear were on the streets with riots taking over much of the city as the March took place peacefully. Sadly, Brnabić’s promise of safety could not be upheld. Several activists were attacked as they left the closing concert, despite a heavy police presence. One participant was attacked at an LGBTI+ venue, and investigations are ongoing. Police report more than 60 arrests related to protests. Kristine Garina, President of the Association, said: “EuroPride in Belgrade will go down in history as a turning point for LGBTI+ equality in Serbia and the wider Western Balkans region. We showed that Pride is not a threat to anyone, and whilst we marched peacefully, it was the far right, nationalists and fundamentalist Christians who battled police. “I congratulate Belgrade Pride and everyone who participated on an outstanding event.” I reflected as I left Belgrade to return to Sydney after an eventful week at EuroPride. I am proud to have walked in the march and proud of the great job done by Belgrade Pride and EPOA against formidable obstacles. Next year Malta will host EuroPride.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The rejection by SGLMG (again) of the NSW Teacher’s Federation in the 2023 parade shows deep rewriting of our history. Social capital is what brings us together as communities, as a society, outside the realms of government, the market and profits. It is about voluntary relationships, engagement and contributions. It may be as simple as random individual acts of kindness, rapport or solidarity, but it can be measured in participation in sports, religious, emergency, service, political, hobby, arts, environmental, disability, health, education, charity, advocacy and other community associations. Mardi Gras exists only because of the volunteer contributions from our communities over 45 years. In recent years the Mardi Gras parades have rewarded big business sponsors with a large presence of advertising floats in the parade, usually with staff who are unpaid, and often not queer. I am not saying SGLMG or Sydney World Pride should not have commercial sponsors, but to be more careful about which governments and companies they associate with, and to let the companies claim rewards for their contributions other than by having advertising in the parade itself. Because there seems to be a minimal ethical scan of the big businesses in the parade in sectors such as finance, communications, transport, and gambling; having a drag queen and a rainbow motif in the parade is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig. In terms of royal commissions, or public inquiries, or mainstream news, you do not have to look far to see some major ethical problems or scandals with some of the big businesses that have been flaunting themselves in the parade recently, at the direct expense of community and civil society groups, both LGBTIQ+ and important historical allies. Paying a consultant to run diversity training for managers does not make up for unethical (and sometimes criminal) conduct towards consumers, staff, shareholders, health, the environment, indigenous peoples, and peoples facing repression overseas. An example from the USA about Amazon is pertinent. The (American gay and lesbian) Human Rights Campaign gave a top rating to Amazon, at a time when they had a history of donating to right-wing Republicans, and doing everything to defeat unionising efforts. Whatever your gender or sexuality, working hard 12-hour shifts with low pay and without job security and not being able to go to the toilet shows the sort of employer Amazon is. However, they had made a big donation to HRC. It is fashionable now in the gay and lesbian elite circles to attribute all gains in LGBTIQ rights to big business, ignoring our own advocacy and mass action, and the role of other forces, in the women’s movement and in the trade unions. It was not Big Pharma that got HIV or Hep C treatment to millions across the world; it was global campaigns by our communities, religious organisations, and trade unions.   Ken Davis, 78er This is my personal opinion and not that of First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers were warmly welcomed by the Palace Hotel and by the committee at the Broken Heel Festival held in Broken Hill from 8-12 September 2022. I was interviewed by community radio station 2DRY FM who broadcast from the Main Drag in Drag street parade and over the three days of the festival. Joy 94.9 rainbow media broadcast the parade nationally on the Community Radio Network. My ute was there in all her glory for the march, with the 78ers banner across the tray and two kind people carried our new corflute placard out the front. My friend Gayle Mortimer very kindly drove the old girl for me. I was on the back of the ute and was proud to wear our wonderful 78ers t-shirt. The crowd responded extremely well to us. I was chatting to the kids who were there about the unjust laws or lack of them before 1978 and of people going out fighting for changes and peace and harmony. Also, people recognised all 78ers the entire weekend for what every one of you have done. All the events of course were full of music and so much diversity, colour and fun. The best part was meeting so many different people including others who were involed in the events of 1978. All the hugs and handshakes that I received I pass on to all of you. The 78ers banner will be at: Newcastle Pride Fair Day – 5 November (Festival 7 October to 6 November) Tamworth Pride Fair Day – 29 October Rainbow on the Plains, Hay – 25-27 November (where 78ers will march) Shepparton Out in the Open Festival – 31 October to 13 November.  Helen Gollan, Butch now and forever 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Tamworth Pride Inc. will be holding Pride Fair Day at Bicentennial Park (entry via Kable Avenue) from 9am to 2pm and an After Party at Wests Diggers Club on 29 October, 2022. Our inaugural Tamworth Pride Fair Day was on October 6, 2019 and there have been no events for the past two years due to COVID. There will be numerous stalls for community organisations, including our sponsor ACON. The Tamworth Family Support organisation will be there as will Rosalie House which provides assistance and counselling for alcohol abuse and domestic violence. Fair Day will have wonderful performers from the Tamworth Country Music Festival including: Matt Barratt (People’s Choice for the Buskers Finals 2022), Loren Ryan (Grand Finalist, Toyota Star Maker) and Evelyn Banoffee, a transwoman and busker. Missy Sparkles will be hosting her Puppy Dog Show and Dianne Harris, our Tamworth Pride Inc. President and a proud transwoman, will present the Tamworth Pride Trophy. Fair Day will wind up about 2pm and the After Party starts at 7pm. The theme is Technicolor Dreams and we encourage all to dress up and 78ers attending should wear their 78ers t-shirt. The ticket price is $25 from https://bit.ly/tcdreams. Finally, I would like to encourage 78ers to attend and get ready for a wild night of entertainment, music and groove to the beat! I can offer free accommodation and can also refer you to paid accommodation. Please contact me at bobharvey69@icloud.com.   Bob Harvey 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member The Sydney Contemporary Art Fair 2022 at Carriageworks was a labyrinth of commercial stands with dealers, patrons and rubber-neckers rushing to and fro like a disturbed ant's nest. The emphasis was on making money at all costs as the stands cost a fortune to rent, and all concerned needed to make a living, especially the artists who, in the main, live pauper’s lives. Ninety percent of successful artists come from wealthy families, the rest live in hope and on the smell of an oil paint rag. The products on offer were the usual melange of IKEA inoffensive furniture, i.e. vases of flowers, landscapes and cows under gum trees; abstract expressions i.e. meaningless smears, swirls and blotches of colour; outlandish sculptures; distorted portraits; and last, and the least, artful political statements. My favourite stands were: 1) Northern Territory Koori Traditional 2) Indigenous artist Vincent Namatijira’s satires of the Royal Family touring Australia and his version of "Desert Painting." 3) Damien Minton's stand: TENSE - Political Posters Past/Present where artworks of intersectional concerns were available in classic poster form, including a few of my own creations. The subjects communicated in these posters varied from Queer Marriage Equality to Unionism, Fossil Fuels Critique to Environmental Protection, Women's Rights to Prison Reform, No Deaths in Custody, to No Cuts to Universities etc. I was honoured with a commission to do the backdrop wallpaper for this stand promoting many of these issues, when blown up to double door size it was eye catching and attracted many interested punters. The brilliance of the poster art and its important, urgent social/environmental message was much appreciated and this sharp political presence was a rare but outstanding, and much welcome, phenomenon in this crowded "art for art’s sake" maelstrom. I believe it is the artist’s honourable commitment to depict the precarious human condition in this troubled world of war, climate chaos, political fascism and environmental exploitation. Art is an important means of communication, informing the onlooker as to what is affecting his/her/their life, to the benefit and to the detriment. These posters are mind-blowing, heart-warming, guts stirring. "Knowledge makes a person unfit to be a slave".   Toby Zoates 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member On 10 August 1982, representatives of the Homosexual Law Reform Coalition (HLRC) met for a first formal meeting with Carmel Niland, the head of the Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB). It was to express our support for the Board and its Report on Discrimination and Homosexuality, and to discuss proposed gay community tactics to pressure the parliamentarians to implement the Report. To aid the lobbying process, HLRC assembled a Resource Kit comprising, among other pieces of information, the Gay Rights Lobby (GRL) booklet Homosexuality: Myths & Realities, which had been launched by Don Dunstan in June; a précis of the ADB’s Recommendations, compiled by the Collective of Gay Information magazine; and our own Draft Bill to amend the act. The kit was then distributed to all members of Parliament, to the media, and to the community. In addition to direct lobbying, HLRC also held a rally at Town Hall Square on 26 August. Then, a second rally, and a march to Parliament House, was held on 9 September. On 12 August, the Newcastle Trades Hall Council had voted full support for the Recommendations. The NSW Labour Council had already voted in favour of anti-discrimination protections, and the decriminalisation of gay male sexual behaviour, back on 16 October 1980, on a motion of Council President, Barrie Unsworth, at the request of Craig Johnston and Lex Watson, acting on behalf of their Sydney University academic union. It was on that night that the two of them formed GRL. As yet, I believe, not enough attention has been given to the important work of members the NSW Gay Trade Unions Group, in achieving the above motions. It had formed after the 4th National Homosexual Conference in Sydney in August 1978, with its theme Homosexuals at Work. At the same conference the, now named, Australian Queer Archives was established. The work of activists – like Diane Minnis and John Witte, the Group’s Chair and Secretary, of Stephen Auburn, of Ed Ashmore in the Teacher’s Federation (the first Union to come out in support of gays and lesbians, teachers and students, and to appoint an openly gay official, Bill Leslie), and of many, many others, who become active in their individual trades unions – was crucial. Their success, in having so many unions pass anti-discrimination and homosexual decriminalisation motions, lay behind the support for the various Labour Council motions. Also important was the work of the ALP Gay Group, founded by Max Pearce in 1980 with support from Craig Johnston and others (most of who were active also in GRL). It wrote to all ALP Branches in NSW calling for support, which many of the Branches gave by passing formal motions, thus gaining us wide rank and file Party support. Then, finally, on 20 October, the ALP Parliamentary Caucus formally agreed to fully implement the Recommendations of the ADB Report to include the addition of homosexuality as a category of protection, along with that of physical disability that had been omitted in the original Act. Also, it was proposed that the Equal Opportunity Tribunal would now come under the auspices of the ADB. Premier Wran had won the argument over the opposition of some conservative members of the caucus and of the devoutly Catholic Gerry Gleeson, the head of the Premier’s Department. I have no doubt that lesbian and gay lobbying, in unions and in the ALP, assisted in this. Of course, a question still remained, would the Liberal/National Party opposition support an amendment, and would it be successful in both houses of the Parliament?   Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Dr Sue Wills passed away peacefully at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse on 26th August 2022 aged 78. Sue was being treated for pneumonia and lung cancer, which she had battled for several years. Sue was a true pioneer of the Pride and women’s liberation movements. She was the foundation Co-President of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), an archivist and historian. She spent her life in service to a vision of social equality. Sue recounted her involvement in CAMP in a new book CAMP: Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists by Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister, being launched in late September. Sue became involved in CAMP in the early 1970s when CAMP was moving to be more inclusive of women. Sue was elected as a Co-President along with the late Lex Watson, who she worked with in the Department of Government, University of Sydney as a tutor. Sue Wills and Lex Watson became the public face of CAMP, speaking to press, appearing on television and radio, and speaking to groups wherever they were invited. This role was pivotal in creating visibility and acceptance of homosexuality at a time when few men or women could come out or be politically active due to systemic discrimination.  During this period, the Pride movement’s goals went well beyond law reform, into broad social and political change. Sue was one of the first to draw attention to, and campaign against, the abuse of lesbians and gay men by the psychiatric profession, including its use of aggressive aversion therapy techniques. These issues still resonate today. Sue’s appearance with her then-partner Gabrielle Antolovich on the ABC TV Chequerboard program is often overshadowed by the on-air kiss between Peter de Waal and Peter Bonsall-Boone in the program. But Sue and Gabrielle spoke eloquently to large audiences about lesbianism and their lives, shaping early attitudes and inspiring many lesbians. In 1974, Sue, Lex and Gabrielle resigned their positions in CAMP citing sexism and a shift in the group towards welfarism rather than political engagement. Sue had been among those who struggled against sexism in the organisation and the Pride movement, as described in her article The CWA – The other one, a history of the CAMP Women’s Association. After CAMP, Sue turned her attention to the women’s movement and remained active for the rest of her life. Sue completed her doctorate thesis: The Politics of Women’s Liberation in 1981. She held the position of Equal Opportunity Officer at Macquarie University from 1984 and pursued research on sexual violence. Sue, among other activists, was featured in the 2005 film, The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia. In 2009, she was a panellist at the 40th Anniversary of CAMP conference, and in 2010 was honoured by ACON as a Community Hero in their annual Honour Awards. Over the last two decades Sue devoted herself to gathering documents, interviewing, and accessing archives to write The First Ten Years of Sydney Women’s Liberation, a project she commenced with Joyce Stevens AO, who passed away in 2014. Sue was happy to share her experiences with interviewers over the years and spoke at Pride History Group forums in the 2000s. In her last speaking engagement in February 2020, Sue spoke at A Lavender Menace? Australia’s Early Lesbian Movement, a forum by First Mardi Inc. and the Pride History Group. Sue was obviously ailing but the 80-strong audience, mainly women, hung on her every word. Sue was also a 78er – involved in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Drop the Charges campaign in June-August 1978. Due to her health, Sue declined to be interviewed for the ABC TV coverage of the 2022 Parade where 78ers carried signs commemorating 50 years since Sue and Lex became CAMP Co-Presidents and the Chequerboard program. But Sue was well enough to come to her door, masked, to have a chat and accept delivery of a 78ers t-shirt to wear while she watched the TV coverage. Sue was extremely generous with her time to advance the cause of homosexual rights and women’s liberation. She was an incredibly dedicated activist, and her friendship and support will be very much missed.   Robyn Plaister and Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member and Co-Chair I feel honoured to have been asked to speak about Sue’s involvement in the Homosexual Movement. I first got to know Sue when I joined CAMP NSW in 1972. Sue and her then partner Gabrielle Antolovich had taken the enormous step in those days of going on television and speaking about homosexuality. Sue and Gaby were interviewed on Chequerboard in 1972, an ABC program that discussed current affairs. Both Sue and Gaby lamented that reflective of the times the program was more interested in filming the two men, Peter Bonsall-Boone and Peter De Waal and the first male to male kiss on TV. Sue insisted that the program had to have equal female content. It was very significant for me as at that time, although I was living in a lesbian relationship, we did not know any other lesbians. I saw that program and decided to join CAMP. Sue was instrumental in my and other women joining CAMP. I am glad that I had told her how important that program was and her bravery in going on it. Sue was involved in CAMP Inc. NSW between 1972 and 1974. She was a PhD student/tutor in the Department of Government at University of Sydney in 1971 and two of her (more senior and secure) colleagues were Dennis Altman who wrote the book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation in 1971, and Lex Watson. Lex had been her tutor in first year Government and was now senior tutor in charge of first year tutorials and tutors. Dennis, who taught American Politics, was friends with her PhD supervisor Professor Henry Mayer. As Sue has told me: CAMP started at the end of 1970 and by the end of 1971, CAMP Inc. was in the middle of a dispute between the men in the organisation. John Ware was one of the founders and actively involved. Chris Poll, the other co-founder was very little involved by the end of 1971. A group of younger men, who formed a Gay Liberation group operating under the CAMP Inc. umbrella, were challenging John Ware. Lex Watson was heading a group on law reform. A women’s group (headed by Margaret Jones) had become so disaffected by the sexist/chauvinist behaviour of Michael Cass, John Ware’s partner that the group had decided to leave CAMP Inc. and try to form a branch of the Victorian Australasian Lesbian Movement, which modelled itself on the US Daughters of Bilitis. Lex and Dennis approached Sue because CAMP Inc. was about to get a Constitution which required male and female co-presidents and they asked if Sue would address this breakaway women’s group to persuade them to come back to CAMP. The women did return to CAMP and Sue was made Co-President along with Lex Watson. Sue tells of her ongoing friendship with Margaret Jones but that Margaret never let Sue forget that Sue had stolen her women!! As Co-Presidents, Sue and Lex Watson became the public faces for CAMP speaking to the press, appearing on television and radio and speaking to groups whenever they were invited.  Sue also offered her speaking services to Gay Lib when they wanted to have a female speaker to accompany them as very few women were able to come out in public due to discrimination, harassment or fear of losing their job. Sue said some of her strongest memories centred on how much fun they had while they engaged in various activities.  She said it was enjoyable to test your skills at handling hecklers at public meetings. Sue also researched and wrote many articles for CAMP Ink, the newsletter which covered topics on homosexuality and religion, law and psychiatry. Sue was very interested in what was happening in Psychiatry where homosexuality was at that time listed as a Deviance and conversion therapy was occurring for homosexuals at the now infamous Chelmsford Hospital that conducted shock therapy and a form of lobotomy on homosexuals. Sue wanted to expose this treatment and educate psychiatrists. The longest article, she wrote was “Intellectual Poofter Bashers” which was based on a long interview with Associate Professor, Neil McConaghy from UNSW who “offered” aversion therapy to male homosexuals. Sue and John Ware set up another group in CAMP, the Homosexual Guidance Service, to offer advice and referrals for women and men who wanted help to deal with their feelings and those of others toward their homosexuality. They found out that ‘help lines’ such as Life Line telephone help was not only of little help but had telephone counsellors in need of training. Sue attempted to bridge the gap between CAMP and Women’s Liberation as she was involved in women’s liberation as well.   She invited women’s liberationists to come to CAMP women’s group meetings and encouraged CAMP women to become involved in women’s liberation groups. As Sue states: This was at a time when Women’s Liberation, the western world over, was hostile to the public presence of lesbians in the movement. The gradual dominance of CAMP by Phone-a-Friend led to the resignation of Sue and Lex and Gaby from their positions in CAMP. Sue said that in her view CAMP had changed from a political organisation – primarily fighting for change (in law, church, medicine and psychiatry); to an organisation providing comfort as its main goal. Sue also cited sexism as a reason for leaving. When they realised that they could not take the membership with them in terms of politics, they left their positions. Sue talked about her coming out to her family and how they were supportive of her and how her mother adored Gaby and was helpful in trying to help Gaby’s mother adjust. Sue was diligent in her research and collection of materials for the First Ten Years Project and was very good in making sure that material was gathered to cover lesbian groups as well as women’s groups. She approached me to provide important documentation on the first Lesbian Mothers’ Group and also the Lesbian Teachers’ Group. Sue was featured in the 2005 film: The Hidden History of Homosexual Australia. In 2009, she was featured as a panellist at the 40th Anniversary celebrations for Australia’s gay pride and in 2010 was honoured by the AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON) as a Community Hero in the annual Honour Awards. Robyn Kennedy and myself interviewed Sue for our book about to be launched called CAMP: Australian Pioneer Homosexual Activists and Sue’s is the first story in the book. Both of us regret that we were unable to place it in Sue’s hands before she died. She took a keen interest in our project saying it was a history that needed to be told. She was always helpful to me in suggesting publishers and general advice about the book as we were developing it. Sue was very generous with her time. I also used to see Sue when she came to swim at Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre or in our local shops. Sue was always ready to engage in a lengthy erudite conversation from a political perspective. She will be sorely missed by the 78ers and women from the Women’s Movement. Hers was a life well spent in attempting to right the wrongs of society and I will miss her informative conversations. ACON’s ageing initiative, the LOVE Project, invites you to the inaugural LOVE Social Celebration. Hosted by Verushka Darling, you will enjoy a three-course meal with beer and wines and entertainment. When: 6.30-10.30pm Tuesday 18 October 2022, Upstairs Beresford, 354 Bourke Street, Surry Hills. Theme: Colour My World. Dress: Fabulous with a dash of colour. Tickets: $40pp, Russ Gluyas 9206 2017  https://www.loveproject.org.au/love_social_celebration The LOVE Social Celebration is proudly supported by Dowson Turco Lawyers, City of Sydney and Seniors Rights Service. 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. You can also post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order, contact Robyn Kennedy. 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 Calendar of Events Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 2 October (first Sunday of each month) Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – 7 October to 6 November 2022, see website for details Newcastle Pride Festival - Newcastle, NSW | HUNTERhunter First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 15 October 2022, by Zoom ACON’s LOVE Social Celebration – 6.30-10.30pm, Tuesday 18 October 2022, Upstairs Beresford, 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills, tickets $40: https://www.loveproject.org.au/love_social_celebration Tamworth Pride Fair Day – 9am-2pm, Saturday 29 October 2022, Bicentennial Park, entry via Kable Avenue Tamworth Pride After Party – 7pm-late, Saturday 29 October 2022, Wests Diggers Club Shepparton Out in the Open Festival – 31 October to 13 November 2022 http://outintheopen.org.au/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022 http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - August 2022

View this email in your browser August 2022 In this August edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: SGLMG 78ers Committee on Registering for the 2023 Mardi Gras Parade Robert French and Diane Minnis on Bus tour with Sydney Pride pioneers! Rebbell Barnes on 78ers 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party Robyn Kennedy on EuroPride 2022 in Belgrade – 12-18 September Krista Schade on Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November Toby Zoates’ review of Sydney Buries Its Past at the Tin Sheds Diane Minnis on Printed protest: graphic activism from the Australian Queer Archives Diane Minnis’ review of Queer at the National Gallery of Victoria Robert French with 40 Years On: ADB Report on Discrimination and Homosexuality How to get your copy of CAMP Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists Information from NSW Health on Monkeypox Prevention and Treatment How to donate to Appeals for Northern Rivers and Ukraine Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on Get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 10 September 2022, by Zoom. And our next Social Lunch is at 12pm, Sunday 4 September, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au.   Diane Minnis First Mardi Gras Inc. has entered an exciting new event in Sydney World Pride’s Pride Amplified program – a fringe festival with events for and by our community during the Sydney World Pride and Mardi Gras Festivals in February and March 2023. We are running bus tours of the route and key sites of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras! The bus tours will be on 23, 24, 27 and 28 February, with two tours a day from 10am-12pm and 1-3pm. Tours will start and finish at Taylor Square, Darlinghurst and will cost $20 or $10 concession. The title of the event is slanted towards overseas visitors to Sydney World Pride who may not know about the first Mardi Gras and its significance. But we expect the tour to have broad appeal to both visitors and locals. Here is some of our promo material. Join the 78ers, the activists who fought back against Police in 1978, for a unique bus adventure touring significant historical sites from the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The tour will include commentary and talks outside the bus at key sites, following the route of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. You will hear from activists who took part in the parade on 24 June 1978, and the Drop the Charges protest campaign that followed.   Robert French and Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member and Co-Chair First Mardi Gras Inc. organised a very successful 40th Anniversary Cocktail Party in 2018. Many of you would have enjoyed it! Well, we are planning to do that again for the upcoming 45th Anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. While details have not yet been finalised, keep the evening of Thursday 23 February 2023 free! Looking at the Sydney World Pride (SWP) and Mardi Gras Festival Calendar below, Thursday 23 February is the day before the SWP Opening Concert and two days before the Mardi Gras Parade. So get yourself to Sydney in time for our fabulous 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party on Thursday 23 February 2023 and look out for information on how to get your tickets.   Rebbell Barnes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member It’s time for EuroPride 2022 to take place and I will be there, representing InterPride. After years of fighting for the equality of the LGBTI+ community in the region, Belgrade will host EuroPride from 12-18 September, making it a milestone for the LGBTI+ community in the western Balkans. The capital of Serbia will be the first city in southeast Europe, and the first city outside the European Economic Area, to host a major event for the pan-European LGBTI+ community. Belgrade invites people to join EuroPride in September and show their solidarity with the long-lasting struggle of the LGBTI+ community in the Balkans. If you're coming you need to register here (using password bilbao2019).   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The Rainbow on the Plains Festival in Hay is re-launching in 2022, after two years of delays due to Covid. In the past, 78ers have led our parade, and on behalf of the organisers I would like to extend an invitation for your organisation and members to head up our parade once again. This year the festival will be held from Friday November 25 to Sunday November 27. The parade will be held at midday on Saturday. Full festival info can be found on our Facebook and Instagram pages or at www.rainbowontheplains.com.au. There is no entry fee for your organisation, as those who have paved the way for every Pride celebration since 1978.   Krista Schade Rainbow on the Plains Festival Committee Member   If you want to join other 78ers in Hay, contact Helen Gollan on hcg78er@yahoo.com. An exhibition at The Tin Sheds Gallery, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, Sydney University titled Sydney Buries Its Past includes posters from the archives, ephemera, photos, installations, videos and films. The exigencies of contemporary life contribute to the "forgetting" of much history: the ever-changing cityscape with its growth and changing styles of architecture; rapid news cycles’; ever hungry consumer capitalism moving on to the next fashionable product; conservative governments which don't want protests and activism remembered. Neo-liberal capitalism wants all existence to be at the mercy of the market, no community needs or heritage values are to stand in the way of profit. Neoliberalism also insists government is only there to support big business, whose marketplace will take care of everything, jobs, infrastructure, and organisation. Government is not there to safeguard the "people", services are user pays; there is no society, only the individual competing for survival with his family. The housing needs of the lower income class are cruelly sacrificed to the greed for profit along with the destruction of communities. This is the undercurrent of the show at The Tin Sheds Gallery, which insists on remembering Sydney of the 20th Century, its heritage architecture; the community spaces; and the protests to protect them and the rights of the city's citizens. The Tin Sheds gallery itself has replaced the old Tin Sheds workshops where many posters of support and protest were made. And these posters help us to remember the Sheds and those struggles: LGBTQI Rights, Women's Rights, Koori Rights, Prisoners' Rights, Environmental protections, Housing, Shelter and Health needs etc. From the beginning of colonial invasion in 1788, Sydney first buried the Indigenous Australians' country and culture, then continuously built and then buried, built and buried till there is little of heritage value existent, only a skyline of cranes erecting ever taller skyscrapers. An example of heritage destruction would be The Regent Cinema that was on George Street, a cultural space much loved by the Sydney Community, a meeting place, not just of heritage value. It was destroyed and replaced with a ubiquitous apartment tower by a greedy capitalist because there was more money in it. On its footprint is now a shopping arcade called Regent Place as if that will satisfy anyone complaining. Under neoliberalism nothing is safe, the Town Hall, the Queen Victoria Building, the Opera House, over time all is transient when profit is uncaringly sought. Sydney might bury its past but it won't bury our memories nor our ongoing struggles. The 78ers is a case in point. If this old group of activists didn't arrange seminars that educate the public, and attend many protest rallies with banners and flyers, then their actions in 1978 would be forgotten. Ephemera such as posters, flyers, banners, newsletters are important historical documents and should be archived as such. The Show runs from July 14 to August 20, Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm, Saturday 12 to 5 pm. Google the program, as film screenings are on offer at night also. The Tin Sheds Gallery 148 City Rd Darlington.   Toby Zoates 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member It was a real pleasure to finally see the inside of the fabulous Victorian Pride Centre on my recent trip to Melbourne. They have an exhibition which has just finished – Printed protest: graphic activism from the Australian Queer Archives. The exhibition featured over 100 posters, banners and placards from the start of gay liberation, through decriminalisation and the AIDS crisis, to marriage equality and trans rights. It was great to see some old faves. No visit to the Pride Centre would be complete without popping in to the Archives office where I found First Mardi Gras Inc. Associate Member Gary Jaynes working on his weekly volunteer day. The office is also the home of the International Gay Solidarity banner from the first Mardi Gras.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair   I was also able to visit the QUEER exhibition at National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) which closes on 21 August. QUEER is a very eclectic selection from the NGV Collection of artworks by queer artists and featuring queer figures as well as icons and allies of our community. Works include painting, drawing, photography, decorative arts, fashion, video, sculpture, and design. Included in the exhibition are works featuring reportedly queer historical figures, both modern and ancient. I found this aspect of the exhibition jarring and it did not hold together for me. The NGV however state that: QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection includes approximately 400 artworks from antiquity to the present day, making the exhibition the most historically expansive thematic presentation of its kind ever presented by an Australian art institution. It was great to see works by 78ers David McDiarmid and Vivienne Binns included and to see the iconic photo of my Radicalesbian sisters (and also 78ers) Jenny Pausacker and Sue Jackson used as the key image for the exhibition.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair When the then recently elected NSW Premier, Neville Wran, tabled the Anti-Discrimination Bill in Parliament in November 1976, homosexuality had been included as a category of protection under the Act. Unfortunately, the Liberal/National Party majority in the upper house had knocked out this provision but had allowed for the newly created Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB) to ‘carry out investigations and research’ into homosexuality. The government was forced to accept the amendments in order to get the remainder of the Act through the Parliament, the first such enactment in Australia. The Board subsequently hired Denise Thompson to carry out the research, much of it the basis of her 1985 book: Flaws in the Social Fabric: Homosexuals and society in Sydney. By 1982, a Report and Recommendations had been ready for some time but the ADB wisely held up its presentation while the Parliament, between late 1981 and early 1982, was engaged in the fruitless debates, and failure, on the reform of the NSW Crimes Act in relation to gay male sexual behaviour. On 5 July 1982, just over forty years ago, the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board launched its ground breaking and much anticipated Report on Discrimination and Homosexuality. It recommended that homosexuality be a protected category in the field of education, the provision of housing, of employment, and in the provision of goods and services, and it called for changes to the Crimes Act to decriminalise gay male sexual behaviour. Wran, in presenting the Report to the Labor caucus, left no doubt that the Recommendations had his full support, and that he wanted to implement all of them. It, at last, was a positive sign from Wran, especially after the failure of the various homosexual law reform Bills, of which Wran really could’ve been more forceful in support, despite the flaws in the Egan and Unsworth Bills. He took this stance despite the objections of some of the Catholic members of the caucus, and of Gerry Gleeson the powerful, devoutly Catholic, head of the Premier’s Department. Gleeson’s stymying role throughout the whole homosexual law reform campaign has yet to be fully disclosed. Wran is said often to respond to Gleeson and caucus members with the tart reply: “Oh yes, and what does the Cardinal say?”. A public community meeting at the old Sydney Gay Centre on 27 July, called for the full implementation of the ADB Report Recommendations. So, for the next four months, through letters, lobbying and demonstrations, the major push, by Gay Rights Lobby (GRL), Gay Solidarity Group (GSG) and of the other 20 or so community groups that made up the Homosexual Law Reform Coalition (HLRC), was for the inclusion of Homosexuality as a category of protection within the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act. For the moment, lobbying for reform of the NSW Crimes Act was relegated to second place. The sheer physical bulk of the Report (at 652 pages!) was an advantage. It appeared ‘authoritative’; you could slam it down on a parliamentarian’s desk (gently!) knowing full well that the sheer size of it meant that few Parliamentarians had actually read it in full. Most had read only the Executive Summary. But, the question still remained, would the Labor caucus agree to Wran’s wishes to introduce a Bill, and, if so, how would the Opposition vote?   Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member The situation with monkeypox in NSW is changing rapidly. Many of the cases are in men who have sex with men and have been acquired overseas, but some cases in NSW are likely to have been acquired in Australia. Monkeypox spreads through close skin-to-skin physical contact with someone who has symptoms, such as when you are having sex, or by direct contact with contaminated objects, such as bedding, towels or clothes. Symptoms include: rashes, lesions or sores, particularly in areas that are hard to see such as the genitals, anus or anal area or on the face, arms and legs ulcers, lesions or sores in the mouth fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and/or exhaustion. If you have symptoms, self-isolate and seek medical attention immediately. Call your GP, local sexual health clinic or the NSW Sexual Health Infolink on 1800 451 624. NSW Health Monkeypox Fact Sheet.   NSW Health 78ers Robert Farlow, Christine Devine and their partners have lost everything in the floods. They and other LGBTIQ community members need our support in this extremely challenging time for them.   Tropical Fruits Floods Fundraiser Tropical Fruits are our queer family in the Northern Rivers. We have all seen the terrible impact of the floods. If you want to know more about them and what they do, go to: https://tropicalfruits.org.au/. If you are able to support their fundraiser campaign, go to Tropical Fruits Flood Fundraiser. 78er Barbara Karpinski was ejected by NSW Police from the stands of the SCG during the Mardi Gras Parade – apparently because she was displaying a hand-drawn pro-Ukrainian sign as a protest.   Support Displaced LGBTIQ Ukrainians The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration needs your help to: Ensure LGBTIQ Ukrainians can access safe longer-term housing options Support partner organisations in neighbouring countries to deliver services to displaced LGBTIQ people.  Donate to LGBTIQ refugees (oramrefugee.org) 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 Calendar of Events Sydney Buries Its Past Exhibition – 14 July to 20 August, Tuesday to Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday 12- 5 pm, Tin Sheds Gallery 148 City Rd Darlington First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 4 September (first Sunday of each month) Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 8 to 12 September 2022 https://www.bhfestival.com/home First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 10 September 2022, by Zoom Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to 7 October to 6 November 2022, see website for details Newcastle Pride Festival - Newcastle, NSW | HUNTERhunter ACON Parramatta Pride Picnic – 10:30am-7pm, Saturday 22 October 2022, River Foreshore Reserve Parramatta Pride Picnic | Facebook Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022 http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride. For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - July 2022

View this email in your browser July 2022 In this July edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Barry Charles on Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History Bill Ashton on 78ers Mardi Gras 44th Anniversary Drinks Robyn Kennedy on CAMP Australia’s Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists Diane Minnis on the Human Progress Flag for the Mardi Gras 44th anniversary Chips Mackinolty on the Darwin Lunch for Mardi Gras 44th Anniversary Robyn Kennedy on the Establishment of Australian Pride Organisers Association Diane Minnis on forums in Queer Sydney: Powerhouse Late x Vivid Ideas Diane Minnis on CARR’s Fight for LGBTI+ Rights! Demo Statement from InterPride on the Oslo LGBTQIA+ Nightclub Shootings How to donate to Appeals for Northern Rivers and Ukraine Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is 4pm, Saturday 30 July 2022, by Zoom. And our next Social Lunch is 12pm, Sunday 7 August, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au.   Diane Minnis History! Boring huh? I remember dry dates and momentous events from centuries past. But at least in the last century or so we have moving images to see and voices to hear. And there has been a shift towards oral history (previously mistrusted against documents), being more appreciated. For those of us who have lived through the last 70 years of social revolution and liberation politics, particularly for LGBTIQ+ people, our personal stories and experiences illuminate the changes that have occurred. It is my experience that current generations want to hear these stories and get some sense of what it was like in the 50s, 60s and 70s for our community. But how to communicate this attractively? One of First Mardi Gras Inc.’s contributions to Pride Month 2022 was our Salon78 forum on zoom – Celebrating Rainbow History. A large number tuned in to our on-line event on 25 June 2022 to hear speakers Garry Wotherspoon (author and historian), Rebecca Jennings (author and academic) and Hannah McElhinney (broadcaster and influencer) discuss the history of the queer community and ways of telling our story. Invigorating and exciting were my words to describe the contributions. Very engaging was Hannah, who with a large number of young collaborators from all over the world has created RainbowHistoryClass.com. Specifically directed at the instant gratification generations, it goes out on TikTok. I am of a generation who doesn’t want to sign-up to anymore “new tech” but found the extracts of their presentations really fun and informative. They take a brief incident or colloquial phrase from the past and then quickly (in less than 4 minutes) describe it’s meaning and how it had significance. Engaging and inciting further exploration. So, if you are brave enough to embrace that platform, you will find it entertaining. Garry Wotherspoon has commented: “It's good to talk to a younger generation with interest in our communities' histories, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the media they use gets to a far wider audience than we could (9 million likes on their website) and how they do it taps in very well to how a non-academic audience 'takes in' history. Also, it's interesting to see what they see are the important milestones in LGBTQI+ history and report on (for us, it's just our past). And we are in a symbiotic relationship – the old guard (academics) do the groundwork, and the new guard 'spread the word'. United we stand.” All in all, another excellent event in the Salon78 series. Tune in next time on Zoom!   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member By 5pm Sunday 26th June 78ers, partners and guests began arriving to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the first Mardi Gras. We had a good roll up with nearly 40 people over the course of the evening. To get the party started Kinsella’s played background music from the 1970s and 80s above the chatter and clinking of glasses in the art deco Chapel Bar. I was assisted on the front table by Maree Marsh as we greeted members and guests, writing out name tags…‘I know you’. Rebbell Barnes and Diane Minnis sold raffle tickets and Treasurer Richard Thode got our new payment square going so everyone could tap their cards to pay. At 5.45pm it was food service with canapés. At the end of service all plates were empty, bon appetite was had by all! Special thanks to Garry Case for handing around the plates. Then it was time for drawing the raffle. Congratulations to those had winning tickets included a cook book and other nice prizes. Ken Davis, First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair spoke about the importance of the anniversary and thanked all who attended and the event organisers. Committee Member Robyn Kennedy then spoke on the shootings in a LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Oslo – deliberately during Pride celebrations. A big thank you to Kinsela’s management and staff for all their support and welcoming us to their venue. Thanks again to all who came to celebrate our 44th Anniversary Drinks at Kinselas, take care, till the next time.     Bill Ashton 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The Pride movement in Australia began with the founding of CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) in Sydney in 1970. CAMP’s momentum spread quickly to other Australian states, fuelling the first LGBTQI rights marches and firing up political campaigns for changes to oppressive laws and systems. CAMP: Australia’s pioneer homosexual rights activists brings to life the vital role that CAMP activists played. They inspired and initiated a social movement that continues to this day. Individual members of CAMP from across Australia now tell their own stories and highlight their lived experiences. They speak of the life-changing support their community offered, at a time when lesbians and gay men were despised by much of society. They recall the excitement of protest and change. They pay tribute to individuals who drove those changes. Beautifully presented hard back illustrated with 35 commissioned portrait photographs and rare archival images Publish date: August 2022 $49.95 per copy plus postage Limited print run Pre-order your copy now from pridepublish@gmail.com.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member To mark the 44th anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sydney WorldPride organised a human Progress Flag on the steps of the Opera House. On Friday 24 June – a cold and windy day – 1,111 people joined together in the flag to welcome the world to Sydney for WorldPride 2023. A number of people travelled from regional areas and interstate to attend. I was honoured to be asked to speak as a 78er at the event and here is what I said: I pay my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and to their elders, past present and emerging. Today we mark the 44th anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday 24 June 1978. Let’s recognise that LGBTIQ+ activism in Australia didn’t start in 1978…. it started with the first activist organisations in 1969/70. But the difference between police harassment and arrests in early 70s demonstrations and the first Mardi Gras was the scale and brutality of arrests. And the massive campaign that followed. Let us remember: 53 people arrested on 24 June 1978 – some badly bashed Over three months of the Drop the Charges campaign – 178 activists were arrested On Monday 26th June, the Sydney Morning Herald published the names, addresses and occupations of those arrested – on page 3 – with devastating consequences. Let us also remember…the huge upsurge of activism that followed: May 1979 – the NSW Summary Offences Act was repealed 30 June 1979 – 3,000 people at the second Mardi Gras, with no arrests! 1982 amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act to include homosexuality 1984 homosexual law reform in NSW. Let’s remember the 44 years of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade – a beacon to LGBTIQ people everywhere – and why it is so important to continue….and who would have thought that we’d still be here!   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair It's a date I've quietly and privately marked for decades by myself: a few tears and a few laughs. Silent in many ways since the Mardi Gras in Sydney moved to February/March for warmer weather rather than that cold, cold night 44 years ago. And relatively cold nights, too, remembering that violent night while working out bush, from central Arnhem Land to desert country. Memories so far away in time and place, sleeping on a swag under the stars, so far from the lights of Oxford Street and The Cross. Not sure why I called for a lunch this year to revive memories. 44 years on. So much has changed for the better, but a long way to go, as we acknowledged on that day, as has been in the streets of unlikely places like Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs and so many other regional centres around the country in recent times. But still a long way to go. And then of course, what we saw in Oslo and the USA so close to that 44th anniversary. In any case, I retold to some of my Darwin friends the events of that night and the following days and months. Everyone who came recognised the importance of those days 44 years ago, and thanked the 78ers! A major tribute to my parents, Judy and John. In 1966 when we were in London at the time, they introduced me to a gay bloke who went through law with Dad at Melbourne Uni. Mum and Dad made it really clear to me and my sister that Peter was gay – not that it was called that then, but that it was just fine. (To be honest, I was more interested in the Picasso print Pete had on the wall of his solicitor's office!) Then, in the aftermath of 1978 – something I only discovered in recent times – that a bunch of people arrested that night and afterwards visited them for legal and personal support and advice, a cuppa coffee or a wine. At least one of them still suffering from physical injuries. Let alone the emotional injuries that were being endured. They were amazing parents. Never mentioned it to me. Just something they did. It was not mere tolerance, but solidarity. Like mum writing notes to school authorising me to take a day off to attend pro-abortion demonstrations in the city – not to mention anti-Vietnam war demos!   78er Chips Mackinolty Oceania Pride was established two years ago with the intention of bringing together Pride organisers and allies in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. The vast geography of the region, covering seven time zones and crossing the international date line, has posed significant difficulties in finding meeting times that are suitable. The definition of our region was adopted from InterPride as the founding base of the group was InterPride members. In its new Strategic Plan, InterPride has discontinued previous regional definitions and all countries are now free to define their own groupings which may be geographic or linked by culture or language. Acknowledging the constraints of meeting as Oceania, Pride, organisers in Australia are proposing to incorporate as an association open to Pride organisers across Australia. Being incorporated will allow: representation of Australian Pride organisers on the InterPride Board us to seek funding to support regional conferences and Pride events advocate more effectively for the rights of LGBTQI+ communities across the Oceania region. We will continue to support the struggle for decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Pacific Islands as well as the broader rights of our communities. It is noted that from 2023 InterPride will be funding a Pride Development Officer to build Pride in the Pacific Islands and our new group will aim to support that project as much as possible.    Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member On 16 June a number of 78ers attended, spoke and performed at Queer Sydney: Powerhouse Late x Vivid Ideas. The evening was curated by Johnny Allen, C Moore Hardy and Dino Dimitriadis and presented by Vivid Ideas and Powerhouse. The evening was billed as “our celebration of Sydney’s LGBTQIA+ history and explore the lineage from the original Mardi Gras 78ers to now, before ending the night with a little ‘Disco Conversion Therapy’ and a big ol' party.” It was great that Vivid Sydney Festival Director Gill Minervini has included this celebration of so many facets of Sydney’s vibrant LGBTQIA+ history in the festival and her history as Mardi Gras Creative Director showed through! There were films, photos, a history of radical music and a fashion parade featuring 78er Fabian Lo Schiavo amongst others. But my focus was on two of the forums on offer. From Camp to Gay to Queer a Continuum or a Disconnection? – Panel discussion with Dennis Altman, C Moore Hardy and Dino Dimitriadis, moderated by Shirleene Robinson. Dennis Altman opened from Camp perspective and his forceful first point was against the misconception that LGBTIQ+ activist started with the first Mardi Gras. Dennis spoke about the early 1970s perception that drastic change was needed, though there wasn’t a single vision of the future. He said: “We have achieved more than any of us believed possible.” And Dennis concluded with “It is not the liberation of one group without the liberation of all.” Photographer C Moore Hardy, representing what was then called the gay world, spoke about her mission to photograph lesbians at their venues and events. C Moore spoke passionately about the need for lesbian visibility and noted that today, many events are transient and offered or advertised online rather than regular events at venues. Dino Dimitriadis, a thirty-something theatre director, multidisciplinary creative producer and curator, spoke from the queer end of the continuum. Dino is keen to have different voices from the queer community and to “put intersectionality front and centre”. In his productions Dino tries to include lesbians, trans men and non-binary people as well as gay men and trans women, to fully represent our community. And in the Q&A session, Dino made the point that “visibility is activism” as is allyship Qtopia Sydney – An introduction to Qtopia Sydney, a permanent queer museum and space opening on Oxford Street in 2023, which will celebrate Sydney’s queer history and acknowledge the impact of AIDS. Panel discussion with Patron Michael Kirby, Chair David Polson, and guests Shane Sturgiss and Katherine Wolfgramme, moderated by Jeremy Fernandez. Perched on very uncomfortable stools, we heard the speakers led through a series of questions by moderator Jeremy Fernandez. But given the recent announcement that the City of Sydney had given $300,000 to Qtopia, we were really there to find out what the museum was all about. Chair David Polson was diagnosed with HIV early in that pandemic and took part in 20 years of HIV drug trials under Professor David Cooper. When Cooper died, Polson was inspired to create an AIDS museum. Patron Michael Kirby advocated for an Oppression and Persecution section to be added to educate the general community. Trans advocate Katherine Wolfgramme is also keen to educate the broader community and is a Qtopia Advisory Panel Member. Shane Sturgiss, CEO of BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation, spoke about the non-acceptance of young Indigenous LGBTIQ+ people in post-invasion culture and their poor mental health. He supports museums like Qtopia as a positive for his community. One glaring omission was any mention of lesbians. Even in the HIV context, many lesbians supported gay men through Ankali and other services, nursed at St Vincent’s and took part in AIDS demonstrations. There were no questions from the audience allowed at this forum….but Polson and Qtopia CEO Greg Fisher spoke to the SGLMG 78ers Committee meeting on 22 June.  We asked about the omission of lesbians in the discussion and the lack of lesbian representation on their Board and Advisory Panel. The answer was that they are always expanding their Board and Advisory Panel with “bi, lesbian and straight people”. And it seems Qtopia has heard the message and now invited some lesbians to join their Board.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair On Saturday 25 June Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) held the Fight for LGBTI+ Rights! Demo. A couple of hundred people attended as well as half a dozen 78ers carrying our banner. We heard speeches on the steps of Town Hall from a Greens Councillor, CARR members and it was great hearing from two representatives from School Strike for Climate. We then marched through city streets, Pitt Street Mall  and back to the Town Hall. As this was the day after the 44th Anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a 78ers speaker was called for and I volunteered. As well as mentioning the impact the first Mardi Gras on those involved and the upsurge of activism that followed, I spoke about LGBTIQ+ legislative reforms in Australia. I noted that only our public activism, alliances with unions and other social justice movements, and Labor in power have produced LGBTIQ+ reforms and cited a list of examples. Though marriage equality did come during a Liberal/National government, the voluntary postal plebiscite inflicted much damage on our community. The score of reforms would be Labor: 100+ vs. Lib/Nat: 1 (grudgingly). The part of my speech, about Labor's role in legislative reforms, was criticised by one of the CARR speakers. We don’t expect reforms to be handed to us on a platter by Labor governments, without public mobilisation. Successful mass action means bringing together people with different political allegiances, around clear demands that enable unity. ALP or Greens or Independent or socialist supporters should feel a welcome part of queer rights actions. And just to follow up the events of 1978: Darlinghurst Police were well known as a law unto themselves at the time. In May 1979, the NSW Summary Offences Act, which gave Police very wide powers to harass and arrest people, was repealed after our massive Drop the Charges campaign. In 1982, grass roots action, along with research and lobbying, led to an amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act, making it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of homosexuality In 1984, following a long campaign by activists, Premier Wran presented a Private Members Bill to amend the Crimes Act in NSW to decriminalise sexual acts between consenting adult males. Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair InterPride is deeply saddened by the vicious attack on fellow LGBTQIA+ members in Oslo, Norway. At least two people were murdered, and 21 others were injured in an incident at the famous LGBTQIA+ club known as “London Pub” at 1:15 AM local time (Oslo) on Saturday, 25 June. Investigators have confirmed that this was a hate crime. Members of InterPride around the world feel disbelief and profound grief. Unfortunately, attacks motivated by hatred have become frighteningly frequent during Pride season, including at Pride events. InterPride is also heartbroken to hear that Oslo Pride was forced to cancel its Pride celebrations because of this tragedy. These celebrations were to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Norway decriminalizing homosexuality. Coming together for Pride is vital for the global LGBTQIA+ community to celebrate our identities and fight for our rights. Millions of LGBTQIA+ community members worldwide are facing violence. We have a shared responsibility to stand by and support one another and work together to make the world a safe place to be our authentic selves. InterPride stands united in solidarity with Oslo Pride and the global LGBTQIA+ community during this challenging time. Our hearts go out to the families and friends who have lost loved ones through this act of hatred. We will continue to fight for the right to be seen and heard and for equality worldwide.   InterPride Statement 78ers Robert Farlow, Christine Devine and their partners have lost everything in the floods. They and other LGBTIQ community members need our support in this extremely challenging time for them.   Tropical Fruits Floods Fundraiser Tropical Fruits are our queer family in the Northern Rivers. We have all seen the terrible impact of the floods. If you want to know more about them and what they do, go to: https://tropicalfruits.org.au/. If you are able to support their fundraiser campaign, go to Tropical Fruits Flood Fundraiser. Donate $5.00 – the price of a coffee, or maybe you could add a zero! 78er Barbara Karpinski was ejected by NSW Police from the stands of the SCG during the Mardi Gras Parade, apparently because she was displaying a hand-drawn pro-Ukrainian sign.   Support Displaced LGBTIQ Ukrainians Since Russia launched its devastating invasion of Ukraine, over two million Ukrainians have fled the country. The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration needs your help to: Ensure LGBTIQ Ukrainians can access safe longer-term housing options Support partner organisations in neighbouring countries to deliver services to displaced LGBTIQ people. Donate to LGBTIQ refugees (oramrefugee.org) 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Please use your name as the reference for your deposit. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. Calendar of Events Bendigo Queer Film Festival – 15-17 July 2022 Home - Bendigo Queer Film Festival First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 30 July 2022, by Zoom First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 7 August, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 8 to 12 September 2022 https://www.bhfestival.com/home Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to 7 October to 6 November 2022, see website for details Newcastle Pride Festival - Newcastle, NSW | HUNTERhunter ACON Parramatta Pride Picnic – 10:30am-7pm, Saturday 22 October 2022, River Foreshore Reserve Parramatta Pride Picnic | Facebook Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022 http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride. For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - June 2022

View this email in your browser June 2022 In this June edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: How to join the Human Progress Flag for the 24 June Mardi Gras anniversary Barry Charles on the Unveiling of Rise: The Bondi Memorial Diane Minnis on speakers for Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History – Saturday 25 June Bill Ashton on 78ers Mardi Gras Anniversary Drinks – Sunday 26 June Barry Charles on Renewing your First Mardi Gras Inc. Membership Barbara Karpinski on her Ejection by Police from the SCG Ken Davis on Vale Moss Cass CARR Fight for LGBTI+ Rights! Demo – Saturday 25 June Pride in Protest Queer Liberation Conference – 25-26 June How to donate to Appeals for Northern Rivers and Ukraine Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on Get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. Our Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History is at 5.30pm, Saturday 25 June 2022, by Zoom. And the 78ers 44th Anniversary Drinks is at 5pm, Sunday 26 June 2022, Kinselas, Taylor Square. RSVP for both events: info@78ers.org.au Diane Minnis Friday 24 June marks the 44th anniversary of the first-ever Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Next year, Sydney will become the first city in the southern hemisphere to host WorldPride. To officially call LGBTQIA+ people of the world to Sydney, on 24 June we will unite to form a Human Progress Flag. All participants will be given a very special coloured Sydney WorldPride t-shirt for the photo, which you can keep. Come dressed in black so that you can put the coloured t-shirt on top. If you can join us, please RSVP using the code COMMUNITY here on Moshtix: https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/welcome-the-world-to-sydney/140740   Human Progress Flag – Welcoming the World to Sydney – Opera House Steps 11am to 1pm, Friday 24 June 2022 Wet weather plan will be confirmed via email if necessary   Let me know if you have any questions – and I can be contacted by text on the day at 0414 823 930.   Matt Akersten Pride and Diversity Officer, Sydney World Pride At 10.30am, Saturday 4 June 2022, a crowd of around 500 assembled on the cliff tops at Marks Park, Tamarama for the dedication of the memorial to the murders of gay men and anti-gay violence in the 70s, 80 and 90s. There and elsewhere. A joint project of the ACON Outreach program and Waverley Council; the memorial beautifully references the cliffs and instead of falling away the metaphor is of steps rising above the hate, negligence and indifference we faced and many in our LGBTIQ+ family still face daily. This article is both political and personal. I, myself have survived more than one gay bashing. The rocks and fisherman’s path to Tamarama from South Bondi was well known as a gay beat. It had been since the 1950s. I frequented it many times from 1971-1975. Even then it had a reputation of great danger as the Surf Club held dances and young straight alcohol fueled men were close by. Still it was very busy for a gay meeting spot and so had a great attraction. The threat of bashings was something we lived with in order meet our brothers and connect with our tribe. The danger and the violence grew worse into the 80s and Marks Park was difficult to get to and away from without a car. So, I moved to the growing gay club scene around Oxford Street. At the ceremony on June 4th there were moving contributions from journalist Greg Callahan who spoke of the efforts of our community to see that those who died were remembered and that these things never happen in any form again. Here are some extracts from his remarks.   “People have asked me, why the late 1980s? Why did the violence ramp up so dramatically then? A combination of factors. The HIV/AIDS epidemic had increased the stigma against gay men in particular, ably assisted by the Grim Reaper fear campaign on television. The other factor – paradoxically – was the rise of Sydney as an international gay mecca: with the Mardi Gras now attracting 400,000 or more spectators, with Oxford Street now the Golden Gay Mile, lined by vibrant bars, cafes and saunas, the LGBTQ community had a public profile like never before. The bashers and the killers knew where to come. “One of the trademarks of a gay hate crime is its relentless, cold-blooded cruelty. If a robbery happens during an attack, it’s almost an afterthought. It’s the brand of hate stemming from prejudice and ignorance, and it can spread, cancer like, among those susceptible to its message. A message of hate that turned young men into killers. “We remember: “Good men. Young gay men with their lives all ahead of them. “Men like John Russell, whose coming out story pretty much paralleled that of the blossoming of Oxford Street from the early 1980s. “Men like Ross Warren, a weather man with WIN TV in Wollongong, who was looking forward to a long career in television. And men like Kritchikorn Rattanajurathaporn, a Thai man who had only been in Australia for about four months. “And then there was Gilles Mattaini, a French national who disappeared somewhere along the pathway below in September 1985. “And they all died here for one reason. They died because they were gay.”   There was also a forthright contribution from Councillor Paula Masselos, Mayor of Waverley. The council has driven the project to design and build the memorial over several years. Here are some of her words:   “Although it has taken quite some time, we are here today to say there is not room in society for such truly hateful attitudes and actions. A history of violence that is no longer, or ever was, acceptable. “Rise is our public monument dedicated to the recognition of the recent history of gay and transphobic hate crimes that occurred in Bondi and along the east coast of Australia. “It was delivered in partnership and heart by Waverley Council, ACON and UAP design studio, with involvement, enthusiasm and support from community members including  the families and friends of the victims survivors of gay hate crimes film and documentary makers artists, project managers, landscape architects former police detectives and investigative journalists and private detectives. “Designed by John Nicholson and UAP, Rise responds beautifully to the project’s guiding principles of remembrance, diversity, inclusion, justice and acceptance. “Each of its six sculpted stone layers represents one of the six bands in the pride flag. “The memorial’s compositional arrangement was informed by the layers of the nearby cliffs that descend towards the ocean but re-imagined as a staircase flipped to ascend towards the horizon; the act of climbing inverting the act of falling, a pathway away from a history of violence. “For individuals who lost loved ones to these crimes and were deprived of both justice and recognition there is deep pain that remains. “Rise: The Bondi Memorial serves as a place of quiet reflection where we can recognize this devastating history together as a community whilst marking the forward-moving social progress made through ongoing changing attitudes."   I recommend a visit for all who are able.   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member As part of our Sydney Pride Festival commemorations this year, First Mardi Gras Inc. is presenting an online Salon78 forum – Celebrating Rainbow History. In this Salon78 forum we will have presentations by Hannah McElhinney and Rudy Rigg from Rainbow History Class, which produces short fun Tik Tok clips on our history. Check out: Home | RainbowHistoryClass. Authors Rebecca Jennings and 78er Garry Wotherspoon will talk about more traditional written representations of our history – based on documents and oral resources. Garry’s publications include Being Different: Nine Gay Men Remember and Gay Sydney: A History. Some of the books Rebecca has written are Unnamed Desires: A Sydney lesbian history and Out and About: Sydney's Lesbian Social Scene 1960s - 1980s (with 78er Sandra MacKay). We will discuss the best ways of preserving our communities’ history and getting it across to younger generations. To register for this online event at 5.30pm on Saturday 25 June, email info@78ers.org.au to receive the Zoom link.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Join us for our Drinks to celebrate the 44th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras from 5pm on Sunday 26 June. All 78ers, partners and supporters are welcome. We are trying a new venue – Kinselas at Taylor Square (383 Bourke Street). It ticks all the boxes, being on the ground floor, easy to access and open to the street for fresh air. First Mardi Gras Inc. will be providing finger food and bar prices are very reasonable (Beer $7.70 schooner, Wine $8 glass). We will also conduct a raffle on the night. If you want to stay on, Bistro meals are good value. Kinselas have been lovely to deal with and are looking forward to hosting 78ers for this anniversary event. Let us know if you can come along to Kinselas at 5pm on Sunday 26 June, email info@78ers.org.au. Bill Ashton 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member   The Sydney Pride Festival 2022 – Be Brave, Be Strong, Be You was launched at the Stonewall Hotel on Thursday 2nd June. Sydney Pride Festival will run until 30th June. This year's festival is about empowering each other. Check out the other events in this at Sydney Pride Festival – Sydney Pride Festival 2022. As the years pass we find that the efforts of those who protested and lobbied for gay and lesbian rights in 1978 are more and more appreciated by LGBTIQ community. 78ers are in wide demand for speaking engagements, recalling the challenges of coming out in earlier years. First Mardi Gras Inc. plays a prominent role on the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras elected 78ers Committee. We hold events during the year for our members including social lunches and our Salon78 Forums to discuss past and current issues related to our community. First Mardi Gras Inc. is active in representing our views on current social freedom struggles including opposing proposed anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation. We ask you to join or maintain your involvement in First Mardi Gras Inc. and renew your pride in our history and what we seniors in the LGBTIQ community can still contribute. Associate Membership is encouraged for members of your family, partners, friends or carers. The membership forms are available at: www.78ers.org.au/membership.   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Membership Fees: $10 one year’s Membership $17 two year’s Membership $25 three year’s Membership $5 a year Concession Membership $12 three year’s Concession Membership Direct Deposit:  Email for bank details Please use your name as the reference for direct deposits and email your membership form or confirmation that you have renewed to info@78ers.org.au, or post to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037. There was an honest error in an article in the May newsletter under the by-line of Sue Fletcher, regarding a meeting between Barbara Karpinski and NSW Police. In editing the article, I included a point that the 13 May meeting with Police “had been cancelled as Barbara was taking legal action.” We now understand that this information is incorrect and the meeting was cancelled as Barbara attended with legal support people. I would like to apologise for this error.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair   Barbara Karpinski has replied to the May Newsletter, on June 6. “I would like to correct the facts of the earlier newsletter edition published on 31st May. The police did not cancel the meeting of May 9 at the police headquarters in Surry Hills because I was taking “legal action.” The meeting was cancelled because the Mardi Gras CEO needed to change the date. The cancellation of the 13 May meeting was nothing to do with me taking ‘legal action’ as there has not been any legal action. Given that my ejection was very traumatic I brought legal support people and had informed police of this in writing the week before. I attended the scheduled 9 May meeting with NSW Police and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. I had confirmed my attendance by email with Assistant Commissioner Talbot on 4 May. When I arrived with our legal team from Dowson Turco Lawyers, we were informed that the meeting was cancelled due to Albert Kruger’s need to reschedule. There was a complete breakdown of communication. I arrived at the Surry Hills police HQ at 11.15 am to attend the scheduled 9 May meeting with NSW police and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as I had confirmed my attendance by email with Assistant Commissioner Talbot on 4 May. 78er Peter Murphy also arrived at the same time and I appreciated he had come as he was quite unwell with the flu at the time. There were no other 78ers present. Police informed us that Mardi Gras CEO, Albert Kruger had asked for a reschedule. I had not been notified of the change of dates as Mardi Gras CEO had requested a change of dates to May 13. When Peter and I, and my legal support people arrived, there was some confusion, as there was another meeting on at 12.30 with gay and lesbian community liaison representatives, but the 11.15 meeting to discuss my ejection with Mardi Gras representatives and myself and 78ers had been cancelled. The last-minute cancellation and lack of notification was a schemozzle. The police were apologetic and kindly bought us cups of coffee, green tea, and offered us sandwiches. I was anxious as I am still dealing with the traumatic impact of the accidental ejection, but I came in good faith, hoping for a candid solution-focussed meeting. I had hoped to understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how the ‘mistake’ happened to prevent future problems for others. I was disappointed the meeting was cancelled and there was not consultation. Assistant Commissioner Gelina Talbot, who was there to attend the next meeting, spoke to me briefly in the interim between our arrival and the next meeting. Assistant Commissioner Talbot apologised personally for the events of 5 March and said a ‘mistake’ was made and there had been an internal police investigation. The cancellation of the 13 May meeting was nothing to do with me taking ‘legal action’ as there has not been any legal action. I am keeping all my options open and currently focussing on prioritising my physical and mental health that has been impacted. I still think the LGBTIQ public have a right to know the full facts and hope the details will be made public. I have written to Albert Kruger, as a follow up to the cancelled May 9 meeting, and received an automated message. I just want to add that like many 78ers I suffer from living a lifetime with lived experience of trauma due to the experiences of 1978. It is especially important to me that all interactions with police happen with a trauma-informed framework and that the police and community develop awareness of preventing retraumatisation for 78ers when we interact with the police. All 78ers have a unique way of dealing with this trauma and would love the police and the community to develop better awareness and understanding and improve their policies. I want to set a good example to the new generation in terms of looking after my own mental health. I am hoping we can find a way forward to prevent future police mistakes, noting that although the police did not physically injure me on March 5, the fear, trauma, memories of the past will always be with me, and those flashbacks resurfaced. Given all our traumatic history with the police as a 78er, as many of us have, I have found it challenging and I thank everyone for the supportive communications. I would like to send my good vibes to other 78ers who also feel the trauma of those memories, and like me, must deal with that, in our golden years. I am enthusiastic about creating good mental health outcomes for all GLBTIQA + community and thank everyone for their messages of support. On 5 March, Mardi Gras, it was day nine of the war in Ukraine. Now 20 percent of Ukraine is controlled by Russia. Despite the ejection, I would do the same again; protest war and for freedom, as apathy is not an option. It is all too redolent of the advance of Nazism in Europe. I stand by my right to protest in democratic Australia, and my heart goes out to the Ukrainian population, now displaced and at war. In Russia, protesters are arrested in red square for anti-war posters and even blank signs. I am still in shock in being ordered to leave here and that a person reported my anti-war posters for being “offensive” and the police just ejected me without question. I am looking forward to a future update of full transparency, openness and accountability by Mardi Gras and the NSW police. I hope out of this situation, the police and Mardi gras can improve their policies on safety, cultural understanding, and disability awareness and develop trauma informed protocols. I recently had a birthday, my 21st of course, and made cupcakes with Ukrainian flags. I am currently eating them and to date the police have not confiscated them. Unfortunately, the police have never returned my protest posters with handmade Ukrainian flags.”   78er Barbara Karpinski Dr Moses (Moss) Henry Cass was a socialist and pioneering Minister for the Environment, and later Media, in the Whitlam Labor government from 1972-75. Before he entered federal politics, Moss was a medical doctor and researcher, built Australia’s first heart-lung machine, helped develop open-heart surgery in London and championed abortion law reform. In 1964, Moss helped found the Trade Union Clinic and Research Centre in Melbourne’s west, funded by the meatworkers. As Minister for the Environment, Moss introduced powerful environmental protection legislation and opposed uranium mining. In October 1973, Moss seconded former Liberal prime minister John Gorton's federal parliament resolution in favour of homosexual law reform, which was successful. Although it had no legal effect, this was an important statement. It wasn’t until more than a decade later that we achieved homosexual law reform in NSW.   Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Protesting has pushed back the Religious Discrimination Bill, but we need to go on the offensive to end religious exemptions permitting schools and hospitals to fire LGBTI staff. Community Action for Rainbow Rights A left wing queer rights conference at UTS to organise for a better material future for LGBTQI people. The Saturday sessions will happen after the CARR protest. Workshop submissions: https://forms.gle/1WSPKJ91GAibbJBY9. Pride in Protest 78ers Robert Farlow, Christine Devine and their partners have lost everything in the floods. They and other LGBTIQ community members need our support in this extremely challenging time for them.   Tropical Fruits Floods Fundraiser Tropical Fruits are our queer family in the Northern Rivers. We have all seen the terrible impact of the floods. If you want to know more about them and what they do, go to: https://tropicalfruits.org.au/. If you are able to support their fundraiser campaign, go to Tropical Fruits Flood Fundraiser. Donate $5.00 – the price of a coffee, or maybe you could add a zero! The Mardi Gras Workshop made their own statement about the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with their waterproof wrapping of 78ers placards and banners.   Support Displaced LGBTIQ Ukrainians Since Russia launched its devastating invasion of Ukraine, over two million Ukrainians have fled the country. The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration needs your help to: Ensure LGBTIQ Ukrainians can access safe longer-term housing options Support partner organisations in neighbouring countries to deliver services to displaced LGBTIQ people. Donate to LGBTIQ refugees (oramrefugee.org) 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Please use your name as the reference for your deposit. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. Calendar of Events Sydney Pride Festival 2022 – 2-30 June 2022 Sydney Pride Festival Southern HiBearnation – 11-19 June 2022 VicBears - VicBears Incorporated Sunshine Coast Mardi Gras – Saturday 18 June 2022 info@sunshinecoastmardigras.com.au  Sydney World Pride Human Progress Flag – 11am Friday 24 June, Opera House steps https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/welcome-the-world-to-sydney/140740 Fight for LGBTI+ Rights demo, Campaign for Rainbow Rights – 1pm Saturday 25 June 2022, Town Hall Provocations: A Queer Liberation Conference, Pride in Protest – Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June 2022, UTS First Mardi Gras Inc. Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History – 5.30pm, Saturday 25 June 2022, by Zoom, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Brisbane Pride Queens’ Ball – 6.30pm Saturday 25 June 2022, Brisbane City Hall hello@brisbanepride.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. 44th Anniversary Drinks – 5pm, Sunday 26 June 2022, Kinselas, Taylor Square, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 3 July, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Bendigo Queer Film Festival – 15-17 July 2022 Home - Bendigo Queer Film Festival First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 30 July 2022, by Zoom Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 8 to 12 September 2022 https://www.bhfestival.com/home Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to 7 October to 6 November 2022, see website for details Newcastle Pride Festival - Newcastle, NSW | HUNTERhunter ACON Parramatta Pride Picnic – 10:30am-7pm, Saturday 22 October 2022, River Foreshore Reserve Parramatta Pride Picnic | Facebook Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022 http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride. For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - May 2022

View this email in your browser May 2022 In this May edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Diane Minnis on Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History – Saturday 25 June Bill Ashton on 78ers Mardi Gras Anniversary Drinks – Sunday 26 June Diane Minnis on Our plans for the 45th Anniversary Mardi Gras Sue Fletcher on Police over-reach or just the same old tactics? Paul van Reyk on the Sydney Memorial for Kendall Lovett Rebbell Barnes on our Social Lunch – Sunday 5 June Information on ACON's Taking Control: LGBTQ+ Toolkit for Palliative Care and End of Life Decisions – 1.30-4.30pm,  Wednesday 15 June, Glebe Town Hall Information on CARR’s Fight for LGBTI+ Rights! Demo – Saturday 25 June Information on the Queer Liberation Conference – 25-26 June Information on Varuna’s LGBTQIA + online program for writers 65 + How to donate to Appeals for Northern Rivers and Ukraine Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting on Saturday 4 June (4pm by Zoom) will continue discussing plans for the 45th Anniversary Mardi Gras season in 2023. Our next Social Lunch is at 12pm on Sunday 5 June at The Terminus Hotel in Pyrmont. Diane Minnis As part of our Sydney Pride Festival commemorations this year, First Mardi Gras Inc. is presenting an online Salon78 forum – Celebrating Rainbow History. In this forum we will have presentations from Rainbow History Class, which produces short fun Tik Tok clips on our history. Some 78ers have been interviewed and have provided information for these vignettes. Other speakers will look at more traditional written representations of our history – based on documents and oral resources. We will discuss the best ways of preserving our communities’ history and getting it across to younger generations. Check out: Home | RainbowHistoryClass – The LGBTIQA+ history you don't get in school. To register for this online event at 5.30pm on Saturday 25 June, email info@78ers.org.au to receive the Zoom link.   Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Join us for our Drinks to celebrate the 44th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras from 5pm on Sunday 26 June. All 78ers, partners and supporters are welcome. We are trying a new venue – Kinselas at Taylor Square (383 Bourke Street). It ticks all the boxes, being on the ground floor, easy to access and open to the street for fresh air. First Mardi Gras Inc. will be providing finger food and bar prices are very reasonable (Beer $7.70 schooner, Wine $8 glass). We will also conduct a raffle on the night. If you want to stay on, Bistro meals are good value. Kinselas have been lovely to deal with and are looking forward to hosting 78ers for this anniversary event. Let us know if you can come along to Kinselas at 5pm on Sunday 26 June, email info@78ers.org.au.   The Sydney Pride Festival 2022 – Be Brave, Be Strong, Be You launches at the Stonewall Hotel on the Thursday 2nd June. Sydney Pride Festival will run until 30th June. This year's festival is about empowering each other. Check out the other events in this at Sydney Pride Festival – Sydney Pride Festival 2022.   Bill Ashton 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member In 2017, our newly formed First Mardi Gras Inc. bought 78ers together to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Mardi Gras in 2018. We swung into action, raised funds and produced some outstanding events including a Trivia Night, The First Mardi Gras: Was the Pain Worth the Gain? An afternoon with 78ers forum, 40 years of Queer Art: Rebellion and Subversion exhibition, and a Cocktail Party. Red Raw put on a 78ers Tribute Night and Queerstories hosted a night featuring stories from 78ers. We also ran Seeking all 78ers Campaign to locate 78ers we had lost touch with and crowd funded to bring low-income 78ers to Sydney for the 40th Anniversary Mardi Gras. Donations, some sponsorship and fundraising supported these events and SGLMG supported our fund to bring low-income 78ers to Sydney and made a contribution to Cocktail Party costs.   45th Anniversary Plans So what are we looking to do for the 45th Anniversary Mardi Gras season in 2023? Are we older, tireder and more geographically dispersed than we were five years ago? Or can we gather our resources, draw together and produce exceptional events to celebrate 78ers, the 45th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras and Sydney World Pride! At our last General Meeting on 7 May we started discussing plans for our events for the 45th Anniversary. Some of the ideas that came up were: A celebratory Cocktail Party for 78ers – especially those travelling to Sydney for the 45th Anniversary Mardi Gras. We would seek funding from Sydney World Pride and Mardi Gras. At the 78ers Committee meeting on 25 May, one of the Mardi Gras Co-Chairs suggested an event where 78ers welcome pioneers of overseas prides and photos of early pride events could be shown. A Queerstories event History Walk and Bus tours of the first Mardi Gras, with income from ticket sales supporting other events That 78ers be represented at all the major Mardi Gras and Sydney World Pride events Members of the 20th Anniversary 78er’s Festival Events Group and a few others are working on reprinting It was a Riot! The group is also working on a new book of 78ers experiences and aim to launch the books and sell them during the Mardi Gras Festival and Sydney World Pride. There was discussion of an exhibition of our community’s political history with photos, videos and sound recordings. Though it was noted that the State Library of NSW is mounting a major exhibition to coincide with the 45th Anniversary. The meeting also noted that we should have speakers and present workshops at the Human Rights Conference that is part of Sydney World Pride. At this stage, we will be focussing on the Cocktail Party for 78ers, History Walk and Bus tours and the publication and reprint of the books. But we need you to help get these events up and running! We will be putting around a survey to all 78ers soon, so you can contribute your ideas, feedback and volunteer for Working Groups. You can also get back to us on info@78ers.org.au.     Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair In Australia, we have a culture of Police presence at demonstrations and at major events – including the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. In the past two years we have seen policing at the Black Lives (BLM) matter demonstration in Sydney that employed the same tactics used against us in 1978. Those tactics are: Funnel demonstrators Corral demonstrators Reduce the ability for demonstrators to leave Tell demonstrators to disperse Block all avenues of departure and Arrest everyone because they didn’t follow the police directive to leave (because they couldn’t!!). This is a police tactic that has been in use for 50+ years. We see hints of these tactics at other demonstrations in NSW. When raised with NSW Police, they wouldn’t discuss the BLM demonstration, as it was viewed as tactics and NSW Police don’t discuss tactics. At recent LGBTIQ demonstrations in Sydney we have seen a strong police presence and they have used helicopters circling above. The helicopters create not only noise, but put demonstrators on edge. Why are there helicopters, there are plenty of police on the ground. Does it seem like over-reach or excessive policing?   Update on Police ejecting Parade Viewers We have patiently waited months for a response from NSW Police regarding the removal of Barbara Karpinski and others in the 78ers SCG seating during the Parade. There is still no information from the Police on this. We were to have a meeting on13 May with NSW Police – with Diane Minnis, Peter Murphy and I representing 78ers and Albert Kruger from SGLMG. At the NSWPF LGBTIQA+ Stakeholder Forum on 9 May, which Diane, Peter and I attended, Assistant Commissioner Galina Talbot announced the meeting had been cancelled as Barbara was taking legal action. Information about the other people ejected from the 78ers seating area had been sent to Police a month earlier. When Diane asked about the ejection of this group, Assistant Commissioner Talbot said she had no knowledge of the incident.   Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras At the SGLMG 78ers Committee meeting on 25 May, the Mardi Gras Co-Chairs told us they were meeting with Police but could not discuss Barbara’s ejection from the SCG. We urged them to ask about the other people ejected from the 78ers seating area and under what authority Police acted.   Some questions for NSW Police Some questions for NSW Police that remain unanswered: Does every police officer working at Mardi Gras Parade attend the briefing meeting? Does the briefing include a message of a light touch for the Parade? Do they ensure queer-friendly police or police that have completed the Gay and Lesbian Liaison course are working at our events? Why wasn’t the removal of participants documented by NSW Police? What happens when Police Officers fail to document their actions? This article has more questions than answers. What is happening in your state? Do you think Covid restrictions may have contributed to over-reach by police and if so what can we do about it? How do we get NSW Police to pull back on their heavy-handed police tactics at our queer events? Sadly, I feel that as much as NSW Police have increased their community engagement, they are still deaf to our needs. Like many others I will stay in the room and try to be heard and engage with them, but I am not feeling confident we will be listened to; and the disconnect with community engagement will be trumped by tactics.   Sue Fletcher 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member A simple ceremony was held on Sunday 15th May to celebrate the life of Kendall Lovett at the AIDS memorial and groves in Sydney Park, St Peters. The weather held good, a warm autumn day in Sydney. As friends and comrades gathered each wrote some heartfelt words in a book for his partner Mannie De Saxe. Mother Inferior first sanctified the AIDS memorial cairn with the fumes of frankincense. Mannie had placed photographs of Kendall and himself around the cairn, and the Kendall Bear that Ken's sister knitted for him was perched on top. Mother began the ceremony with renditions on the accordion of Bella Ciao, The Internationale, the Red Flag and, inexplicably, How Much Is That Doggie in the Window. Then Paul van Reyk read a biography of Kendall. Mannie spoke about his coming out at an advanced age, his first meetings with Ken, and their 30 year relationship as both loving partners and comrades in LGBTIQ advocacy, and about their 37 years of tree planting with the group they set up – the Sydney Park AIDS Memorial (SPAIDS). Friends and comrades of Kendall shared their memories of Ken and of his and Mannie's perfect match. Paul then read out a letter of appreciation and sympathy from Clover Moore, and an email from Betty Hounslow who sent her thoughts and sympathy from New York. All then joined in singing a version of Mother Inferior's hymn for Saint Kendall the Constant with words beautifully re-written for the occasion of gathering in the AIDS grove. Mannie, accompanied by Paul, Jo and Rob, then scattered Kendall's ashes among the trees planted during the first and second SPAIDS plantings. As he was leaving, Mannie placed a stone on the top of the cairn – a Jewish traditional act of remembrance and respect. Paul, Ken Davis and Rob Lake are putting together the readings and photographs from the event to deposit with the Australian Queer Archives which holds also an oral history from Kendall. The photos will also be made into photobook for Mannie. If you have photos you would like to share in these ways, please send them as attachments to Paul at pvanreyk@gmail.com. Paul van Reyk Our next Social Lunch is at 12pm on Sunday 5 June, at the Terminus Hotel in Pyrmont. The Terminus is accessible via the Light Rail and by bus from Town Hall. Street parking is also available. RSVP: info@78es.org.au.   Rebbell Barnes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member We will be talking about the unique issues and concerns LGBTQ+ people face with palliative care and death planning. Free Event – REGISTER HERE, Wednesday 15 June 2022, 1.30-4.30pm, Glebe Town Hall, 160 St Johns Road, Glebe. Russ: 02 9206 2017, rgluyas@acon.org.au.  Protesting has pushed back the Religious Discrimination Bill, but we need to go on the offensive to end religious exemptions permitting schools and hospitals to fire LGBTI staff. Community Action for Rainbow Rights A left wing queer rights conference at UTS to organise for a better material future for LGBTQI people. The Saturday sessions will happen after the CARR protest. Workshop submissions: https://forms.gle/1WSPKJ91GAibbJBY9. Pride in Protest In partnership with Queerstories, we will run a two-week online writing program for LGBTQIA+ writers 65+. Apply by 7 June 2022 for program: 18-29 July 2022. https://www.varuna.com.au/online-programs. Varuna, the National Writers’ House 78ers Robert Farlow, Christine Devine and their partners have lost everything in the floods. They and other LGBTIQ community members need our support in this extremely challenging time for them.   Tropical Fruits Floods Fundraiser Tropical Fruits are our queer family in the Northern Rivers. We have all seen the terrible impact of the floods. If you want to know more about them and what they do, go to: https://tropicalfruits.org.au/. If you are able to support their fundraiser campaign, go to Tropical Fruits Flood Fundraiser. Donate $5.00 – the price of a coffee, or maybe you could add a zero! The Mardi Gras Workshop made their own statement about the horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with their waterproof wrapping of 78ers placards and banners.   Support Displaced LGBTIQ Ukrainians Since Russia launched its devastating invasion of Ukraine, over two million Ukrainians have fled the country. The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration needs your help to: Ensure LGBTIQ Ukrainians can access safe longer-term housing options Support partner organisations in neighbouring countries to deliver services to displaced LGBTIQ people. Donate to LGBTIQ refugees (oramrefugee.org) 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. Calendar of Events Sydney Pride Festival 2022 – 2-30 June 2022 Sydney Pride Festival Gold Coast Pride Beach Parade and Fair Day – Saturday 4 June 2022 HOME | GCRainbowcommunities First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 4 June 2022, by Zoom First Mardi Gras Inc. Social Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 5 June, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris Street Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au ACON's Taking Control: LGBTQ+ Toolkit for Palliative Care and End of Life Decisions – 1.30-4.30pm,  Wednesday 15 June, Glebe Town Hall rgluyas@acon.org.au.  Sunshine Coast Mardi Gras – Saturday 18 June 2022 info@sunshinecoastmardigras.com.au Ticketing from $10-45 Fight for LGBTI+ Rights demo, Campaign for Rainbow Rights – 1pm Saturday 25 June 2022, Town Hall Provocations: A Queer Liberation Conference, Pride in Protest – Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 June 2022, UTS First Mardi Gras Inc. Salon78: Celebrating Rainbow History – Saturday 25 June 2022, by Zoom, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. 44th Anniversary Drinks – 5pm, Sunday 26 June 2022, Kinselas, Taylor Square, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 8 to 12 September 2022. https://www.bhfestival.com/home Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to 7 October to 6 November 2022, see website for details Newcastle Pride Festival - Newcastle, NSW | HUNTERhunter Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 25-27 November 2022, http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride   For other events, please check: https://australianpridenetwork.com.au/lgbtiq-festivals/new-south-wales/. And remember to check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Salon78: Gay Lib Comes Out 1972

On 19 January 1972, Sydney Gay Liberation came out as an independent group at the Sex Lib Forum at Sydney University. Speakers at that forum included Germaine Greer, Liz Fell, Gillian Leahy and Dennis Altman. Dennis’ ground-breaking work, Homosexual Oppression and Liberation, had been published in 1971 in the USA and was about to have its Australian release.

At the forum, Dennis announced that Gay Liberation, which had started in July 1971 within CAMP Inc., was setting up as a separate group. Gay Liberation soon set up in other states and on many campuses.

While CAMP Inc. focused on lobbying and education, Gay Liberation tended to be more activist, fun and confrontational. Gay Lib organised zaps, street theatre, ‘spraynting’ of slogans, demonstrations and hug ins – when showing same sex affection in public could get you arrested.

However, there was a big overlap of activists with a number involved in both CAMP and Gay Lib and some events were joint actions. Gay Lib organised the 1 July 1972 demonstration outside ABC Sydney Headquarters against the cancellation of a TV program on homosexuality and the gay liberation movement in Australia. But some CAMP Inc. people attended. The 12 November 1972 demonstration at St Clements, Mosman after the sacking of Peter Bonsall-Boone, was jointly organised by both groups.

The heyday of Sydney Gay Liberation was from 1972 to 1973. The group led efforts to hold the first ‘nationally’ organised Gay Pride Week from 9-15 September 1973 in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Events included zaps, hug-ins, a poetry reading, demonstrations and a wreath-laying at the Cenotaph, Martin Place to honour homosexuals murdered in Nazi Concentration Camps.

First Mardi Gras Inc. is hosting this online Salon78 Forum to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Sydney Gay Liberation. Hear from activists Dennis Altman, Katy O’Rourke, Penny Gulliver and John Witte. Other participants in the heady events of 1972-3 will contribute during the Q&A part of the forum.

Come along and hear about this history of sometimes outrageous LGBTIQ+ activism – on Zoom – Saturday 19 February at 4pm.

Register at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/salon78-gay-lib-comes-out-in-1972-tickets-251768625737.

Newsletter - January 2022

View this email in your browser January 2022 In this January edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Robert French, Diane Minnis and Ken Davis on Salon78: Gay Lib Comes Out 1972! Karl Zlotkowski on 2022 Parade – Time to Volunteer Again! Diane Minnis on Mardi Gras Daytime Rally, 1pm 5 March 2022 Richard Thode on our Submission on the Religious Discrimination Bill How to register for InterPride’s Generational Racism Webinar, 10am, 23 January 2022 How to register for Pride History Group’s online forum Documenting Lesbian & Queer Sydney: In Conversation with C. Moore Hardy, 3pm, 23 January 2022 How to register for InterPride’s Pride Is A Protest | Closed Viewing Documentary, 7pm, 23 January 2022 Sallie Colechin on the JOY FM Podcast – the First Mardi Gras Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis On 19 January 1972, Sydney Gay Liberation came out as an independent group at the Sex Lib Forum at Sydney University. Speakers at that forum included Germaine Greer, Liz Fell, Gillian Leahy and Dennis Altman. Dennis’ ground-breaking work, Homosexual Oppression and Liberation, had been published in 1971 in the USA and was about to have its Australian release. At the forum, Dennis announced that Gay Liberation, which had started in July 1971 within CAMP Inc., was setting up as a separate group. Gay Liberation soon set up in other states and on many campuses. While CAMP Inc. focussed on lobbying and education, Gay Liberation tended to be more activist, fun and confrontational. Gay Lib organised zaps, street theatre, ‘spraynting’ of slogans, demonstrations and hug ins – when showing same sex affection in public could get you arrested. However, there was a big overlap of activists with a number involved in both CAMP and Gay Lib and some events were joint actions. Gay Lib organised the 1 July 1972 demonstration outside ABC Sydney Headquarters against the cancellation of a TV program on homosexuality and the gay liberation movement in Australia. But some CAMP Inc. people attended. The 12 November 1972 demonstration at St Clements, Mosman after the sacking of Peter Bonsall-Boone, was jointly organised by both groups. The heyday of Sydney Gay Liberation was from 1972 to 1973. The group led efforts to hold the first ‘nationally’ organised Gay Pride Week from 9-15 September 1973 in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane. Events included zaps, hug-ins, a poetry reading, demonstrations and a wreath-laying at the Cenotaph, Martin Place to honour homosexuals murdered in Nazi Concentration Camps. First Mardi Gras Inc. is hosting this online Salon78 Forum to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Sydney Gay Liberation. Hear from activists Dennis Altman, Katy O’Rourke, Penny Gulliver and John Witte. Other participants in the heady events of 1972-3 will contribute during the Q&A part of the forum. Come along and hear about this history of sometimes outrageous LGBTIQ+ activism – on Zoom – Saturday 19 February at 4pm. Register at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/salon78-gay-lib-comes-out-in-1972-tickets-251768625737.   Robert French, Diane Minnis and Ken Davis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member and Co-Chairs This year the Mardi Gras Parade will go ahead at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with arrangements very similar to those in 2021. A COVID Safety plan will be in place, and vaccination certificates will be required for all parade participants and members of the audience. The SGLMG 78ers Committee is working to ensure that access to 78er priority seating will be strictly controlled, and that the needs of 78ers, especially those with mobility issues, are carefully managed. 78ers should by now have received an email inviting them to register for the parade.  If you haven’t, please let us know! SGLMG are now preparing the Workshop, and we plan to begin parade preparations at the beginning of February.  his year the Workshop has moved to Mascot, very close to Mascot train station. As with the Parade, a COVID Safety plan will apply, including Q Code check in, masks and distancing. Vaccination certificates or official exemptions will be required. We are planning to schedule two mid-week work sessions to prep and paint this year’s round of placard slogans that highlight events from 1972, as part of our ongoing 50 Years of Visibility theme. The 1972 events are: January 1972 - Sydney Gay Liberation separate from CAMP NSW January 1972 - Gay Liberation Groups in other states January 1972 - Sue Wills & Lex Watson Co-Presidents of CAMP NSW May 1972 - Dr George Duncan murdered in Adelaide July 1972 - demonstration outside ABC Sydney - David MacDiarmid arrested July 1972 - Dennis Altman, ABC TV Monday Conference October 1972 - Sue Wills, Gabrielle Antolovich, Peter Bonsall-Boone, Peter de Waal on ABC TV Chequerboard November 1972 - David Widdup stands against PM Billy McMahon in Federal Election November 1972 - limited law reform in South Australia November 1972 - Demonstration at St Clement’s Mosman protesting Peter Bonsall-Boone sacking December 1972 - Melbourne Gay Liberation demonstration We also have a suggestion that we include a reference to Number 96, which premiered in March 1972. If you remember any other events that you think we should include, please let us know! If you’d like to volunteer for some sessions at the workshop, please email us at info@78ers.org.au.   Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary Several 78ers are continuing to join the open planning meetings for the rally to be held on the day of the Mardi Gras Parade – at 1pm on Saturday 5 March 2022. The meetings are organised by Pride in Protest (PiP) and people from Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) and young independent activists also attend. 78ers at the meetings were very keen to have the main demand of the rally our opposition to the Religious Freedom Bill. We suggested the slogan ‘Stop the Bigots Bill!’. We also supported the other demands around transgender rights, queer refugees, decriminalising sex work and Black Lives Matter. But we preferred ‘Fund Services Before Police’ to the demand ‘Fund Services Not Police’, which the majority at the meeting voted for. It is important to work with a range of activists to build the Mardi Gras Daytime Rally as a political event to fight against pending anti-LGBTIQ+ legislation and for improved rights for our community. The Mardi Gras Parade is an important celebration too, even in its stadium incarnation. It is a beacon to LGBTIQ+ people everywhere and part of the global stand against homophobia in an increasingly right-wing world.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair First Mardi Gras Inc. has been active in the LGBTIQ+ protest against the Education (Parental Rights) Bill (Latham Bill) in NSW. Barry Charles delivering an impassioned and well-received address from the Sydney Town Hall steps to the first rally on 5 June 2021. We have been at all the protests since and we will continue to be there. 78ers have been very well received and these rallies, and our banner given prominence by the organisers. Federally, the backlash to Same-Sex Marriage has been manifest in the Religious Discrimination legislation from the Morrison Government. This legislation has been in the offing since 2019 as it was part of PM Morrison's election agenda, despite strong recommendations against such a step by the Ruddock Inquiry in 2018.  But it hasn’t quite got up yet. Presumably as part of his pre-Election 2022 agenda, Morrison and his new Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, brought forward the Religious Discrimination Bill and its contingent legislation in late 2021. It is now before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, with submissions required on pretty short notice (by 7th Jan 2022) for hearing on 20th Jan and with a reporting date to the Senate of 4 February 2022. The First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee decided to support and endorse the submission from Pride in Protest and the National Union of Students (NUS) Queer Department, rather than make a separate submission. This means that our logo appears on that submission. As part of the process we provided some minor edits to improve grammar errors and typos and these were accepted. As Ken Davis said, if we were writing the submission ourselves we might have approached it slightly differently, but it was pretty good – and time was of the essence given the tight close date. Probably the best “taste” of the submission is its Summary: Pride in Protest, First Mardi Gras Inc., and the National Union of Students (NUS) Queer Department oppose the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and contingent pieces of legislation being implemented in part or in whole. This bill does nothing to serve religious minorities who it is alleged to protect, and instead only entrenches discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people, women, sex workers, and disabled people. Accordingly we believe it should be withdrawn entirely from parliament without amendment or further debate, and failing that our view is that every MP should be urged to vote down this bill. Any attempt to amend this bill would be a concession to bigotry that would harm LGBTIQ+ people, amongst other minorities.   Richard Thode 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Treasurer The Generational Racism Webinar is a multigenerational discussion about systemic racism within queer spaces. This webinar is part of the Rainbow Racism Webinar series. The hope is that by having these discussions, we weed out divisive tactics from the larger society that occasionally filters into our smaller marginalized community. This is an effort to evolve, learn, and validate lived experiences to better prepare for advocacy and activism. Register here. (10am Sunday 23.1.22 AEDT) Sunday 23 January, 3-4pm This Sunday, Pride History Group is hosting an online discussion and visual showcase of Lesbian and Queer Lives in Sydney from the 1970s through to more recent times through the work of an extraordinary documentary artist. In this upcoming event, we will be focusing on the work and contribution of C.Moore Hardy as she joins Pride History Group President and historian, Dr Shirleene Robinson in discussion. C. Moore Hardy has made an outstanding contribution to documenting the history of the LGBTIQ+ community through her photography. Since the 1970s, her evocative and powerful work has particularly sought to capture those who have often been excluded from the historical record. Event registration All are welcome to attend this free event this Sunday, 23 January at 3:00PM. To register for the online event (held via Zoom) please follow the link below: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kce6qpj4uGtaLERO6YN2VT1LCIj8ii_79?fbclid=IwAR2O0ppuXg408EKNNCbaWRi2u4ye8luHZBYIyx0LbJUQX2fY48_TwU8obN4 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. InterPride is proud to showcase a complimentary live documentary screening, “Pride Is A Protest.” We are joined by the creators of this documentary and will stream the film LIVE during the session. Registration is required. Two viewing opportunities are offered on Sunday, January 23, 2022: Register for 8:00 AM GMT here (7pm Sunday 23.1.22 AEDT). Register for 8:00 PM GMT here (7am Monday 24.1.22 AEDT). JOY FM (94.9 Melbourne) have made a series of Podcasts for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The first podcast features Sallie Colechin (78er - she/her), Sarah Levett (who marched in the Mardi Gras parade for the first time in 2020 - she/her) and Carole Mueller (who came out as trans later in her life, and is very active in Trans Gender Victoria - she/they). Jordan Johnstone did the interview, which flowed really well. The discussion in the first one (Episode 1 - My first Mardi Gras) explores Sallie’s experiences as an organiser of the original events in 1978, the perspective of those who have come to the movement in the years since, and their hopes for future LGBTQI+ generations and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Questions include: What is your experience of being in the SGLMG?, What are your hopes for the next 40+ years for SGLMG?, and What advice do you have for future LGBTQIA+ generations? You can listen to JOY FM live online via: https://joy.org.au/programs/podcasts/. We will let you know when the podcasts are scheduled to go to air.   Sallie Colechin 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Please use your name as the reference for your deposit. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 22 January 2022, by Zoom InterPride’s Generational Racism Webinar– 10am, Sunday 23 January 2022, online Register here Pride History Group’s online forum Documenting Lesbian & Queer Sydney: In Conversation with C. Moore Hardy – 3pm, Sunday 23 January 2022 Register InterPride’s Pride Is A Protest | Closed Viewing Documentary – 7pm, Sunday 23 January 2022, online Register Midsumma Festival, Melbourne – 23 January to 13 February 2022 Midsumma Festival - Midsumma Festival - Home Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Annual General Meeting – 11am, Saturday 29 January 2022 First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 February 2022, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont (Covid permitting), RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Community Action for Rainbow Rights Protest the Religious Discrimination Bill! Defend LGBTI Rights – 1pm, Saturday 12 February 2022, Town Hall First Mardi Gras Inc. Salon78: Gay Lib Comes Out 1972 – 4pm, Saturday 19 February 2022, by Zoom, Register Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day – 10am-9pm, Sunday 20 February 2022 First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Gathering – 5pm, Thursday 3 March 2022, outdoor venue TBC (Covid permitting), RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Mardi Gras Daytime Rally – 1pm, Saturday 5 March 2022, Taylor Square Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade – Saturday 5 March 2022, Sydney Cricket Ground Gold Coast Pride Festival – 20 to 27 March 2022 HOME | GCRainbowcommunities Wagga Mardi Gras, Wagga Wagga – Saturday 12 March 2022 https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 8 to 12 September 2022  https://www.bhfestival.com/festival-tickets Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 27 September to 3 October 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Fruitopia Fair Day, Lismore – has been postponed with new dates yet to be advised Fruitopia Fairday - Tropical Fruits Parramatta Pride Picnic, Parramatta – has been postponed with new dates yet to be advised Parramatta Pride Picnic — Rainbow Cultures Please check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - December 2021

View this email in your browser December 2021 In this December, end of year round up edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Karl Zlotkowski and Diane Minnis on 78ers in the 2022 Mardi Gras Parade Ken Davis on Mardi Gras Daytime Protest, 5 March 2022 Karl Zlotkowski on Protest the Religious Discrimination Bill Robyn Kennedy on InterPride General Meeting and World Conference Diane Minnis on Christmas at the Colombian – with lots of photos Photos from the Launch of Toby Zoates’ book: Punk Outsider Lance Day’s Tribute to Peter Binning on his passing Rosie Pentreath on her new OUTcast Podcast Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis In the next few weeks, the Mardi Gras 78ers Committee will send out emails with a survey to register to march in the 2022 Parade. You can also volunteer for the 78ers tent at Fair Day and request a 78ers t-shirt if you don’t already have one. 78ers who are Lifetime Members of Mardi Gras will receive this email from SGLMG and First Mardi Gars Inc. will also broadcast this email to all 78ers on our list. You may get it twice…but we want to make sure that the information gets to all 78ers for whom we have contact details. In recent weeks there have been problems with some 78er members of Mardi Gras not receiving offers of tickets in the stands at the SCG. We have been making representations to Mardi Gras to have email addresses corrected and emails resent. If you still do not have one of these seating offers, and you are a Mardi Gras member, let us know at info@78ers.org.au.   However, there will be seats in the stands for all who march in the Parade in addition to those you have booked. Members of the elected Mardi Gras 78ers Committee are: Sue Fletcher, Helen Gollan, Penny Gulliver, Diane Minnis, Richard Riley and Karl Zlotkowski.   Karl Zlotkowski and Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary and Co-Chair Last year I took part in the Pride in Protest (PiP) organised daytime “Take Over Oxford Street March” on the day of the Mardi Gras Parade. This was a bit like 24 June 1978, with a militant daytime street march, and a larger night-time parade. This year, some 78ers are attending the open planning meetings for a daytime protest rally on the day of the Mardi Gras Parade – Saturday 4 March 2022. The meetings are attended by PiP members, people from Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), young independent activists as well as a few of us veterans of LGBTIQ struggles. The key demand of the rally is opposing the Religious Freedom Bill along with demands around transgender rights, queer refugees, police, decriminalising sex work and Black Lives Matter. A number of 78ers will march in this daytime protest rally, others will join the Mardi Gras Parade and some of us will do both. This seems to be the way things are going around the world – with unofficial protests alongside large official Pride celebrations.   Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair   On 5 December 2021, 78ers once again joined a rally to protest against the Federal Government’s Religious Freedom Bill. This Bill was introduced late in the last sitting of the year, and has now been referred to an Inquiry. Some of the more contentious elements have been removed (including the so-called “Folau Clause”) but even in its current form it remains a threat to all secular minorities. It has rightly been described as a Religious Discrimination Bill, and would effectively give licence to bigots to discriminate, if their prejudice is grounded in “faith”.  It also threatens to over-ride State anti-discrimination legislation, setting back the gains of decades of struggle. Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) organised the rally against the Bill and two rallies earlier in the year, with another scheduled for the new year. On 5 December a crowd of several hundred assembled in Taylor Square, including a staunch band of 78ers with the “78ers - Still Out and Proud” banner. I spoke first, on behalf of the 78ers, with the aim of linking the current struggle against discrimination with the struggles of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Other speakers – Federal Greens Senator Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Lydia Shelly from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, CARR’s April Holcombe and Drag Race Down Under star Etcetera Etcetera – rallied the crowd before the noisy march down Oxford Street to Hyde Park, led by CARR and the 78ers. A full video of the rally can be found here: https://fb.watch/9JweueANTT/. The text of my speech follows. It should be clear that my intention was to underline the place of our group within the community and its history, and our intention to continue the struggle we began 50 years ago.   “I acknowledge the traditional owners of this land, and their elders, past and present. I also acknowledge the elders of my own community – our community – some of whom are here today. These people have struggled against discrimination and bigotry for over 50 years.  nd that bigotry and discrimination stemmed from the views of ‘people of faith’, who use their religion as both a shield and a sword. In 1978 these people gathered here, in this place, to start a peaceful protest down Oxford Street. That “Mardi Gras’ ended up with a riot in the Cross, police violence and mass arrests. Those arrested were brought here, to that police station, and some were bashed in the cells. And those who did the bashing probably went to church the next day. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. In 1978 these people were aware of the activities of Anita Bryant, a right wing Christian who led a campaign to roll back anti-discrimination provisions in the employment of teachers in Miami. Her slogan was “Save our Children”. Her campaign succeeded. Her motivation was her profound religious belief. In 1978 a similar initiative in California (the “Briggs Initiative”) failed, after a sustained campaign of resistance by gay groups in the USA. And one of those rallies in San Francisco was the first time the rainbow flag was ever flown. The Sydney rallies in June 1978 were part of an International Day of Solidarity with those same protests in California. The first Mardi Gras was part of a global campaign to resist the right to discriminate on the grounds of religious belief. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. These people led the struggle that created our community in the 1970’s, but that struggle against bigotry was not over. In the 1980’s these people struggled against the wave of vilification and abuse directed at our community by ‘people of faith’. HIV/AIDS was not our fault. It was not a punishment sent from God. But ‘people of faith’ believed that it was, and believed they had a right to say so. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. In 1989 the Reverend Fred Nile led a march of so-called Christians up this street to ‘cleanse’ our community. And these people met him just over there, at the head of the street. Our own Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence stood by to bless his ragged crowd and all was good will until someone started chanting “Bring on the lions!” We shouldn’t have done that, but it’s hard not to give a bit back when you’re insulted and vilified by self-appointed guardians of public decency who hide their bigotry behind a shield of faith. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. Then in the 1990’s we marched down this street, all carrying whistles, to protest against a wave of homophobic violence against our community, and the lack of police action to deal with it. We had to organise our own security patrols. That violence was carried out by people who’d grown up believing that our community was fair game. Homophobic violence, like discrimination in education, employment, health care and aged care all stems from a belief that some people are entitled to different rights from other people, simply because they believe. The supporters of this bill want a law to allow them to do unto others what they would not want done to them, simply because that fits with their ‘ethos’. These people, the elders of our community, have struggled against this idea all their lives.  And they will continue to fight, with you. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. Kill this bill!”    Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary InterPride’s 2021 General Meeting and World Conference was held November 6-8 and November 11-14, 2021. The annual event was again held online due to COVID, with members of First Mardi Gras Inc. participating in a number of sessions. This year’s workshops included a focus on the impact of colonisation. Workshops included Decolonising sexual identities, Resurgence of 2Spirit/Indigenous LGBTQIA in Canada and Pushing back against colonial era anti-LGBTQIA policies and laws in Global South. Auntie Esther Montgomery from the First Nations LGBTQIA Elders Coalition was a speaker in the Global South workshop. Robyn Kennedy was a speaker on the panel, Intergenerational Pride: Youth and Seniors. Together with Co-President Julian Sanjivan, Robyn also presented during the second Plenary session on the outcomes of the stakeholder engagement project. The project, conducted over 12 months, aims to inform the development of a new Strategic Plan for InterPride. A joint networking meeting was held between members in Oceania and Asia. This provided an opportunity to share information on activities and issues across both regions. A key feature of the General Meeting and World Conference was presentations by bidding cities for WorldPride 2025. Bidding cities were Kaohsiung Pride (Taiwan) and Capital Pride (Washington, USA). After completion of the voting process, WorldPride 2025 was awarded to Kaohsiung Pride. WorldPride 2025 will be the first to be held in Asia.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Christmas at the Colombian was our first opportunity in 21 months to get together as a larger group. The first floor bar of the Colombian Hotel has been revamped and we enjoyed drinks, finger food and catching up face to face. We also enjoyed singing some of the early 1980s Gay Liberation Quire songs led by David Abello on guitar. The raffle that First Mardi Gras Inc. has run during the year was drawn by SGLMG Board member Giovanni Campolo-Arcidiaco and FMG Inc. Associate Members Alice Anderson and William Brougham. The winners were: Giovanni Campolo-Arcidiaco, Betty Hounslow and Leonard Watson. Thanks to Rebbell Barnes for leading the organising effort for Christmas at the Colombian and to Bill Ashton for supplying a number of fun lucky door prizes.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair My friend, 78er Peter Binning has passed away aged 76, only eight weeks after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. Peter was a warm and generous friend. He had a presence about him and put on the best parties! Peter was born in Poland towards the end of World War II and smuggled out as a baby to England. He was adopted at three months of age by an English couple who later migrated with Peter to New Zealand. Peter had a very colourful life travelling the world as an opera singer and in recent years sang in opera dinner cruises on Sydney Harbour. Eight years ago, Peter lost his partner Declan. His well-attended funeral at Marrickville Town Hall was a tribute to his life in opera. Peter loved a good time and was a fun person to know. He will be sadly missed by all his many friends.   Lance Day 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member If you’re looking a new queer podcast, I launched @OUTcast Podcast recently. It’s a bit like Desert Island Discs, but all the guests telling their life stories are queer – and there’s less music! Season 1 features fascinating and empowering interviews and coming out stories from the most inspiring LGBTQ+ people from all over the world, including a transgender vicar, Nigerian refugee fleeing conversion therapy, a queer sex worker, and a leader in the British Royal Air Force. Check us out at: https://outcast-podcast.zencast.website/   Rosie Pentreath First Mardi Gras Inc. Volunteer during the 40th Anniversary year 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Please use your name as the reference for your deposit. Alternatively, you can post a cheque to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. Calendar of Events Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Extraordinary General Meeting – Thursday 23 December 2021 Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 19-23 January 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 22 January 2022, by Zoom Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Annual General Meeting – Saturday 29 January 2022 First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 February 2022, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont (Covid permitting), RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. Salon78: Fiftieth Anniversary of Sydney Gay Liberation – 3pm, Saturday 19 February 2022, Colombian Hotel (Covid permitting) and Zoom, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day – 10am-9pm, Sunday 20 February 2022 Mardi Gras Daytime Protest – 1pm, Saturday 5 March 2022, Oxford Street Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade – Saturday 5 March 2022, Sydney Cricket Ground Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 24-28 March 2022 and 8-12 September 2022. https://www.bhfestival.com/festival-tickets Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – 12 March 2022 (https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Please check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - November 2021

View this email in your browser November 2021 In this November edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Diane Minnis and Sandra Gobbo on the Mardi Gras Constitutional Changes Donald McPherson on Brisbane Pride Fair Day Diane Minnis on the Protest Perrottet demonstration Photos of our November Social Lunch Details of our Christmas at the Colombian event – Sunday 12 December Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers badges, Raffle tickets and CAMP badges Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis Constitution Review Committee webinar – 1 November 2021 A 16 member Constitution Review Committee (CRC) has been working since August 2021 on updating the Constitution of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The committee includes members from a variety of backgrounds including 78er Ross Aubrey and former Mardi Gras Board members: Jane Marsden, Liz Dods and Greg Small. The process was led by SGLMG Company Secretary Charmaine Belfanti. On Monday 1 November 2021 Charmaine and the CRC hosted a webinar for Mardi Gras members – outlining the main changes and answering some, but not all, of the questions posed by participants.   Proposed changes The stated aim of the review was that the current Constitution is the result of a series of piecemeal amendments over many years. It does not reflect the responsibilities SGLMG have under the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC Act 2012) and Australian Corporations Law (Corporations Act 2001). The advertised main changes to the Constitution include: updates to reflect new requirements of the ACNC Act and Corporations Law to protect charity status a new preamble which tells the story of our struggle, protest and celebrations since 1978 an expanded Board, with 9 members up from the current 8, with 5 elected and 4 appointed to bring varied skills, experience and representation a First Nations representative on the Board, whether elected or appointed a policy requiring the Board to have 40% representation of people who identify as women, 40% representation of people who identify as men, and 20% for under-represented diversity groups, including transgender and non-binary people. Some other gems that emerged during presentations and responses to questions were that: the board appoint a single Chair, rather than Co-Chairs the Chair of Directors must preside as chair at a General Meeting currently members with at least 5% (around 100) of the votes can request a general meeting and 2 members can propose a resolution. But now the number of members who can propose a resolution is at least 5% (around 100) of the votes.   My thoughts I don’t mind the Board being expanded to 9 members, but I do have a real problem with having 4 of them appointed. This is a recipe for domination by a small group and is antidemocratic. As a Board Member of New Mardi Gras in 2004, I moved a motion that the Board comprise 50% women and 50% men. The motion was not carried and made me pretty unpopular with the boys club. So I applaud the move to increase diversity on the Board, especially to address the persistent underrepresentation of women. During the webinar, I asked a question on how the policy would work to have the Board comprise 40% women, 40% men and 20% including transgender and non-binary people. The response was wishy-washy, along the lines that the new Board would need to adopt the policy before it could be put into effect. As a veteran of the ALP Affirmative Action campaigns in the 1990s, it is pretty obvious that this policy is not going to be enforced. It is wishful thinking that any change in Board diversity will happen without rule changes and quotas. Similarly, there were no compelling reasons presented, other than that it’s the usual way companies are run, to have a single Chair. Currently, the Board determine its leadership roles and, after the formation of New Mardi Gras in 2003, there have almost always been Co-Chairs. This has increased women’s representation in leadership and allowed for effective partnerships that benefited the organisation. Comments were made by the Company Secretary that a single Chair of Directors allows for succession planning and they *might* have a Deputy Chair….though this is not in the proposed Constitution. The proposal that the Chair of Directors must preside as chair at a General Meeting is just cloud cuckoo land stuff. Almost none of the Co-Chairs I have seen in action have had the skills and knowledge of the meeting procedures to effectively chair a large, contentious general meeting. The proposal to increase the number of members who can propose a resolution at a member-called general meeting from 2 to around 100 is another clearly anti-democratic move. At the webinar several mainstream activist members of Mardi Gras were asking questions indicating their opposition to many of the key changes proposed. This has continued on Facebook. Given this, it doesn’t look like this new constitution will be passed by the 75% of members present at the General Meeting that considers it.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair   Discussion following the Webinar Following the webinar, a members group was created on Facebook called the SGLMG Constitution Review Forum. This allows members to express concerns, opinions and ask further questions, given that hardly any answers were provided during the webinar. Discussions started in a lively manner with issues raised regarding the new Constitutional preamble which some saw as historically inaccurate and unnecessarily gentle in its language. Some have questioned why this review is necessary. Given that the Constitution was updated in 2015 to cover the legal requirements under the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits and Commission (ACNC Act 2012) and Australian Corporations Law (Corporations Act 2001). There are ongoing discussions on the page, with animated debates on issues such as increasing the number of board members and the increase of terms for directors from 2 to 3 years and 3 terms (both measures were already voted down at previous AGMs). Questions have been raised regarding the number of proxies still not being addressed in the review. The change to allow proxies to be directed to non-members is seen as unnecessary. The issue of quotas has also been discussed. Interestingly the Constitution Review Committee has suggested that the Board have 40% representation of people who identify as women, 40% representation of people who identify as men, and 20% for under-represented diversity groups, including transgender and non-binary people. This appears to be a rather clumsy attempt at inclusion and diversity. It would appear that the intention of the Board had been to have the constitutional reform moved as a single resolution at the General Meeting which was to be held on 1 December. However once it was pointed out to SGLMG that the proposed meeting date coincided with World Aids Day, the meeting date has been changed and is yet to be announced. I would encourage all 78ers who are members of SGLMG to join the Facebook forum. At the time of writing there has been very little interaction between the forum and the Constitution Review Committee. However members have been assured that there will be answers provided to all questions raised, and that the members’ concerns will be noted prior to the General Meeting at a new date to be set.   Sandra Gobbo 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Brisbane Pride March, Saturday 30th October 2021. Video clip: Facebook. On Saturday 30th October 2021 I attended the Brisbane Pride March and the Brisbane Pride Fair Day – wearing my 78ers t-shirt of course! I boarded the senior’s bus provided by The Queensland Council for LGBTI Health (QC). Half way down the march I exited the bus and joined the QC marching group on foot. On 24 August 2021, the Committee of Brisbane Pride Incorporated had decided to allow Queensland Police Officers to march in this year’s Brisbane Pride Festival Rally and March. But they requested that officers not march in uniform. Despite an apology from the Queensland Parliament for historic wrongs, the Queensland Police Service is yet to acknowledge or apologise for their past acts. The Pride Fair Day was well represented by different public service organisations including Police and Corrective Services. There were other stalls with commercial companies but it was great to see so many community care organisations as well as aged care groups. The Pride Fair Day was also a great opportunity to see all the varied members of our community from youngsters to elders. Sadly, I left early as the sun was very hot indeed!   Donald McPherson 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member A couple of hundred people gathered in front of Sydney Town Hall for the Protest Perrottet demonstration on Sunday 31 October 2021. The event was organised by Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR). The 78ers banner was there in support, along with 78ers Richard Thode, Diane Minnis, Barry Charles, Karl Zlotkowski, Wanda Kluke and Diane Fieldes. Speakers included CARR’s April Holcombe and Patrick Wright, Green’s City of Sydney Lord Mayoral candidate Sylvie Ellsmore, LGBTIQ activist and nurse Julia, and Alex King from the Macquarie University Queer Collective.  The speakers focused on Premier Dominic Perrottet’s religious conservatism and how this may increase the likelihood of the Religious Discrimination and the Education (Parental Rights) Bills being passed in NSW. After the speeches and chants, including No bigotry, no way We're gonna fight you, Perrottet, we marched through the city to Parliament House. The next event from CARR will be a Protest Against the Religious Freedoms Bills demo on Saturday 4 December, 1pm Taylor Square.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Join us for the first large in-person event that First Mardi Gras has held in more than 18 months. In between lockdowns, we held a couple of lunches and a picnic, but this is our first opportunity to get together as a larger group. We will be returning to the first floor bar of the Colombian Hotel and providing some entertainment and finger food. You can enter from the Oxford street door and take the lift up, so that you don’t need to struggle up the stairs. You can buy your own drinks and we are asking for a small entry fee to help cover costs of the event. There will be lucky door prizes and don’t forget to bring change to buy raffle tickets and badges. 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Please use your name as the reference for your deposit. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. 2021 Raffle We have opened up raffle ticket sales so that you can order by email. First make your payment, using the bank details in the 78ers badge article above, and then email your name and number of tickets. We will then email you a photo of your ticket numbers and your name on the ticket stubs. The raffle will be drawn just prior to the 2022 Mardi Gras Parade.   Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 20 November 2021 by Zoom Protest Against the Religious Freedoms Bills – 1pm, Saturday 4 December 2021, Taylor Square Fruitopia Fair Day, Lismore – Sunday 5 December 2021 https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Christmas at the Colombian – 5-8pm, Sunday 12 December 2021 RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Extraordinary General Meeting – Thursday 23 December 2021 Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 19-23 January 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 24-28 March 2022 and 8-12 September 2022. https://www.bhfestival.com/home Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – 12 March 2022 (https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed) http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Please check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - October 2021

View this email in your browser October 2021 In this October edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Diane Minnis and Ken Davis on the First Mardi Gras Inc. AGM and Annual Report Barry Charles on the European Pride Organisers Association AGM Robyn Kennedy on the upcoming InterPride AGM & World Conference April Holcombe on the online forum: Why the Religious Discrimination Bill is so dangerous Diane Minnis on the online forum: The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! How to get your 78ers badges, Raffle tickets and CAMP badges Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on our next Social Lunch – Sunday 7 November Survey for Adults with Same Sex Parents Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis A lively group of members attended the First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting, held by Zoom on Saturday 9 October 2021. It was great to have a number of regionally-based members taking part in the meeting. The following Management Committee members were elected at the AGM: Co-Chairs: Diane Minnis and Ken Davis Secretary: Karl Zlotkowski Treasurer: Richard Thode Committee Members: Maree Marsh, Robyn Kennedy, Bill Ashton and Rebbell Barnes. Barry Charles stood down from the Committee and his role as Secretary to concentrate on managing our membership applications, renewals and records. Many thanks to Barry for his committed work as Secretary, contributions to the newsletter and representing us at meetings of international LGBTIQ organisations. We look forward to continuing to work with you Barry. And welcome to new Committee member Bill Ashton, who is keen to focus on fundraising and events.   Diane Minnis and Ken Davis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs In the Co-Chairs report, we noted that it has been a difficult year and there are threats to our rights in Australia and from authoritarians around the world. September and October 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of LGBTQ visibility in Australia. And we held three online Salon78 Forums this year.  The Mardi Gras Parade in stadium mode made the best of a bad situation. We rallied against the NSW Education (Parental Rights) Bill and state and federal religious freedoms bills. Thanks to the photographers and videographers who allowed us to use their work. Download the 2021 Annual Report. The Association of European Pride Organisations (EPOA) held their AGM on 25 September 2021. First Mardi Gras Inc. as an associate member sat in on the Zoom, which was hosted by Madrid Pride. The Spanish Minister for Tourism recorded a welcome to the participants. It was very interesting see how things are going with Pride organisations throughout Europe. Each city reported on how they had celebrated pride through the difficult circumstances of 2020-21. Amsterdam had no canal parade but hosted a seated stage show outdoors in a park which was broadcast live on the net. Belgium held a series of smaller events over 4 weeks which were Covid manageable. Hamburg spread smaller events over 2 weeks and focused on a Human Rights Conference. While these cities scaled back activities; Vienna, Magdeburg and Geneva had large scale almost normal events. Others delayed or postponed Pride to September. London intended to go ahead with a large parade but due to Covid it was cancelled at the last minute. Of great concern was that many cities reported an upsurge in anti-queer violence across Europe. The situation in Poland and Budapest is very troubling as the governments and the church join forces to attack and wind back hard won advances. Cities that will host future European Pride events outlined their preparations. Belgrade, working in a hostile social environment, is nevertheless holding EuroPride 2022 in September. They reported that at least the media was not negative when the event was announced and they have the support of the Serbian Tourist Board. It remains to be seen if they can get the necessary organisation together. They will not have a website up until April 2022. Valetta (Malta) is well advanced with plans for 2023. They will hold major events in Il Fosas Square – a stunning location. They have a full program mapped out already including a 2 day HR Conference with the Topic “Equity at Work”. The Government has already chipped in E300,000. Thessaloniki 2024. They were originally awarded the 2020 EuroPride but the dreaded Covid-19 killed that. They want a highly political event to change things in their society. Since their original bid there has been a shift politically in their region. The local mayor is now not in favour and the Greek Tourism Minister who was originally enthusiastic has been more subdued lately. At the end of the meeting issues were raised about the relationship between EPOA and InterPride. EPOA remains concerned that InterPride is planning to support annual World Prides which would affect the viability of EuroPride. This reflects the debate at the October 2020 InterPride AGM over an application from Montreal Pride to hold a 2024 World Pride which would have had implications for the viability of Sydney 2023. Further annual World Prides have since been proposed. We reported on this in October 2020 Newsletter. Negotiations will continue through the year as EPOA say they find InterPride a sluggish and unresponsive organisation. It was reported that Copenhagen/Malmo were “unhappy” with aspects of InterPride over World Pride 2021.   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Just a reminder to register for the InterPride online Annual General Meeting and World Conference. You can participate in a wide range of workshops and caucuses including women, trans, non-binary, elders, black and people of colour. I will be co-presenting on the outcomes of the Stakeholder Engagement Consultation to inform development of a new Strategic Plan and will be a member of the panel on Intergenerational Pride: Youth and Seniors. Here is the registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-annual-general-meeting-world-conference-tickets-164419137065 There is no fee for member organisations of InterPride, such as First Mardi Gras Inc., and a small fee for non-members. Members of our Oceania region (Region 20) will be meeting online with members from Asia (Regions 18 and 19) during the conference at 6pm Sydney time on Thursday November 11. If you would like to participate please let either myself, Diane Minnis or Russell Weston know.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member robyn.kennedy@interpride.org Speakers at this online forum hosted on 7 October 2021 by Macquarie Socialists and Macquarie University Queer Collective were: Karen Pack, former Christian educator, sacked for her sexuality Karl Zlotkowski, Secretary of First Mardi Gras Inc. April Holcombe, Co-Convenor of Community Action for Rainbow Rights Amy Lamont, member of Macquarie Socialists. The Religious Discrimination Bill could be put to federal parliament at any time; activists need to be ready to resist on the streets. It’s worth reminding ourselves that legalised discrimination against LGBTI people is an ongoing injustice, with or without this bill designed to make it worse. That’s why hearing from Karen Pack and Karl Zlotkowski at this forum was so immensely instructive and moving. Pack recounted the shame she felt as a young person, and the pride and self-worth she developed over time through accepting her sexuality. Her sacking by the Christian college at which she was teaching is despicable. Laws enabling this discrimination are already on the books and should be scrapped. Pack’s story usefully rebuts the LGBTI-lobby narrative about how we can “fix” the Religious Discrimination bill: these institutions already have too much power! Her point that most ordinary Christians are pro-LGBTI reminds us that class divisions and political interests underpin the right-wing backlash waged under the banner of ‘religious freedom’. Only the richest, most privileged religious institutions are really waging this attack. It is so heartening to hear that someone so cruelly mistreated as Karen Pack refuses to be cowed or silenced, but fights on. Karl Zlotkowski, a 78er from the first Mardi Gras, laid out just what a fight it has been to get to where we are today. At every point, enshrining anti-discrimination rights in law has been a battle, and right-wing forces have tried to overturn them almost immediately or halt the next advance. Much respect to the veterans of our struggle for fighting against even greater odds and carrying those lessons into the movements today. I made the argument that, since the Religious Discrimination bill is a battle by the right, we must show maximum resolve through street protest. Any compromise or attempt to reason with the powerful will only send the message that we are weak. Mass resistance, angry and defiant, will undermine their confidence that there is political mileage to be made in waging culture war’s that are only supported by a minority of people. The Macquarie Socialists and Queer Collective who put this on should be commended for such a useful and rousing event. Their efforts, recounted by Amy Lamont, at Macquarie Uni to discuss LGBTI issues as a student body – despite the opposition of the university-appointed student ‘council’ – help lay the groundwork for protests against the Religious Discrimination bill as we draw closer to its passage in parliament.   April Holcombe Co-Convenor of Community Action for Rainbow Rights Sydney-based Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) and Melbourne’s Rainbow Rebellion held an online forum – The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! – on Saturday 16 October 2021. The 85 attendees, mainly from Sydney and Melbourne, heard from three excellent international speakers. They all talked about the right-wing backlash against LGBTIQ rights and how it developed and is impacting in their countries. Sherry Wolf, a New York-based union organiser and socialist, traced the origins of the right-wing backlash in the United States. Opposition grew from around 2010, when women and the LGBTIQ community won new rights and made legislative gains. Now with the rise of the Trumpian far right, laws against trans participation in sport and access to bathrooms are being pushed through in state after state. Currently there are 23 bills in state legislatures against trans kids’ activities in schools. US politicians have landed a despicable blow against reproductive rights in the state of Texas, completely outlawing abortion after six weeks. The most aggressive attacks are on the trans members of our community, but also on other LGBTIQ folk, women and people of colour. Racial disparities in law enforcement and sentencing are readily apparent.  Brazilian activist Virginia Guitzel, a transwoman, writer and education worker; also traced the history of the right-wing backlash in her country. In June 2013 there were progressive and workers demonstrations. Marriage equality and trans rights were won and the media portrayed LGBTIQ and trans people more positively. But the far right began organising and Bolsinaro was elected President in 2019. Virginia noted that the One Nation bill in NSW is similar to Bolsinaro’s attacks on trans people in Brazil. Covid has sharpened the divide between rich and poor and increased discrimination against the LGBTIQ community, women and people of colour. Brazil has the highest rate of murders of trans people in the world and 80% are black trans people. In the UK, Laura Miles is a trans and LGBTIQ activist, writer and former academic. The right there is weaponising attacks on trans rights as a wedge against women’s and LGBTIQ rights. In 2015-16, the Parliamentary Committee on Women and Equality led to better access to trans health services and self-declaration of trans status for birth certificates. Seventy percent of survey respondents supported this and the Tories initially also supported these measures. But with the right wing backlash, including from some radical feminists, they changed their position. Even the progressive press in the UK now publish anti-trans articles. In Hungary, Poland, other countries in Eastern Europe and in Malaysia; right- wing, populist, authoritarian regimes are using attacks on trans people against LGBTIQ and gender rights. In Russia, legislation has been passed against discussing LGBTIQ issues in sex education and trans people can no longer get driver’s licenses as they are classed as mentally ill. However, in the UK, most young people, feminists, women’s organisations and unions are trans inclusive. The attacks on trans people are to divide the working class and benefit the top 1% as our community doesn’t conform to gender roles and the traditional family under capitalism. With their so-called "Religious Discrimination" bill, the Liberal government in Australia is back on the warpath against LGBTI rights. Our historic victory for marriage equality in 2017 showed we have the majority on our side. But since then, the conservative right has been determined to turn back the tide of progress. All three speakers called for grass roots organisation and mass protests to oppose these bigots and their actions. Activists in these countries are not taking these attacks lying down. They are organising ordinary people to get out on the streets, demand their rights and beat the bigots back. And we need to continue to be grass-roots activists and join in the next CARR demo: Protest Perrotet at 12pm on Sunday 31 October 2021 at Sydney Town Hall.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair 78er badges are $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the 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. Alternatively, you can post a cheque CAMP badges are $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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. 2021 Raffle We have opened up raffle ticket sales so that you can order by email. First make your payment, using the bank details in the 78ers badge article above, and then email your name and number of tickets. We will then email you a photo of your ticket numbers and your name on the ticket stubs. The raffle will be drawn just prior to the 2022 Mardi Gras Parade.   Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members The book on CAMP pioneers being produced by 78ers and original members of CAMP NSW, Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister, is nearing completion with $30,000 having been raised through grants and donations so far. The book brings to life the vital role that CAMP activists played in inspiring and initiating a social movement that continues to this day. Individual members of CAMP from each state branch tell their own stories and highlight their lived experiences, including the life-changing support their community offered at a time when lesbians and gay men were despised by much of society. Their stories also convey the excitement of protest and change. This 300 page large format book includes newly commissioned professional portrait photographs of CAMP members from across Australia, together with rare archival images and detailed accounts of the challenges and achievements of each state CAMP branch. Funding has enabled the engagement of a professional photographer, graphic designer, copy editor, payment of photo rights and associated costs. Raising sufficient funds to meet these costs is a great achievement but after a year’s work, we face a shortfall for printing costs. All donations welcome via GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/f/help-commemorate-the-camp-pioneers   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Join us for a Social Lunch at midday on Sunday 7 November at the easily accessible Terminus Hotel. We book tables on the light and airy upstairs balcony. The meals are reasonably priced and allergies are catered for. The Terminus Hotel is at 61 Harris St Pyrmont. There is a light rail stop, with lift access, nearby in John Street Square. The 389 bus runs from Park St near Town Hall and stops across the road from the hotel. RSVP to: info@78ers.org.au.   Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members Right: 6 June 2021 lunch. Photo from Diane Minnis' phone. Here is a request from Adèle (she/her), a year three psychology student at Erasmus University Rotterdam. "For my bachelor’s thesis, I am conducting research on the psychological well-being of adults (18+) that were raised by different and same-sex couples. "Therefore, I’m looking for people 18+ who were raised by different or same-sex parents to take this survey. However, I’m having trouble finding people raised by same sex parents which is why I’m reaching out in hopes that you can help me reach more people. "Data is collected anonymously! It should take around 15 to 20 min. so to compensate, at the end of the survey you can indicate if you would like to enter yourself in a raffle to win one of two 15$ vouchers. "I would appreciate it so much if you could share this with people who you think would be willing to participate or pass the message along. Please let me know if I can give you any more info at: lavergne.adele@gmail.com." The survey can be taken in English, French, or Dutch :) https://erasmusuniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_095LMRhewKwwGWi?fbclid=IwAR1uhbDxwrY_XqtEbr-pe9Fcq2lmnskfRsyQqFP6EcjbvZuInx5J5JdAKeE Calendar of Events OUT in the OPEN Festival, Shepparton – 28 October to 7 November 2021 http://outintheopen org.au/ Social Lunch – midday, Sunday 7 November 2021, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, RSVP to info@78ers.org.au Protest Perrotet – 12pm, Sunday 31 October 2021, , Sydney Town Hall Fruitopia Fair Day, Lismore – Sunday 14 November 2021 https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 20 November 2021, by Zoom Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 19-23 January 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 24-28 March 2022 https://www.bhfestival.com/festival-tickets Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed), https://waggamardigras.com/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Please check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Newsletter - September 2021

View this email in your browser September 2021 In this September edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Details of the First Mardi Gras Inc. AGM on 9 October 2021 Virginia Mansel Lees with a Call for Interviewees for a video on Forty Years Since the Decriminalisation of Homosexuality in Victoria Karl Zlotkowski on Campaigning against Anti-LGBTIQ Bills Robyn Kennedy on New CAMP Badges Available! Rebbell Barnes on how to get your 78ers Badge and Raffle tickets Diane Minnis with a Tribute to Kaye Shumack on her passing Invitation you to an online discussion about God Save The Queen, the new book by Dennis Altman Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis First Mardi Gras Inc. members at the 2020 AGM. Screenshot montage: Sallie Colechin. The Annual General Meeting of First Mardi Gras Inc. will be held at 4pm on Saturday 9 October 2021 – by Zoom. All Members and Associate Members should have now received the meeting notice, associated documents and Zoom link. At the AGM, you’ll hear reports about what FMG Inc. has been doing over the past year. Even more importantly, you’ll have the chance to ask questions and put forward your ideas about what our community association should focus on in the future. And it will be a great opportunity to catch up with other members! If you are interested in working with us on our Committee or in a Working Group, please give one of us a call: Diane 0411 213 019, Ken 0417 398 167.   Diane Minnis and Ken Davis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs Hume Phoenix Inc. is an LGBTIQ organisation that spans both sides of the border between Victoria and New South Wales. In the last round of Midsumma funding there was a call-out for activities that would celebrate the Forty years of Decriminalisation of Homosexuality in Victoria. We applied and were successful in this round of funding. The main activity that we are undertaking will be the interviewing of gay men and Drag Queens who lived through both eras of the legislation. The interviews will be made into a video that will then be launched on the 26 November 2021 in Beechworth. There will be a ceremony locally where the hall will be decorated with memorabilia from our communities that highlight the struggle to achieve recognition. Interviews will be undertaken by Virginia Mansel Lees, and the videographer will edit the interviews into a video. All materials will then be lodged with the Australian Queer Archives that are now located at the Victorian Pride Centre. Because this is Victorian government grant money, you need to have lived at least part of your life during this time in Victoria in order to be part of the video project. If you are interested in being interviewed and/or would like more information, please make contact with Virginia: Email: vmansellees@yahoo.com.au, or Mobile: 0438282146. I look forward to speaking with you and being able to share this project and the associated events that Hume Phoenix Inc. has been funded for.   Virginia Mansel Lees First Mardi Gras Inc. Associate Member 78ers will by now have heard that Mark Latham’s Parental Rights Bill has moved one step closer to a vote in the NSW Parliament, possibly after sittings resume in October. But worse, the recommendations of the parliamentary committee (chaired by Latham himself) have gone even further than the original One Nation draft legislation.   Update from Equality Australia One Nation’s proposed bill threatens to harm trans and gender diverse students by denying their existence and preventing teachers and counsellors from supporting them. It would allow parents to withdraw their child from a class or program which tells them LGBTIQ+ people are just like everyone else. The committee’s report – supported by all the committee members except for Labor’s Anthony D’Adam and the Greens’ David Shoebridge – goes even further than One Nation’s harmful bill. It includes proposals that are likely unlawful, and a direct attack on the safety of trans and gender diverse young people, lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer students, and teachers who support them. It recommends a number of regressive and discriminatory policy changes, including: Prohibiting students from confidentially coming out as transgender to their teachers or school counsellors Banning trans students from participating in high school sports teams that align with their gender Requiring trans children to undergo full medical transition to be able to use toilets, change rooms or accommodation where they feel safe requiring parental consent for any discussion of matters concerning gender or sexuality. We already know that almost one in every two trans and gender diverse young people will attempt to take their own life, and many are subject to bullying and unfair treatment at school. If these policies were implemented, they would make schools even less safe and place trans students’ lives at risk. Every student in NSW should have the opportunity to reach their potential, to learn with their peers, and feel a sense of belonging in their school. That’s why we must come together to call on the State Government to stand up to One Nation and disregard the recommendations of this report, and on our Parliament to join together to vote this harmful bill down. Equality Australia is encouraging us to join a letter writing campaign to resist this legislation.   Click to write an email: equalityaustralia.org.au/ignoranceineducationbill/   Support from Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 78ers should be particularly pleased that our Mardi Gras organisation is actively supporting this campaign. SGLMG now have a Memorandum of Understanding with Equality Australia, and have confirmed their willingness to work closely with other community groups to support campaigns of this kind. This time that support took the form of a formal email from the CEO of Mardi Gras, Albert Kruger, urging all members to sign up to the Equality Australia letter writing campaign. Albert, and the Mardi Gras Board, should be commended for this unequivocal position. This is the Mardi Gras we want to see – taking a lead on issues impacting our community.   Community Action for Rainbow Rights online forum Sydney’s Community Action for Rainbow Rights, together with Melbourne-based Rainbow Rebellion, are holding their next event in their campaign against the Federal so-called "Religious Discrimination" bill. They assert that the Liberal government in Australia is back on the warpath against LGBTI rights. Our historic victory for marriage equality in 2017 showed we have the majority on our side. But since then, the conservative right has been determined to turn back the tide of progress. Here are the details of the online forum: Online forum: The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! Saturday 16 October 2021 at 1pm (2) [FORUM] The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! | Facebook   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The Pride movement in Australia started well before 1978. In 1970 the national network known as CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) was founded in Sydney. The momentum of CAMP quickly spread to other States, fuelling the first LGBTQI rights marches and political campaigns for changes to oppressive laws and systems. Over fifty years later, 78ers and original members of CAMP NSW, Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister, are compiling a book of newly commissioned professional portrait photographs of CAMP members across Australia, together with their personal stories of the impact CAMP had on their lives. As part of fundraising and promotional efforts for the upcoming book, exact replicas of the original CAMP badge have been produced. Badges are available for $3.50 each plus $3.00 packaging and postage. To order and obtain pricing for multiple badges, 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.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member First Mardi Gras Inc. has produced a new batch of 78er badges. They cost $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the postage is still $3.09 for up to five badges. To order your badges email your name, postal address and the number of badges required to info@78ers.org.au. Then make your payment by funds transfer. Alternatively, you can post a cheque. At left, Mannie De Saxe wearing our new 78ers badges that Michael Fenaughty sent him as a lockdown gift. With lockdown, we have opened up raffle ticket sales so that you can order by email. First make your payment, using the bank details in the 78ers badge article above, and then email your name and number of tickets. We will then email you a photo of your ticket numbers and your name on the ticket stubs. The raffle will be drawn just prior to the 2022 Mardi Gras Parade.   Rebbell Barnes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member 78er Dr Kaye Shumack has recently passed away. Kaye was a visual artist, academic and an activist who was part of the original Elsie Women’s Refuge Collective. In a Sydney Morning Herald tribute, Kaye was remembered as: ‘A much loved sister, cousin, aunt, partner-in-life, friend and colleague. Artist, Scholar, Educator, Change Maker, who cherished our natural world.’ We remember Kaye as an activist for women’s and lesbian and gay causes and a fighter for social justice. She was quiet and serious and also funny and down to earth. After working at Elsie Women’s Refuge, Kaye went on to a distinguished academic career. With a background in photography, visual communication design and media production; Kaye’s research explored relationships between people, space and place through uses of mapping methodologies and visualisations. Kaye became a Professor and Director of Learning and Teaching, and the Director of International in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, at Western Sydney University. In 2015, she received a University Award for Teaching Excellence. Kaye regularly exhibited her artwork and was featured in the Queerography Group Show at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in February-March 1994 and many other shows over the years. Kaye’s drawing practice explored traces and motifs from the urban landscapes of Sydney’s public spaces. Kaye came along to a couple of 78ers meetings in 2016 and 2017 and joined the exuberant 78er contingent in the 40th Anniversary Parade. Afterwards she sent a message: “Congrats on such a successful night for the organisers! Saw people there haven't seen for many years.” Kaye was not able to join the 2019 Parade but was happy to receive her 78ers t-shirt. After her retirement from Western Sydney University, Kaye joined the National Art School MFA 1 drawing cohort in 2020. It was in mid-2020 Kaye found that she had advanced cancer and took time off to manage treatment and pain. In a tribute to Kaye, the National Art School wrote: “We’re thankful for the opportunity to know Kaye and pleased that thanks to her generosity, she will be remembered through the Kaye Shumack Sunflower Drawing Prize, an annual award of $3,000 for an MFA Drawing graduate whose work contributes to broadening awareness of social issues.” As 78ers, we remember Kaye as an activist committed to social justice, involved in the tumultuous events of 1978 and as someone who wanted to continue celebrate our communities’ achievements.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair  Scribe Publications and Readings invite you to a discussion about:   GOD SAVE THE QUEEN the strange persistence of monarchies by 78er Dennis Altman in conversation with Judith Brett   12.30pm Thursday 30 September, Online via Zoom RSVP: joshua@scribepub.com.au/ 03 9388 8780 Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 9 October 2021, by Zoom The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! online forum – 1pm, Saturday 16 October 2021, Rainbow Rebellion and Community Action for Rainbow Rights (2) [FORUM] The global fight for LGBTI rights: No right-wing backlash! | Facebook OUT in the OPEN Festival, Shepparton – 28 October to 7 November 2021 http://outintheopen org.au/ Fruitopia Fair Day, Lismore – Sunday 14 November 2021 https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 2-6 December 2021 https://www.bhfestival.com/festival-tickets Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 19-25 January 2022 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Queer Arts Festival: Queer & Visible, Wollongong – 2022 (dates to be confirmed),https://www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed), https://waggamardigras.com/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Please check links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of events.

Annual Report 2020/2021

The First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual Report for FY 2021 has been released ahead of the upcoming Annual General Meeting. Download and view the report by clicking here.

Newsletter - August 2021

View this email in your browser August 2021 In this August edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Rebbell Barnes on our new 78ers Badge and 2021 Raffle Gail Hewison on the OutStanding Short Story Competition Robyn Kennedy on WorldPride 2021 in Copenhagen Diane Minnis on the Stop the "Religious Freedom" bills: No right to discriminate! online rally Robyn Kennedy with an update on CAMP: Australia’s pioneer homosexual rights activist Barry Charles on the The 2021 CENSUS and our Community Diane Minnis on the State Library of NSW Scholar Talk: Lesbian Sydney in the 1990s Robyn Kennedy on the State Library WorldPride 2023 Exhibition Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis   If you are interested in working with First Mardi Gras Inc. on our Committee or in a Working Group, please call one of our Co-Chairs: Diane Minnis 0411 213 019 and Ken Davis 0417 398 167.   It has been a few years since First Mardi Gras Inc. sold the last of the badges we produced for the 40th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras. So we decided to produce a badge that we could use every year. Our new badges cost $5 each and postage is $3.09 (total $8.09). If you want to order more than one badge, the postage is only $3.09 for up to five badges. To order your badges email your name, postal address and the number of badges required to info@78ers.org.au. Please also contact us for payment details.   Rebbell Barnes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The First Mardi Gras Inc. fundraising team are running a year-long raffle. We started selling tickets at the 2 May Dog Park Picnic and planned to sell more during the year. But now with lockdown, we have opened up raffle ticket sales so that you can order by email. First make your payment, using the bank details in the badges article above, and then email your name and number of tickets. We will then email you a photo of your ticket numbers and your name on the stub. The raffle will be drawn just prior to the 2022 Mardi Gras Parade. Thanks to prize donors: Rebbell Barnes, Garry Case, Mazz Image and Wanda Kluke. If you would like to enter this year’s OutStanding LGBTIQA+ Short Story Competition, the theme is Oops! and entries need to be 750 words and in by 1 September 2021. See www.outstandingstories.net for details. The short story competition also has a long history. It was started in the late 80s by Gary Dunne and Lauren McKinnon who also started Blackwattle Press, the first gay press in Australia. Gary and Lauren were also instigators of the early Queer Lit Conferences where I was involved via The Feminist Bookshop which I ran from 1982-2011 with my sisters. Because of my interest in writing and writers, I was invited to be on the committee running the competition and later asked to be a judge. For some years the competition was called Mardi Gras Short Story Competition. Around 2011, with the support of Mardi Gras, the competition was passed back to the committee and became an autonomous competition called OutStanding. The name was suggested by Lauren McKinnon who had retired because of ill health. The committee members are all volunteers, there is no fee to enter, and all funds raised are used as either prize money or for expenses. At different times the competition has received funding from LINC and Aurora, but mostly the committee raises funds with other prizes being donated by Mardi Gras, The Bookshop Darlinghurst and WritingNSW. The current committee is Gail Hewison, Robert Tait, Stafford Hamilton, Nikki Bryson, and our annual guest judge Sophie Robinson. We all love our community of writers, and love giving back to our larger queer community by encouraging creativity and fun. Several years ago our winner was 78er Garry Wotherspoon at the time aged 78, and in that same year the Youth Prize was won by a Year 12 school student. Diana King, another 78er has also several times been in the prize winners list. Our Facebook page has 1500+ followers and we run two competitions each year. Our main competition from June to September is open now, and our summer competition, Miniature, is held in February alongside Mardi Gras. All information, and past winning stories can be read on www.outstandingstories.net.    Gail Hewison, 78er Despite COVID-19, WorldPride 2021 in Copenhagen went ahead with the first events taking place on 14th August. The EuroGames in Malmo Sweden scheduled events from 17th August. Key events like the Human Rights Conference; the Refugees, Borders and Immigration Summit; and the Democracy Festival as well as several concerts, EuroGames tournaments and the Fluid Festival are available to watch as recordings. You can see the three days of the Human Rights Conference on YouTube: Day1 https://youtu.be/B58L2BRshUg Day 2 https://youtu.be/5RxOrzXP2eI Day 3 https://youtu.be/k5JRxV3Kp-k WorldPride 2021 can be accessed via https://copenhagen2021.com.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) had a good rollup of around 160 people to their online protest: Stop the "Religious Freedom" bills: No right to Discriminate! on Saturday 14 August. About a dozen 78ers participated in the rally. The federal Liberal government will introduce legislation this year that gives bigots more powers to discriminate against employees, patients, students, clients, and customers. Attorney General Michaelia Cash has been consulting with extreme right-wing groups like the Australian Christian Lobby on the contents of the bill. Under previous drafts of the "Religious Discrimination" bill: every pharmacist, doctor and nurse in the country could deny contraceptive or morning-after pills, abortions, or hormone therapy to any patient any boss could tell their transgender employees that they are a crime against god and are going to hell all religious schools, aged care providers, and businesses could sack any LGBTI employee religious charities could deny shelter, clothes or food to LGBTI people in need day-care providers could tell single mothers that raising a child without a father is child abuse all strong protections in state-based legislation for LGBTI people, such as in Tasmania, would be annulled. At the rally, we heard from a strong panel of speakers from around Australia: Dr Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Senator for NSW Roz Ward, founder of the Safe Schools program and a co-founder of Rainbow Rebellion Melbourne Lydia Shelley, a lawyer and member of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties Rodney Croome, spokesperson for the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights group and Just.Equal Sel Dowd, Co-Convenor Equal Love Brisbane. CARR Co-Convenor April Holcombe chaired the rally and asked for support for those arrested at the anti-trans bills protest on 10 October 2020. NSW allowed large, unmasked sporting events at that time, yet opposed a small, masked protest. The link is: https://chuffed.org/project/lgbti-campaign-fundraiser The rally was a great call to action and reminded us all that we need to continue to fight against these so-called "Religious Freedom" bills.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair An upcoming book, CAMP: Australia’s pioneer homosexual rights activists is being produced by 78ers Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister has now reached an advanced stage of development. The book includes interviews with and portraits of CAMP pioneers such as former Co-President Sue Wills. Copy is close to finalisation and graphic design has commenced. The size of the book has grown along with its ambitions and will now be published as a 300 page high quality product – in both hard and ecopy and be available to order on-demand indefinitely through major outlets. Thanks to sponsors and donors estimated production costs are close to being met but a final push is needed to get over the line. All donations are welcome and can be made via the following link: gofundme.com/f/help-commemorate-the-camp-pioneers. The link also provides more information about this unique project.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The Census for 2021 was a missed opportunity for properly identifying the true composition of our nation and our needs. LGBTIQ Health held a webinar with representatives of the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Monday 2 August 2021 to advise the implications for our community of the Census questions. The ABS explained that they had held extensive consultations on how to best record the diversity of our community in census data. They established standards (see the link to the Webinar) on how to frame questions to achieve this and made suggestions to the Federal Government for this year. The current government saw fit to ignore these recommendations for 2021. In regard to the diversity in gender identity, we are left with only one question under Sex which asks us to choose Male/Female/Non-Binary. This hardly meets the wide variety of ways we may choose to describe our gender identity. The ABS recommended that those wishing to more fully describe their gender identity use the on-line version of the Census rather than the paper version. On-line under Non-Binary you could check a box to add text to describe yourself more accurately. This was not possible on the paper version. Marriage and relationship status is also inadequately addressed though some data can be obtained by the ABS by putting parts of the Household question and relationship to principal questions together. The issue here is the wide variety of relationship/marriage arrangements in the queer community. This Census will not provide data on people who are in an equal marriage/de-facto but not living together. Normally data collected from the Census is published in June/July the following year. By not addressing these questions adequately at this Census; the ABS and other researchers will have to conduct follow up surveys or make assumptions from the data. It is hoped that the ABS can convince a future government to improve the data collection on our community and we have a role here. Preparations and submissions on the content of the next Census will begin as soon as the 2021 one has been published. So once again it is something we have to campaign for, to ensure that a future government responds to the need to have accurate data on the LGBTIQ+ Community.  For more information visit the LGBTIQ Health website for the full recording: https://www.lgbtiqhealth.org.au/census_webinar_and_faqs   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary It’s a little disconcerting when you listen to a young researcher speak about a period you lived through. Yet I gained some new perspectives from Dr Sophie Robinson’s State Library of NSW Scholar Talk Lesbian Sydney in the 1990s on 3 August 2021. Sophie spoke at our 2020 Salon78 forum A Lavender Menace? Australia’s Early Lesbian Movement and is a Committee member of the Pride History Group. She was the recipient of a Nancy Keesing Fellowship from the State Library and this Scholar Talk is based on her research conducted during the fellowship.  Sophie’s project explored Sydney’s lesbian sub-culture as it became increasingly politically active and organised, drawing on the Library’s archives and two key publications of the time: Lesbians on the Loose (LOTL) and Wicked Women. Both publications reflect the distinctly Australian lesbian feminist politics of the 70s coming through to the entrepreneurial, events oriented lesbian cultures of the 90s. These cultures were not monolithic and included anti-violence, sex positive and lesbian health groups. While LOTL focussed on expanding the lesbian presence in the gay and lesbian scene and continuing the activist feminist agenda, Wicked Women aimed to connect kink and BDSM sub-cultures. LOTL was free in order to reach the widest audience and to do this, they sold ads and received some financial support from Mardi Gras. Wicked Women also went into the performance space, with the Ms Wicked competitions which provided an alternative space to the more conservative bars. And by the early 90s, debate in both magazines overlapped with coverage of power and desire in lesbian communities. During the 90s more lesbians got involved in coalition movements. It was an important time for expanding lesbian visibility and women’s leadership roles in Mardi Gras, ACON and the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. Once the talk is transcribed, the recording and transcription will be available on the State Library website. Search for Scholar Talks.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair As the State Library’s Coming out in the 70s Exhibition concluded, work began on an exhibition to coincide with Sydney WorldPride 2023. The Advisory Committee for the first exhibition has continued on and includes 78ers Robert French, Garry Wotherspoon, Robyn Kennedy and Pam Stein, along with community photographer C. Moore Hardy. With a working title of Pride 2023, the exhibition is intended to be thematically based. Potential themes under discussion focus on diverse identities and the cultural infrastructure of queer lives. Some examples include: the emergence of a distinct lesbian culture gender diverse Indigenous people being CALD and queer queer scenes, events and subcultures and their importance in building resilience celebration in the face of widespread discrimination and silencing, and how this has changed over time.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Calendar of Events Wear it Purple Day – Friday 27 August 2021 WEAR IT PURPLE Fruitopia Fair Day, Lismore – Sunday 12 September 2021 https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Coastal Twist Arts and Cultural Festival – 29 September to 4 October 2021 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ Queer Arts Festival: Queer & Visible, Wollongong – September 2021 (dates to be confirmed) https://www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/ First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 9 October 2021, by Zoom OUT in the OPEN Festival, Shepparton – 28 October to 7 November 2021 http://outintheopen org.au/ Parramatta Pride Picnic – 30 October 2021, please check Facebook page Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 2-6 December 2021 https://www.bhfestival.com/festival-tickets Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed) https://waggamardigras.com/ Newcastle and Hunter Pride Festival – has been rescheduled to October 2022, see website for details https://newcastlepride.com.au/ Please check the links closer to the advertised dates for confirmation of the events.

Newsletter - July 2021

View this email in your browser July 2021 In this July edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Karl Zlotkowski on No Right to Discriminate! Online Rally on 14 August! Barry Charles on SGLMGs Queer Thinking: Religious Discrimination and the Fights Ahead April Holcombe on Salon78: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Statement and photos from the Victorian Pride Centre Opening Robyn Kennedy on Oceania Pride Sandra Gobbo’s review of ‘Free Radical - A Memoir’ by 78er Gay Walsh A review of ‘Endings & Spacings’ by 78er Pam Brown ACON’s LOVE Project Community Visitors Scheme Link to Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras video: Pride Month panel discusses the historic moment of 24 June 1978 UN Ambassador Mitch Fifield’s message for Pride Month Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis Here in NSW our community currently has two items of legislation to worry about, both proposed by One Nation: the Education (Parental Rights AKA Latham anti-trans) Bill and our state’s very own religious freedoms bill. The first of these has passed through a stage of public hearings, but at this stage there is no timeframe for a final Committee report. The second is further along – recommendations have been passed to the NSW Government (with some Committee members dissenting). The Government is due to provide its response by September, at which time it may see value in picking a culture war to distract from other things. Meanwhile in Canberra the Attorney General (Michaelia Cash) has announced that she is consulting on the Federal Religious Discrimination Bill, with a view to having draft legislation in federal parliament before the end of the year.  Christian Porter’s earlier attempt at this Bill was dismissed as unworkable (even by some religious groups) and abandoned. Is this latest version timed to surface just as we begin to lurch towards a Federal election? And Lo! Just last week we have seen St Mary’s Anglican church in West Armidale order two of its congregation (one the organist) who are legally married, to separate and undertake religious counselling. The couple have walked out, with others from the congregation in sympathy. By leaving they have avoided the implied threat of dismissal for not complying with the Church’s Faithfulness in Service code. For more information, see: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-07/gay-couple-leaves-anglican-church-after-dispute-over-marriage/100272680. 78ers, of course, will see echoes in all this of the treatment of Peter Bonsall-Boone in 1972, dismissed from his role as secretary of St Clements Anglican Church in Mosman. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now. The Armidale Diocese is seeking to defuse the situation, but the incident highlights the high-handed, tone deaf attitude of many clergy and religious institutions towards exercising ‘freedoms’ they already have.  And yet they want MORE? ALL these bills must be opposed. The ‘freedoms’ they seek to define are nothing but the powers to discriminate at will, without any obligation to respect the human dignity of others. They must be opposed, and they WILL be opposed. Join us!   Given the current COVID lockdown in the Sydney, the CARR rally on 14 August will now be an online rally and forum. We will post details on Facebook when they are available and 78ers will be there.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member On 19 June 2021, SLGMG and Equality Australia co-hosted a Queer Thinking panel discussion on the proposed religious freedoms legislation. It was great to see SLGMG taking an active part in a current queer rights struggle. The Morrison Government’s long-promised “religious freedoms” bill is planned for December this year. It is part of a backlash by various religious organisations after they were defeated over the Marriage Equality legislation.  There has been no mainstream public push or indication of necessity for this legislation, but the Attorney-General Michaelia Cash intends to go ahead anyway. It comes on the back of efforts by One Nation to threaten queer youth with the Schools (Parental Rights) legislation in NSW. This in turn is part of a concerted campaign by right-wing politicians across the world aimed at reversing the many gains achieved for LGBTIQ rights over the last 50 years. The Queer Thinking panel consisted of two speakers, Karen Pack and Hussein Hawli, who had personal experience of being rejected by their religious communities on the basis of their queer identity. And also Ghassan Kassisieh Equality Australia Legal Advisor, and Reverend Josephine Inkpin, Pastor at Pitt Street Uniting Church. The moderator was the ABC’s Fran Kelly. The sad experience of the first two speakers showed that religious organisations already retain powers to discriminate and persecute LGBTIQ teachers and students. Ghassan pointed out the flaws in the proposed bill based on some statements made by the Attorney-General and the demands being made by the likes of Lyle Shelton and Cory Bernardi; but the precise wording of the bill is not yet available. Apart from the obvious attempts to reinforce discrimination, there are legal problems. Ghassan believes the bill will create unworkable contradictions with current Anti-Discrimination Laws; particularly for the states.  Employers also will be caught in a conflict of interest protecting one employee’s rights against another. The last speaker, Josephine Inkpin nailed the point that this type of legislation is promoted by the leadership of religious organisations and politicians for their own power. The Australian Christian Lobby for instance represents a tiny minority but has powerful connections. Their views are not shared by the majority in their communities or by some of their own clerics. Increasingly, the latter are speaking out and emphasising compassion, respect, support and inclusion over rejection and discrimination. The message was for all our community to recognise the threat in this legislation. We will need to mobilise as much support as was required for law reform in the 80s and for Marriage Equality. We are in another fight for basic human rights without exemptions for some religious groups.   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary These days, Sydney Mardi Gras is a massive event. On 3 March 2019, for instance, 12,500 marched in the parade and 500,000 spectators cheered them on. Many people who attend would know that Mardi Gras’ protest roots go all the way back to 1978. But most would have no idea that that first protest was not at the end of summer, but on a cold winters’ day: 24 June 1978. So why did Mardi Gras move to summer? That’s the question participants came together to discuss over Zoom on Saturday 26 June, 2021, as a new COVID-19 outbreak prevented an in-person forum. The meeting was organised by First Mardi Gras Inc. – those veteran activists who participated in that trailblazing event 43 years ago, and who’ve been fighting for social justice ever since. Speakers Susan Ardill, David Abello and Murray McLachlan gave some contrasting and competing perspectives on the calendar shift – and the broader dynamics of the gay movement at the time. As the meeting’s subtitle – ‘Community vs. Commercial Scene’ – suggested, the change of date was informed by political rationale. Broadly speaking, radicals in the movement opposed the date change as they considered it driven by more conservative forces seeking to moderate and marketise the event (although Ken Davis noted opposition to date change was not unanimous amongst radicals). Anyone who witnesses the Pink Dollar spectacle of Mardi Gras today can easily see where they’re coming from. Murray argued that ‘climate’ was as much a consideration as ‘commerce’ – but perhaps the former is primarily the prerogative of the latter? Both Susan and David explained some of the tensions in the struggle as debates around racism, sexism and reform vs. revolution raged. As fierce as debate can get in political spaces, it is often the sign of a healthy movement that participants feel so passionately about these questions. More open discussion like this is welcome – and needed – in the movement today. I hope there are more opportunities like First Mardi Gras Inc.’s forum for radical activists to have these discussions.   April Holcombe Co-Convener, Community Action for Rainbow Rights The Victorian Pride Centre was officially launched on Sunday 11 July by Premier Daniel Andrews, Minister for Equality Martin Foley, and Mayor of the City of Port Phillip Louise Crawford. The launch was preceded by a smoking ceremony and welcome to country by Boon Wurrung Senior Elder, N’arweet Carolyn Briggs. As the new home of Koorie Pride, the Victorian Pride Centre was honoured to open at the conclusion of this year’s NAIDOC Week. The Pride Centre is Australia’s first purpose-built centre for LGBTIQ+ people and will house a range of community organisations as well as house spaces for art, culture, events and collaboration. It is a place of belonging, support and pride for the state’s diverse LGBTIQ+ community. Incoming VPC Chair Hang Vo said “Today is an important milestone for our community. As Australia’s first purpose-built pride centre, this is where everyone can come together, honour the past, celebrate the present, and work towards a more inclusive future. “We are open, welcoming to everyone, with a culture founded on diversity, inclusiveness and belonging. We are so thrilled to be the new home to a broad community of organisations, groups, vital services and social spaces,” “We thank the many supporters whose generosity has ensured this beautiful centre could be built. To the Victorian Government, City of Port Phillip, our founders, corporate supporters and individuals, members of our sub committees and working groups and those who have donated or volunteered we thank you for joining with us in building this stunning communal landmark,” Inaugural VPC Chair Jude Munro said “Today is an historic moment for our community. Our diversity is our strength and I know the centre is well placed to serve its mission and to be a vibrant place of pride for generations. As a co-founding member of Gay Liberation it’s fitting that as we celebrate we also acknowledge the history of criminalisation and discrimination many in our community have been subjected to and the people not with us today. As we party and prepare for the even brighter future we are building together we recognise how emotional it is for so many in our community to have reached this day,” VPC CEO Justine Dalla Riva said “we look forward to welcoming the community to our centre. Whether you come to visit one of our tenant organisations, attend a meeting or attend an event we look forward to being the centre that brings together the vibrant diversity of our community. We have staff and volunteers representing all of our community ready to welcome you, to help with information, connection and advice; kindness and care.” The virtual Pride Centre is the place to connect with the VPC wherever you are. You can find us on www.pridecentre.org.au. The statement above was posted by the Victorian Pride Centre, following the successful launch on Sunday 11 July.   Two 78ers were key to the creation and build of this fabulous community resource. Jude Munro was the Inaugural Chair of the VPC Board and Peter McEwan was Chair of the Property Committee of the Board. We will catch up with Jude and Peter in this newsletter in coming months – when they are not exhausted from their very significant efforts. But I’m sure all 78ers will join in to congratulate Jude and Peter on this magnificent achievement! At the last monthly meeting of Oceania Pride held on 30th June 2021 we had a presentation from Peter Irungu, Stakeholder Engagement Consultant with InterPride. Peter has been engaged to undertake detailed internal and external consultation about future strategic directions for InterPride. InterPride was formed almost 40 years ago and since then the global Pride movement has changed significantly, particularly in relation to the growth and evolution of Pride in global south and east. Peter noted that the strategic planning process aims to address a number of challenging issues including language and cultural barriers to participation, InterPride’s complex governance structures, and the future role of InterPride in the context of the increasing number of self-governing regional associations of Pride organisors. Preliminary findings from the consultation process will be presented at the InterPride Annual Meeting and Conference to be held online in November 2021.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member While loneliness and isolation can affect anyone’s mental health, the impact can be more severe for older people. ACON's Community Visitor Scheme is all about reducing social isolation of older LGBTI people by providing company and friendship of Volunteer Visitors. Our trained volunteers make regular one on one home visits where they chat over a cuppa, listen to music, watch a movie or participate in a hobby, game or other activity. The Community Visitor Scheme is a free service that operates across the Sydney metropolitan area including the Blue Mountains. The service is available to recipients of Australian Government subsidised Home Care Packages who have been identified by their aged care provider as experiencing or at risk of experiencing social isolation, whether for social or cultural reasons or because of disability. To get involved as a client, volunteer or service provider please contact us: (02) 9206 2028 or email: communityvisitor@acon.org.au We also invite you to connect to the LOVE Project via: FACEBOOK WEB. ‘Free Radical - A Memoir’ by Gabrielle (Gay) Walsh is an important work from an activist who has dedicated her life to the creation of a better society. As she says “Change is a profoundly social process. It is so much more than ‘the individual’, the ‘me’: ‘taking a selfie’. Margaret Thatcher was quite wrong when she said that “there’s no such thing as society”. There really is and without society we cease to be human. Equally, in my humble opinion, our humanity may be measured by the quality of the society that we create.” The value of such a carefully crafted record as an educational tool for younger readers cannot be overlooked, with the book containing a huge amount of background information provided on the origins of many campaigns and the activists involved. The book is a collection of both amusing anecdotes and political observations, all told from the perspective of Gay’s own experiences reflecting both her personal growth and the changes as they occurred in Australian society around her. The opening chapters contain a perfectly rendered depiction of a childhood spent growing up in Brisbane and other Australian places in the 50s and 60s with a loving family, religious schooldays (with corporal punishment) and days packed with outdoor adventure and curiosity. The story moves quite quickly through her teenage years and the changes in Gay’s outlook as access to education increases and curiosity becomes guided by her growing intellect. The story of what ‘Coming out’ and being a lesbian meant in the 60s is here and covers both the writer’s own confusion and discovery as well as the reactions of family and friends. Through the story of Gay’s experiences we learn about the fight to change the traditional role of women and the societal changes made possible by the Whitlam years. There are backstories to many campaigns the origins of the various protest movements from the Anti-war marches to the Anti-Apartheid movements, and the rise of the gay and lesbian rights movement. The book is a great reminder that activists had to travel all over Australia to meet and plan and to attend meetings and conferences in the days of no email, no social media and no internet. “We were on a mission to change the world in which we lived. We wanted to make peace and not war. We pursued liberation. We stormed the barricades and toppled the citadels. This was a fight for our lives on so many levels and in so many ways. Our struggles empowered us. We were potent and brave in our pursuit of sexual pleasure, emotional fulfilment and the recognition of our sexuality. We invented the language, the dialogue, the meaning of sexual liberation. We made it possible to be authentic human beings, without the horrible homophobic “crap” in our heads. We loudly proclaimed that “Gay is Good” and “Lesbians Ignite”. The “yes” vote in the postal survey could never have occurred were it not for past gains; who we really were back then and what we dared to do.” Gay’s mentions of friends and colleagues throughout the book read like a roll-call of some of the pioneers of activism in Australia. There are so many stories of travels, memories and portraits of lovers and lifelong friendships – and there are some beautiful tributes to friends who are no longer here. The list of unions, campaigns and legislative changes Gay Walsh has been involved with is huge, and there appears to have been no change of pace at any point. A tenacious fighter through decades of opposition, it must be noted that Gay continued to fight non-stop for a more just society while suffering various disabling illnesses. The final chapter is dedicated to the happiness of her relationship with Aurora and the well-deserved contentment found within. Gay Walsh has always been a fearless activist and a force to be reckoned with, and this is a wonderful memoir of such a huge life. Watch out for details of the launch of Gay’s book at the Victorian Pride Centre on 14 October 2021 and in other state capitals in the following weeks. Available from Booktopia: Free Radical by Gabrielle (Gay) Walsh | 9781528948647 | Booktopia. Link to Gay Walsh’s blog: https://gabriellegaywalsh.ampbk.com/blog/welcome-to-my-very-first-blog-on-my-brand-new-authors-website-so-exciting/.   Sandra Gobbo 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member The latest from Australian poet and editor Pam Brown is the poetry title Endings & Spacings (Sydney Australia: Never-Never Books, 2021), a small collection composed in three extended sequences: “( crossing my mind ),” “( lingering )” and “( outer spacings ).” The three sequences of stitched lyrics in Endings & Spacings are composed akin to the late American poet Robert Creeley’s longer sequences: stretched-out accumulations of lyric fragments, hesitations and short phrases, one set upon another, furthering a loose thread as far as it might lead. She writes of memory, recollection and time, sketching her meanderings and meditations that seek out the proper questions. She writes of history, and what it teaches, furthering step upon step, one thought leading directly into another. As she writes as part of the third sequence: “‘the past’ / is an invention / that, / once archived, / destroys / the commons // (execrable!) [.]” Assembled and accrued during the pandemic-stretch, Brown’s triptych explores the lyric, but a particular kind of exhaustion, writing of wildfires and funerals, and long stretches of domestic patter, as in the second sequence, “after months of dark & silent evenings […] what to do when we can’t do anything [.]” Brown’s lyrics keep to small, composed facing outward but low to the ground. These are meditations on anxiety, centred on and around such an uncertain stretch of time; not knowing when the tides might shift, and the uncertainties that pile upon each other through the process, as she writes as part of the opening sequence: i don’t feel       authorized to say       i’m the ‘author’ of my poems  maybe i’m the image    my poems make of me     (not that)                or a sign      (not that either)  what does a poet                       do? As the author suggests via email, given neither book nor press has a webpage, anyone interested in purchasing a copy can contact the publisher directly at: never_never_books@yahoo.com.  Rob McLennan rob mclennan's blog Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras put out a Pride Month video to mark the anniversary of the first Mardi Gras. I was pleased to be asked to take part and had a good chat with Jinny-Jane Smith of Blaq and Shirleene Robinson from the Pride History Group. The link and the post by SGLMG are below.   “On this day in 1978, a small group of protestors took to the streets of Sydney, peacefully marching during the day and organising a street parade for the evening. It was a defining moment in not only Sydney’s LGBTQI+ communities but Australia’s cultural heritage. We owe the brave 78ers much for where we are today – a more equal Australia. Hear from Jinny-Jane Smith of Blaq, Diane Minnis, a 78er and First Mardi Gras Co-Chair and Shirleene Robinson of Pride History Group as they look back at that historic night, the impact it had and the changes that followed in the decades since”. https://fb.watch/v/1tcn4Gdm8/   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Australia’s UN Ambassador, and former Liberal Minister, Mitch Fifield has circulated a Pride Month message on Twitter along with UN Ambassadors from other countries. Ambassador Fifield mentioned 78ers and the first Mardi Gras. The tweet says: “June is #Pride Month around the world based on the #Stonewall riots in NYC in 1969. Each country has its own version of a “Stonewall”. Today, members of #LGBTICoreGroup tell their national stories #LGBTI #HumanRights https://t.co/2ylMZlqMbH”. Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 24 July 2021, by Zoom Stop the "Religious Freedom" bills: No right to discriminate! Online Forum – 1pm, Saturday, 14 August 2021 WorldPride Copenhagen – 14-21 August 2021, online via: https://copenhagen2021.com/digital This Is Me Festival from Newcastle Pride – 12 August to 5 September 2021, 2021 Events - Newcastle Pride (COVID restrictions permitting) Social Lunch – 1pm, Sunday 5 September, 2021, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au (COVID restrictions permitting) Broken Heel Festival – 9-13 September 2021, GET TICKETS HERE — Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) Queer Arts Festival: Queer & Visible (Wollongong) – September 2021 (dates to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/ Fruitopia Fairday (Lismore) – September 2021 (date to be confirmed) https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Coastal Twist Arts and Culture Festival (Central Coast) – 1-4 October 2021 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ OUTintheOPEN Festival from Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. – 28 October-7 November 2021 Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org) (see helpful Links for YOU on left of screen) Parramatta Pride Picnic – November 2021 (date to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/events/2317409255253273/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed), https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival (Hay) – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/

Newsletter - June 2021

View this email in your browser 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Salon78 Forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? – 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 Social Lunch – 1pm, Sunday 4 July, 2021, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au  First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 24 July 2021, by Zoom Social Lunch – 1pm, Sunday 1 August, 2021, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au  This Is Me Festival from Newcastle Pride – 5 August to 5 September 2021, 2021 Events - Newcastle Pride Stop the "Religious Freedom" bills: No right to discriminate! Demonstration – 1pm, Saturday, 14 August 2021, Town Hall, Sydney WorldPride Copenhagen – 14-21 August 2021, check out online events at: https://copenhagen2021.com/digital Social Lunch – 1pm, Sunday 5 September, 2021, Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au  Broken Heel Festival – 9-13 September 2021, GET TICKETS HERE — Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) Queer Arts Festival: Queer & Visible (Wollongong) – September 2021 (dates to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/ Fruitopia Fairday (Lismore) – September 2021 (date to be confirmed) https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Coastal Twist Arts and Culture Festival (Central Coast) – 1-4 October 2021 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ OUTintheOPEN Festival from Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. – 28 October-7 November 2021 Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org) (see helpful Links for YOU on left of screen) Parramatta Pride Picnic – November 2021 (date to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/events/2317409255253273/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed), https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival (Hay) – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/

Newsletter - May 2021

View this email in your browser May 2021 In this May edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Karl Zlotkowski on Anti-Trans Bills: Anita Bryant vs Mark Latham? Details of the 5 June demo: Defend LGBTIQ rights in NSW: No right to discriminate! Barry Charles on US Anti-Trans Laws Diane Minnis on the Salon78 Forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Deb Healey on Oceania Pride Robyn Kennedy on CAMP Goes Gold! Anne Morphett’s pictures of the 78ers Dog Park Picnic Details of the next Social Lunch on 6 June Information on our ongoing 2021 Raffle Tributes to Murdered Tongan Activist Poli Kefu From the Bay Area Reporter: Queers and Allies Rally in San Francisco against Anti-Asian Hate From Bloomberg: Same-Sex Parenthood Draws Unexpected Support in Hungary Calendar of Events. Diane Minnis We all know that Mardi Gras is many things to many people. These differing views derive from their own individual experience. For many people the celebration is the most important thing, and often that reduces down to an excuse for dressing up and dancing (and comparing the colour of each other’s drugs). But those of us who’ve been around since the beginning, know that Mardi Gras celebrates not just the pride of individuals, but the collective pride of our LGBTIQ community. And we know that each year our community celebrates the way we rallied together during the winter of 1978. The Riot and the subsequent Drop the Charges campaign would never have happened if the Police hadn’t over-stepped the mark.  But they did, and as a result the birth of Mardi Gras on 24 June is usually seen as the community’s reaction to police violence and the arbitrary abuse of police authority. But the Riot is only part of the picture. June 24 was an International Day of Solidarity with a street rally in the morning, a forum in the afternoon and a festival (the 'Mardi Gras’) at night. And up front that day were a number of human rights issues that activists had been campaigning on for years – legal reform, police harassment, discrimination in employment and housing, and in education. Most of us knew about Anita Bryant and her campaign against gay teachers in Florida schools (waged under the toxic slogan ‘Save our Children’). There were similar anti-gay campaigns elsewhere in the USA at the time, including the Briggs Initiative in California, and American activists were fighting these on many fronts. They called on LGBTIQ communities around the world to rally in support, and Sydney did so on 24 June 1978. Forty three years later, we in Sydney are confronted by a piece of populist legislation in NSW put forward by Mark Latham under the guise of Parental Rights in education. This Bill seeks to penalise trans students, their teachers and mentors, rolling back freedoms from discrimination in ways that echo Anita Bryant all those years ago. Indeed her kind are at it again in the USA today, with multiple anti-trans initiatives in the works in many states. This attack on trans rights recalls the struggles we all faced in the 70s. Even though our community in 1978 had not yet acquired the ’T’, the butterfly – a trans symbol – was there on the iconic poster advertising the program for 24 June. Our struggle then, was theirs as well. Next month, the 78ers will rally once again on 5 June and march in solidarity and opposition to all attempts discriminate against our community. Join us!   Defend LGBTIQ rights in NSW: No right to discriminate! demo – 1pm, Saturday 5 June 2021, Town Hall, Sydney   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member From: Anti-transgender legislation in 2021: A record-breaking year - CNNPolitics We are currently in a fight over the Anti-Trans Latham Bill in NSW and soon to be introduced Federal legislation also by One Nation (see item above). It is important to understand that these are part of a worldwide attack on LGBTIQ people by the conservative right especially in the USA. This report is based on an analysis by Priya Krishnakumar for CNN.   Record-breaking year for anti-transgender legislation that would affect minors No less than 33 states have introduced more than 117 anti-trans bills in the USA in 2021. “The majority of bills would affect transgender youth; a group that researchers and medical professionals warn is already susceptible to high rates of suicide and depression.” The American Civil Liberties Union said this would "send a terrible and heartbreaking message" to transgender youth across the country. The majority of these bills are in Red (Republican) States in the mid-west and south. I believe it is essential to realise that these are not grassroots/religious institution driven initiatives. They appear to be a part of Conservative politicians’ campaigns to recruit voters by exploiting the ignorance and homophobia of rural and poorly educated Americans borne out of them having little or no interaction with trans people. This reminds me of the earliest days of the gay rights movement. In the 50s and 60s the conservative politicians and media could peddle lies about gays and lesbians because the general community had very few visible homosexuals in their neighbourhoods to identify with. After 50 years of Gay rights advancement and visibility, most people (except some isolated and religious communities) have some personal acquaintance in work/family with lesbians and gays. Where we have decriminalised homosexual acts and introduced non-discrimination laws and achieved marriage equality, the sky has not fallen in and we have achieved wider acceptance. But Transgender people are a small and less visible minority and can still be misrepresented and attacked.   Bans on participation in same-gender youth sport Most of the current legislation is in this area. Thirty-one states in the U.S. have introduced bills that ban transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identities. "I think that these exclusionary responses are a solution in search of a problem," said Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, interim director of GLSEN, an LGBTQ youth advocacy organisation. "There is no categorical dominance by trans athletes," she said. The politicians introducing these bills, when asked, could cite no substantial instances where this had been a problem worthy of legislation.   Gender-affirming health care for minors This is a much more serious issue. Health providers across the world have been gradually and quietly and un-controversially helping Trans youth meet the challenges of reaching puberty and providing appropriate psychological guidance and health care. “One bill in Alabama would make it a felony to give appropriate gender-identity health care to a youth”. Doctors who provide this care believe that “the treatment they provide to gender nonconforming or transgender youth can often be lifesaving”.    Just like Latham! Other U.S. states have introduced anti-trans bills that target education. “A bill in Arkansas says that schools must refer to students only by the sex, as listed on students' original birth certificates. ”Tennessee's legislature is currently debating legislation which would allow parents to opt their children out of curriculums that discuss LGBTIQ issues.”   The take-out We are being asked to support efforts to fight the One Nation bills. Remember the oppressors always go after the most vulnerable and already marginalised group first. Any successful attack on the T in our LGBTIQ community opens us to an eventual attack on the whole.   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary The Salon78 forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Community vs Commercial Scene, originally scheduled during the busy Mardi Gras season, will now be held on Saturday 26 June 2021. This will be 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 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 McLaughlin will then speak about the changes to Mardi Gras that grew out of this major shift. For the first time in 15 months, we will have an in-person event and we will Zoom the forum so others can participate. Join us upstairs at the Colombian and stay for a social drink after the forum and toast the anniversaries of the original Mardi Gras and Stonewall.   Salon78: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? Community vs Commercial Scene When: 3pm, Saturday 26 June 2021 Where: Upstairs at the Colombian Hotel, corner Oxford and Crown Streets, lift available RSVP: For in-person or Zoom attendance info@78ers.org.au.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Oceania Pride is an informal gathering of Pride organisers and related LGBTQI organisations that has been meeting monthly since July 2020. Many attendees are members of InterPride, the global association for Pride organisers, but InterPride membership is not a requirement of participation. The group includes participation from across Australia, New Zealand and an increasing number of Pacific Island nations. The meetings of InterPride Oceania always give updates on the global organisation and what is happening around the world, but the highlights of every meeting are the presentations by member groups and updates on their regional issues. In March 2021 we heard from the Samoa Fa’afafine Association and at the April meeting we had presentations from Goulburn Valley Pride and Trans Pride Australia.   Samoa Fa’afafine Association The Samoa Fa’afafine Association presentation from Alex Su’a detailed SFAs participation in and instigation of many initiatives in Samoa. In November 2020, SFA held a sports day, themed Play Safe and Live More. In December 2020 they ran a 5 day event, Fa’afafine Week, to empower and inspire their community. It began on 1 December, with an opening ceremony and commemorated World AIDS Day with a candlelight service. Activities included a forum with presentations and speakers from civil society and government about relevant services; distribution of foodstuffs and goodies to club members, particularly those affected by COVID19 through unemployment, redundancies etc. A celebratory ball was the gala event. Surrounding Fa’afafine Week was 16 Days of Activism for Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, from 25 November to 10 December 2020. The Fa’afafine population are very vulnerable to violence and rejection, often from within their own families. In December 2020, SFA received a vehicle through the United Nations Development Program to assist in outreach work and enable them to reach rural and regional Fa’afafine communities.   Goulburn Valley Pride The Goulburn Valley Pride presentation was by Damien Stevens-Todd and Deb Chumley. Centred in Shepparton, Vic, Goulburn Valley Pride has been going for 16 years. The Shepparton area has had continuing support groups for LGBTQI+ since 1996 when the Diversity Group was established by now Commissioner Ro Allen – Victoria’s first Gender and Sexuality Commissioner. Goulburn Valley Pride has 300 financial members, and is run by volunteers and its activities are focused on peer support and advocacy. They average two social events per month and have a monthly article published in the Weekend Life section of Shepparton News. In November 2021 they are putting on their 10th OUTintheOPEN Festival, which will run for 11 days. The main event is Carnival Day in the Queens Gardens on 6 November featuring food, theatre, forums, drag and lots of family fun. The Festival has proven to be very successful in boosting tourism for the city of Shepparton, with more than 500 visitors. The volunteer group which runs Goulburn Valley Pride faces many challenges, including fatigue and lack of resources. But they continue with their advocacy and activism – fighting for recognition of equal rights, helping overcome the challenges faced by the LGBTQI+ community. Currently they are directing energies towards an LGBTQI+ liaison and advisory group within Greater Shepparton City Council and embedding inclusive practice and policy, and provision of services.   TransPride Australia The presentation from TransPride Australia was delivered by AJ Brown. TransPride Australia advocates for and promotes visibility of trans and gender diverse rights through events, education and advisory roles. They provide community connection through online spaces and public events. An important role is provision of support for family, friends and colleagues of trans and gender diverse people to become strong allies. TransPride Australia holds regular social and educational and community events; the major ones being around Trans Day of Visibility and Mardi Gras. Trans Day of Visibility aims to promote living a life of acceptance for who you are for all. They also hold Trans Stories Sharing and workshops.   Whilst each Pride organisation is for a different group of people, there is a common thread of purpose which unites them, and indeed all of the Pride organisations in our diverse region. We all seek acceptance and inclusion, safety and good health outcomes, meeting housing and health needs and support and understanding for all in the community.   Deb Healey 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. member The Pride movement in Australia started well before the first Mardi Gras in 1978. In 1970 the national network known as CAMP (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) was founded in Sydney. The momentum of CAMP quickly spread to other States, fuelling the first LGBTQI rights marches and political campaigns for changes to oppressive laws and systems. Fifty years later, some of the original members of CAMP NSW are compiling a book of newly commissioned professional portrait photographs of CAMP members across Australia, together with their personal stories of the impact CAMP had on their lives at the time. Our book is called Pioneers of Protest and Change in recognition of the vital role played by CAMP activists in beginning a social movement that continues to this day. Thanks to ACON, we have been able to meet costs related to photography and interview transcriptions but we need to raise additional funds to cover the cost of book design and production. We hope you agree that the contribution of the people who started the Pride movement in Australia is worth commemorating. We would really appreciate your help in bringing this unique project to fruition. Everyone who donates $100 or more will get a special mention in the book! Donate $150 or more for a special mention and a free signed copy of the book! gofundme.com/f/help-commemorate-the-camp-pioneers All donations gratefully accepted!   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Join us for our June social lunch on Sunday 6 June, 2021 at 1pm upstairs 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. As we move out of Covid-enforced online events and onto in-person gatherings, the First Mardi Gras Inc. fundraising team are running a raffle with tickets being sold throughout the year. We started selling tickets at the 78ers Dog Park Picnic on 2 May and will sell them at gatherings and events during the rest of 2021. The raffle will be drawn at the First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting late this year. Thanks to prize donors: Rebbell Barnes, Garry Case, Wanda Kluke and Mazz Image. Tribute from ILGA Oceania The Tonga Leiti’s Association, President Poli Kefu has died at the hands of murderer/s in the Kingdom of Tonga. Poli Kefu played a pivotal role in coordinating the Tongan Hub for our recent Human Rights and Law Reform Virtual Symposium held in February 2021 in Suva, Fiji. Poli was a humble gentle inspiring leader who displayed a proactive interaction with ILGA Oceania on its various projects and conferences. We extend our sincere and respectful condolences to the family of Poli Kefu, the members of the Tonga Leiti Association, and all Poli’s colleagues and friends. The Co-Chairs of ILGA Oceania, Vanessa Lee-Ah Mat and Ken Moala, with the ILGA Oceania Board, call upon the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga and the Tongan Police Authorities to identify the perpetrator/s of this heinous crime and bring the person/s to justice. Throughout Oceania, members of ILGA Oceania still face violence and discrimination because of our sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or intersex status. For the majority, these issues are linked to broader issues of gender equality, autonomy over our bodies and lives, sexual reproductive health and rights. We will miss you Poli for your pro-active, strong activism, your commitment and dedication to LGBTI issues and movement throughout the Kingdom of Tonga, the Pacific Islands and Oceania. ILGA Oceania will continue to stand up for human rights and social justice as we stand in solidarity against violence in all its form.   Tribute from Oceania Pride Oceania Pride grieves with our friends and colleagues in Tonga at the news of the murder of Poli Kefu, President of the Tonga Leiti Association. Tonga is one of eight countries in Oceania that still criminalise homosexuality.This crime reminds us that small island nations are not immune to the extremes of LGBTIQ hate that destroys families and communities. At the Mid-Year Meeting of InterPride on 9 May, Robyn Kennedy, InterPride Vice President Global Outreach and Partnerships, led a moment’s silence to pay our respects to Poli Kefu. We also paid our respects to the victims of recent homophobic murders in South Africa.   Tribute from Pride Cook Islands Pride Cook Islands acknowledges the beautiful life and light of Poli Kefu. A gentle soul who has been taken from this world too soon. We stand in solidarity with our friends, the Tonga Leiti’s Association, as they farewell their inspirational President. We share our love and prayers with the community in Tonga. Carrying homemade signs with phrases like "Queers against Asian hate," hundreds of people marched in the Castro in solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in a show of solidarity following violent acts in the Bay Area and beyond. The crowd gathered first in Harvey Milk Plaza for a rally to denounce such incidents, which many are labeling hate crimes. They include multiple incidents of AAPIs being beaten in the Bay Area, and the recent shootings in the Atlanta region that left eight people dead, including six Asian women. The March 21 rally, organized by GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance with support from several other organizations, was an expression of the pain and fear the AAPI community is experiencing, as well as a show of unity between the LGBTQ+ and AAPI communities. One of the most emotional speeches of the day was from Eugene Clifton Cha, a gay Korean man who shared his fear and disbelief upon hearing about the attacks in the Atlanta area last week. He encouraged everyone to take the time to mourn, check in with others, and take care of themselves, but also to allow themselves to be moved to action. "As much as this is a horrific and unthinkable tragedy against our communities, and one we must grieve, mourn, and remember, we can't let a crisis go to waste," he said. "And at some point our pain must turn to resolve, to action, to change." Other attendees commented on the intersection of communities of color. "It's been a year of tumultuous change for everybody, and in 2020, we all came together for Black lives, and we're still here for Black lives," said Martin Muñoz, a gay Latinx man. "But with all the Asian hate and hate crimes that have happened, from March at the beginning of the pandemic, throughout the history of San Francisco, I mean it's due time that we're here for Asian lives." Over the last year as the pandemic swept across the globe, former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters have repeatedly used racist phrases such as "kung flu" or "China virus" to describe the coronavirus and are accused of fanning anti-Asian sentiment. As the Los Angeles Times noted in a recent column, "California history bristles with violent attacks on Chinese individuals, including an outbreak of lynchings of Chinese residents in Los Angeles in 1871, and on Chinese neighborhoods in San Francisco and Los Angeles." Several speakers drew parallels between today's climate of violence and hate, and other times in history when Asian people were victimized or scapegoated, such as the World War II-era Japanese internment camps and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) drew another parallel. "I am not a member of the AAPI community, but I am a Jew and I am a gay man. And I know what happens when society refuses to take responsibility for a pandemic, and decides to blame and scapegoat marginalized communities for supposedly causing pandemics to happen," he said. "We know, as queer people, what happens when we get blamed and scapegoated for a pandemic," Wiener added. "That's what happened, and this was ground zero around HIV/AIDS, and the scapegoating and the attacks on our community that caused so many members of our community to die and so much violence to happen. So we need to stop that in its tracks."   March After about two hours in the Castro, the group took to the streets and marched down Market Street toward Civic Center, carrying handmade signs such as "We are not silent." After the march made its way to Civic Center, the tone shifted to a more intimate feel, as the crowd diminished in size and several people sat down in the plaza for another set of speakers. Cecilia Chung, a trans woman who works at the Transgender Law Center and is a San Francisco health commissioner, gave the crowd a brief history lesson on civil rights leader Kiyoshi Kuromiya. "He was born in the internment camp, he was an assistant for Dr. Martin Luther King, he was a delegate to the Black Panther convention, he also was one of the ACT UP movement leaders, and he founded organizations to advocate and fight for resources for people living with HIV," she said. "But how many of you have heard of him?" she asked. No one responded. "Because why? Because our education in this country is fucked up." Yuan Wang, a community organizer at API Equality Northern California, reminded those in attendance to stay involved in local organizations beyond just the day's rally and march. "Share your resources, your skills, and your time. We need you to find your role," she said.   Tyler Breisacher Bay Area Reporter Same-Sex Parenthood Draws Unexpected Support in Hungary Government moves against the LGBTQ community are meant to fire up voters in the run-up to elections next year, but they aren’t resonating with the majority of Hungarians. Firms from Ikea to a Michelin star restaurant have signed up for a campaign in defense of same-sex parenthood in Hungary, bringing unexpected resistance to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown. The Family Is Family campaign has enlisted 140 companies so far, up from 40 in February, in response to steps by Orban to effectively ban adoption for same-sex partners and enshrine in the constitution the idea that marriage is possible only between a man and a woman. The ranks include international giants such as Levi Strauss & Co. and WarnerMedia’s HBO, as well as small- to mid-sized local businesses. The drive’s popularity is surprising even its organizers in a country where companies have long been wary of taking a stand against Orban. Hungary’s premier since 2010, Orban has sought to consolidate his hold over courts and civil society, and is embroiled in clashes with European Union leaders alarmed by his authoritarian turn. “A lot of people are afraid, and many told me not to support this campaign,” said Hubert Hlatky-Schlichter, who owns Babel, a Michelin star restaurant in Budapest. He lives with his male partner and one day hopes to raise a child. “I’m not scared of any government sanctions, but honestly that would just make the campaign resonate more. This isn’t about politics, it’s about human rights.”   Zoltan Simon Bloomberg 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 30 May 2021 Defend LGBTIQ rights in NSW: No right to discriminate! demo – 1pm, Saturday 5 June 2021, Town Hall, Sydney June Social Lunch – 1pm, Sunday 6 June, 2021, upstairs Terminus Hotel, 61 Harris St Pyrmont, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 12 June 2021, by Zoom Out 'n' Proud Festival on Sunshine Coast – 19 June 2021 https://www.outnproud.com.au/ Salon78 Forum: Why did Mardi Gras Move to Summer? – 3pm Saturday 26 June 2021, Upstairs Colombian Hotel, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au WorldPride Copenhagen – 14-21 August 2021 (subject to Covid and travel restrictions), bookings opened in April  This Is Me Festival from Newcastle Pride – 5 August to 5 September 2021, 2021 Events - Newcastle Pride Broken Heel Festival – 9-13 September 2021, GET TICKETS HERE — Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) Queer Arts Festival: Queer & Visible (Wollongong) – September 2021 (dates to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/wollongongqueerartsfest/ Fruitopia Fairday (Lismore) – September 2021 (date to be confirmed) https://tropicalfruits.org.au/events/fruitopia-fairday Coastal Twist Arts and Culture Festival (Central Coast) – 1-4 October 2021 https://coastaltwist.org.au/whats-on/events/ OUTintheOPEN Festival from Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. – 28 October-7 November 2021 Goulburn Valley Pride Inc. (gvpride.org) (see helpful Links for YOU on left of screen) Parramatta Pride Picnic – November 2021 (date to be confirmed), https://www.facebook.com/events/2317409255253273/ Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – March 2022 (date to be confirmed), https://waggamardigras.com/ Rainbow on the Plains Festival (Hay) – March 2022 (dates to be confirmed), http://www.haymardigras.com.au/