Newsletter - August 2023

View this email in your browser August 2023 In this August edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Judy Small, Diane Minnis, Ken Davis and Cr Linda Scott with Tributes to Betty Hounslow David Abello and Deborah Macarthur-Newson on LGBTIQA Rights Rally Sue Fletcher on First Mardi Gras Inc. Meeting with Qtopia Bob Harvey on Tamworth Pride Fair Day in the Spring! Photo of August 78ers Lunch How to buy Badges and Books Calendar of Events.  The First Mardi Gras Inc. Strategic Review Workshop is from 1-4pm, Saturday 9 September 2023. Our next First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch is at 12pm, Sunday 1 October 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au. Lunches are every two months. And the First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 21 October 2023 by Zoom. Diane Minnis A Farewell and Celebration for Betty Hounslow was held in an overflowing Glebe Town Hall on Wednesday 9 August 2023. The link to the celebration is available on request to: info@lifeitesfunerals.com. Vale Betty Hounslow 01.08.1951 – 27.07.2023 Betty was indeed an icon of our community and will be sorely missed by all who knew, loved and/or worked with her.  I first met her in early 1975 when, as a not-yet-out 23 year old in my final year at UNSW, I moved into a share house next door to the one she was living in in Kepos St Redfern. She had an immediate influence on my thinking – such amazing energy and clarity – and I learned so much from her. I remember her in the campaigns after the first Mardi Gras in '78 and at so many other celebrations, events and protests over the years until I moved to Melbourne in 1988. I caught up with her briefly at the 78ers Cocktail Party for the 40th Mardi Gras, but hadn't seen her since.  The Australian LGBTIQA+ community will never forget her or her contribution to our culture, our political discourse and our human rights. I also send my deepest condolences to Kate and to the others in Betty's family – their more intimate loss is so substantial, and I hope they know how much Betty was loved and honoured both within our community and outside.   78er Judy Small Celebrating Betty Hounslow From a Farewell and Celebration for Betty Hounslow 9.8.23 Today, I pay tribute to Betty Hounslow and her outstanding contribution to many activist groups….including the Queensland Anti-Freeway Movement; the Sydney-based Queensland Solidarity Group; the New Left Party and Socialist Lesbians. As a 78er, Betty was actively involved in the protests after the 1978 Mardi Gras arrests, and played a key role in community consultations on Mardi Gras’ move to summer and in the organisation of the 1981 Parade. I got to know Betty in Queensland Solidarity Group meetings and the campaign after the first Mardi Gras and was struck by her warmth, leadership and ability to motivate people. Betty was integral to the upsurge of gay and lesbian activism in the late 70s and 80s – both political and cultural – including singing in the Gay Liberation Quire. Betty founded the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force in 1984 (more on that in Ken Davis’ letter shortly) and assisted in the development of the AIDS Council of NSW between 1985 and 1990. In 2017, when we started First Mardi Gras Inc. a community association for 78ers, we were delighted when Betty came to initial meetings and when she reluctantly agreed to stand for our Management Committee. Then she was into the thick of preparing for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 40th Anniversary, hosting Working Group meetings at her and Kate’s home and chairing a public forum. Betty generously opened their home to many Management Committee meetings, pre-Covid, including cooking us dinner. Betty was also an elected member of the Mardi Gras 78ers Committee. After she stepped down from the First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee to concentrate on her work at the Asylum Seekers Centre, Betty remained a source of guidance and wisdom. She recently spoke at our launch of Voices from 1978, having contributed her memories of 1978 to the book. Betty was a force of nature – that is, a person who is full of energy, unstoppable, and unforgettable. She persuaded us to do things a certain way, which I’m sure Betty did in other groups and organisations, and we continue to follow Betty’s guidance today. Betty Hounslow was unstoppable and unforgettable – in both her activist and professional endeavours – she was a wonderful friend and will be greatly missed.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Letter from Jerusalem  From a Farewell and Celebration for Betty Hounslow 9.8.23 I heard about Betty’s death while working in Ramallah, she had emailed me the day before. I am writing now from occupied Jerusalem.  For me and others, Betty was an important friend, and comrade and teacher. I met her when she moved to Sydney and was living in Redfern. She was involved with revolutionary socialist groups different from the one I was in, but Betty, as a principled socialist feminist, always worked across boundaries, with women and men, communists, anarchists, radical feminists, liberals, socialists, radicals, Christians..…. She added her wisdom, humour and warmth to our lives and campaigns.  Betty was involved in organising around worker’s rights, democratic rights, women’s liberation, environment, prisons, censorship, indigenous sovereignty, Apartheid, internationalism and peace, and lesbian & gay freedom, and more. I remember Betty as a leading socialist lesbian activist in the late 70s. She was not at the night time Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978, but sprang into action immediately, trying to gather bail money, and she was arrested in the August demonstration. She was a key organiser of the first summer Mardi Gras in 1981. She was part of campaigning to remove the Summary Offenses Act and add homosexuality as a ground in the NSW Anti-Discrimination law. She was in the Gay Liberation Quire, and helped with Gay Waves. She helped organise lesbian nights at the gay sauna in Oxford Street. Later she helped the development of the AIDS Council.  In 1983, when Graeme Bray and his Japanese partner, Ryosuke Shiaishi, came to ask for help at Marrickville Legal centre, Betty showed her excellent creative political methodology. Instead of just giving pessimistic advice, she brought together a large collective of the Australian and overseas same-sex partners. Betty and I were often the only non-coupled people at the meetings. The people in the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force often had no activist experience, they created all the advocacy and lobbying and self-help, without the inhibitions that us older activists had internalised. It was the first large lesbian and gay group that had a wild mix of genders, classes, ages and ethnicities or nationalities.  It was a miraculous campaign, winning a major concession from the right wing Labor Minister in 1985, and later gained an innovative and flexible new immigration status of interdependency, sadly lost in 2009. Parallel to GLITF were issues of queer refugees, and HIV and immigration. So many applicants owe so much to Betty’s crafting of GLITF as a confident and successful team. So many strong bonds were forged, though AIDS grief became a heavy burden on many of the GLITF people. Betty maintained her extraordinary contributions to refugees with her leadership of the Asylum Seekers’ Centre.  As a young woman, Betty had a vocation as a Mercy nun, with distinctive interpretation of the vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. She confided in Fabian LoSchiavo that she had seen on the Dead Nuns’ board that the name of St Therese of the Holy Face was now available in her order, but her Mother Superior had overruled her desire. In honour of her work in lesbian and gay immigration, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence canonised St Betty of the Holy Face. I met Betty in Cambodia in the early 1990s, when she was working on human rights, much loved by her Khmer colleagues. Later she took leadership roles in the Fred Hollows Foundation, and was elected vice president of the Australian Council for International Development. She was a well-respected progressive purpled-haired Nicorette-chewing lesbian, in a sector that has a dark side of sexism and heterosexism. She contributed as a valuable development expert on the board of the organisation I have long worked for, Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA. Betty is a terrible loss to many of our communities. May Her Memory be a Blessing.   Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair City of Sydney Council Condolence Motion 21.8.23 – Vale Betty Hounslow AM I begin by acknowledging Betty’s friends and loved ones, including her beloved partner Kate Harrison, Diane Minnis, Ken Davis, and Robyn Kennedy, and Mary Ann O’Loughlin, as well as Betty’s sister Mary Hounslow and her friend Margo Moore. Betty Hounslow was a fierce and dedicated advocate and activist in the cause of solidarity, partnership, accountability, movement building, equality and justice. In 1978, she was one of the pioneering activists who organised the Drop the Charges campaigns after Sydney’s first Mardi Gras and the police brutality and charges that followed. She went on to play a significant role in the organisation of the 1981 Mardi Gras Parade, Sydney’s first summer Mardi Gras, the first step towards the march becoming the fabulous celebration of diversity and inclusion that it is today. A life-long trade unionist, and social justice advocate, Betty was awarded the NSW Justice Medal, and she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia. She was also, in the 1970s, granted another honour: officially canonised by Mother Inferior of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as Saint Betty Therese of the Holy Face for her work on gay and lesbian immigration. Surely the highest honour our nation can bestow! Her commitment to fairness and justice in Australia’s immigration system continued in her advocacy for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, including serving on the board of the Asylum Seekers Centre of NSW, and chairing the Board for three years. Betty extended her steadfast dedication to equality, solidarity and community to a wide range of causes, including women’s refugees, community legal centres, Indigenous health programs, being Executive Director of ACOSS for seven years, and overseas aid and development, both through APHEDA-Union Aid Abroad, the Deputy CEO of the Fred Hollows Foundation, and time working in Cambodia for the UN on human rights issues. She is remembered as having tremendous strategic nous and a superb grasp of tactics – but also as someone whose genuine humility and humour disarmed opponents and forged deep friendships. Betty will be deeply missed by all who had the pleasure and the privilege to know her, but of course most profoundly by her partner Kate, to whom I offer my deepest sympathy and condolences. I ask that the Lord Mayor likewise express the City’s condolences on the loss of this wonderful unionist, community activist and advocate for justice by writing to Betty’s partner and her family, and that we observe a minute’s silence to honour and commemorate Betty’s life and her dedication to the development of our Australian and international community.   ALP Councillor Linda Scott Lord Mayor Clover Moore added to the motion, noting Betty’s important role in establishing the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force in the 1980s, and successfully lobbying for changes to Australia’s immigration system to recognise residency rights for same-sex couples. On Saturday 5 August, 78ers joined many others at the LGBTIQA Rights Rally at Sydney Town Hall, with banners unfurled. Organised by Community Action on Rainbow Rights (CARR) and supporters, the protest focused on the Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Religious Vilification) Bill 2023 brought into NSW Parliament by the Labor government. CARR is working with other groups to build a broader collective action. The next protest is planned for Sunday October 22.   David Abello 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member 78ers David Abello, Dave Urquhart, Jesse Hooley, Johnny Whitehead, Deborah Macarthur-Newson, Diane Minnis and Diane Fieldes attended the LGBTIQA (with an emphasis on Trans Rights) rally and march. All the speakers were impressive particularly the speech by the mother of a trans child and our own 78er David Abello who delivered a concise and eloquent speech on LGBTIQA rights history and LGBTIQA disability rights.   78er Deborah Macarthur-Newson   QTOPIA is in its infancy. Its DNA is born from the desire to have a permanent space for an AIDS memorial, but QTOPIA is so much more, developing into a museum and education space. In many ways they are being very brave to undertake this project, facing a level of community criticism and the usual external homophobia which is compounded by how polarising the site is for some of us. To raise the level of financial support required they no doubt need well-known (and connected) Patrons and Board members and they have them. Part of their challenge will be to bring the ever-critical community with them. From their website: QTOPIA’s aim is to create a welcoming and inclusive space devoted to the memory, education and celebration of our unique and diverse histories, to protect, respect and extend the equality of future LGBTQIA+ lives. Recently, Greg Fisher, QTOPIA CEO and Elaine Czulkowski, QTOPIA Chair addressed an online meeting of First Mardi Gras Inc. members to provide information about QTOPIA and to respond to our questions. For the past two years QTOPIA’s focus was the foundation work including governance and legalities, a business development plan, securing space and funding. They had World Pride in their sights and in collaboration with other organisations, especially the National Arts School were able to have a presence during the Festival in 2023. There are on-going questions about the location – especially given the history of the old police station and what it means to us. But I think that bus has left. Securing a permanent site for QTOPIA has been a challenge and Darlinghurst Police station may not be our preferred venue, but the Board are mindful of the trauma of the space and are working with a trauma councillor and 78er Garry Wotherspoon to look at ways to support people entering the space. A lot of thought and consideration has gone into location. QTOPIA take control of the property at the end of August, with the aim of holding an exhibition during the SGLMG 2024 season on the ground level.   Curatorial QTOPIA will be a museum that examines the political, medical and human response to HIVAIDS, pivotal points in our history, illegality to legality, inequality to equality, as Greg stated they are very broad terms – but personally, I am hopeful they are broad enough to include all of us in our gloriousness. There is strong collaboration with the National Arts School with a focus on curatorial and educational. The curatorial team is led by Dr Liz Bradshaw – Lead Curator, National Art School. Liz is putting together a team of curators from the National Art School and curators from the LGBTIQ+ community. QTOPIA is working closely with other museums, archivists, the Pride History Group and aim to have curricula linked to education programs for teachers and educators in a place of queer culture and history. Approximately 30% will be a permanent exhibition with 70% rotating exhibitions.   Funding sources and perceptions QTOPIA is an ambitious project and requires solid funding for development and the future. The acceptance of Murdoch money has been controversial, but it is given unconditionally. We were assured, there is no reporting to the Murdochs and the funds are administered by JP Morgan – nothing to do with the Murdochs. Personally, I am happy to accept their money. It won’t cleanse the past and they have no influence on the development so perhaps they could give more!   Perception around community engagement Community organisations were consulted with, plus panel sessions and open discussions during the past two years. More community consultation is coming, but if you want your group to learn more or be involved you can invite QTOPIA to an information session. Exhibition involvement will be through their curatorial committee. The process was unclear, but I think more information will be available from QTOPIA in the future. If you want to know more or engage with them, I suggest you sign up to their newsletter: https://qtopiasydney.com.au/ My take-away from the session was QTOPIA have a genuine intent to create a place that not only honours our history, but provides a strong educational focus and perhaps in many ways we may want to feel QTOPIA is for us, but maybe it really is for the future, especially the young LGBTIQ that may still be in schools, the youth who are uncertain, those who are yet to come out and find their place will see themselves at QTOPIA. There is no doubt QTOPIA will be a blend of trauma and triumph with different stories to tell.   Sue Fletcher 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member   The Tamworth Pride Fair Day makes its return this year, a few weeks earlier than previous years, in time for the glorious Spring season and will be held again in Bi- Centennial Park on Saturday, 23 September, 9am to 2pm. We are looking to be bigger and better this year with increased sponsorship and JobLink Plus is our major sponsor. Fifteen stalls have signed up so far and we are expecting a lot more to do so in the coming weeks as we deal with a huge number of daily inquiries. The theme of this year’s Fair Day is: “This is Me”. The idea behind this is to encourage everyone to come dressed in ways that they wouldn’t normally from fear of judgement. Some of the organisations/community groups who have agreed to participate with stalls are Headspace, St John’s Ambulance, SES and Centacare and we are confident more will get on board in the coming weeks. Headspace, which is primarily concerned with mental health for our youth and provides counselling on youth related issues, will be providing a “chill out” stall to allow our queer youth a space to hang out together, away from all the activities of the day. Centacare Tamworth on its stall will provide literature and information in regards to its psychological and counselling services and mediative and mental health programs. These services will have a particular focus on indigenous health and support for youth. A Fashion Parade will be a major feature of the Fair Day and this will give people a chance to get on stage and strut their stuff and prizes will be awarded in different categories. So we are encouraging people to dress up as vibrantly and ostentatiously as possible. The Dianne Perpetual Trophy will return and we will be conducting fun games in the early afternoon. Performers for the Fair Day are yet to be announced but we are hoping to draw on our local talent. Blake Riley, a very talented local drag artist, will be our MC. Even though Fair Day activities wind up at 2pm, like last year we will have an After Party commencing around 7pm at The Press – a night club/bar in a basement and has a nostalgic feel to it. Tamworth Pride Inc. would like to welcome members of the LGBTIQA + community outside of Tamworth to attend both the Fair Day and After Party on Saturday, 23 September and 78ers are most welcome! For further inquiries and updates please contact William Paul Weller (Tamworth Pride Inc. President) at tamworthpride@gmail.com.   Bob Harvey 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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. Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, is a 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. Calendar of Events Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023 Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) First Mardi Gras Inc. Strategic Review Workshop – 1-4pm, Saturday 9 September 2023 Tamworth Pride Fair Day and After Party – 23 September 2023 William Paul Weller tamworthpride@gmail.com First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 1 October 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. Annual General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 21 October 2023 by Zoom Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 17-19 November 2023 Titanium 2023 | Rainbow on the Plains | Hay Mardi Gras | Hay Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – 9 March 2024 Wagga Mardi Gras | The biggest party Wagga's ever seen!. 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.

Vale Betty Hounslow

First Mardi Gras Inc. are devastated to advise of the passing of Betty Hounslow on 27 July. Betty had an underlying health condition that took an unexpected turn in recent weeks. Our deepest condolences to Betty's partner Kate Harrison, and to Betty’s sister Mary Hounslow, who were with her when she died, and to her family and many friends and comrades. Betty was an absolute icon and made an outstanding contribution in so many progressive groups, including the Queensland Anti-Freeway Movement; the Queensland Solidarity Group, Sydney; the New Left Party; Socialist Lesbians, later Socialist Lesbians and Male Homosexuals; and the Gay Liberation Quire. Betty was the founder of the the Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force and assisted in the development of the AIDS Council of NSW between 1985-1990. Betty was the Chair of the domestic violence service RDVSA for a period, and until recently she was the Chair of the Asylum Seekers Centre and a Board member of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA. She was also an elected Vice President of the Australian Council for International Development. A 78er, Betty was actively involved in the protests after the 1978 Mardi Gras arrests, and played a significant role in the organisation of the 1981 Mardi Gras Parade. She was an inaugural Management Committee member of First Mardi Gras Inc. and an elected member of the Mardi Gras 78ers Committee.  Only a month ago, Betty spoke at our launch of Voices from 1978, having contributed her memories of 1978 to the book. Betty was a Sister of Mercy for a short time in Queensland in the early 70s. She was later officially canonised by Mother Inferior of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as Saint Betty Therese of the Holy Face (of Jesus), for her work on gay and lesbian immigration.  After coming to Sydney from Queensland, Betty worked in a variety of roles including roles at Marrickville Legal Centre and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, as the CEO at ACOSS, and in senior positions at the Fred Hollows Foundation. She also spent a period in Cambodia in the early 1990s working for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia on human rights issues. Betty was awarded the Justice Medal in 2003 for outstanding achievement in improving access to justice in NSW, particularly for socially and economically disadvantaged people, and she was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013. Betty was a force of nature in all her activist and professional endeavours and will be greatly missed.

Newsletter - July 2023

View this email in your browser July 2023 In this July edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Diane Fieldes on Rally to Defend Trans Rights – 1pm Saturday 5 August Diane Minnis on Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Sapphire Anniversary Celebration Photos from 45th Anniversary Drinks at Kinselas John Witte on Hunter Rainbow History Evening David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski on Launch of Voices from 1978 Robyn Kennedy on Star Observer Turns 45 – the ongoing need for queer focused media Karl Zlotkowski on Spirit of 1978 Award to Union Pride Diane Minnis on Tributes to Fabian LoSchiavo Information on Appointment to the Aged Care Council of Elders How to buy Badges and Books Calendar of Events.  The next 78ers Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 6 August 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting at 4pm, Saturday 16 September 2023. Diane Minnis It's been almost six years since we won marriage equality and still there is so much to fight for. Right wing bigots are targeting drag storytime events across the country and pushing dangerous lies against LGBTI+ people, including the vile "paedophile" slur. Discrimination in schools and workplaces continues and the federal ALP government remains committed to a "religious discrimination bill" that will entrench anti-LGBTI+ discrimination in our society. This is the context in which 78ers should proudly join Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) for a rally on Saturday 5 August to demand: that trans rights are defended and extended no discrimination in our schools and workplaces no religious discrimination bill We have recently also learnt that the Minns ALP government here in NSW is pursuing a bill on religious discrimination when there is rampant anti-LGBTI+ discrimination in this state going unopposed. They should instead be strengthening anti-discrimination laws more generally to defend LGBTI+ people and others from the bigotry of religious institutions and organisations.  Anti-trans, far right bigots like Moira Deeming still have huge support in the Liberal party, drawing big meetings of Liberal Party members and speaking at far right events, including one in NSW parliament house hosted by Liberal Democrat John Ruddick. The far right internationally have made it their mission to restrict and push back the rights fought for and won for trans, gender diverse and LGBTI+ people. We need to make it clear that these attacks will not be tolerated here. We can take inspiration from the UK where 25,000 people hit the streets for Trans+ Pride in London in early July. LGBT+ rights activists, trade unions, refugee rights campaigns, housing groups and many others turned out to stand in solidarity against transphobia. In a similar spirit of solidarity, we should encourage everyone to join Community Action for Rainbow Rights for this Rally for LGBTI + Rights at 1pm Saturday 5 August at Town Hall. https://facebook.com/events/s/sydney-lgbti-rally-defend-tran/289515006837766/   Diane Fieldes 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 78er Jesse Hooley speaking at 25 June Trans Rights rally. Video: Deborah Macarthur-Newson On Saturday 24 June a good number of 78ers – some who travelled to Sydney for events over the weekend – enjoyed the Mardi Gras Sapphire Anniversary Celebration. The large space at Carriageworks enabled us to move around to see friends and costumes, artworks and inflatables from the archives. Though many of us thought that the speeches and panel discussion went on too late into the evening. 78ers were celebrated – with key segments of 78er Digby Duncan’s iconic film Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters shown between performances and speeches. I was honoured to speak, on behalf of the Mardi Gas 78ers Committee, and to pay tribute to the many members of our community, allies and friends who have made these 45 years possible.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair From left: Giovanni Campolo-Arcidiaco, Diane Minnis, Lizzi Price. Video: William Brougham. Hunter Rainbow History Group was invited by the new LGBTIQ+ bar Bernie’s in Newcastle to hold a history evening on Sunday 25 June. Kerry Bashford, Helen Gollan and I spoke on the topic: 45th Anniversary of the Sydney Mardi Gras with a Newcastle Twist. The idea of 78ers celebrating the 45th anniversary in Newcastle was a logical one because of the direct links of this town to the first parade. For example, Ron Austin who thought up the idea of the night parade, was born and raised in Maitland and trained at a Newcastle monastery and then at the Newcastle Art School before moving to Sydney. And it came as a surprise to some, that police harassment in Newcastle at the time was used as an argument to justify celebrating the Sydney International Gay Solidarity Day of June 24 1978. Earlier that year, Newcastle activists, at risk to themselves, called in journalist David Marr at the National Times, to examine the police investigation of a local gay murder. Police appeared to be more interested in intimidating 600 locals, than being serious about finding the perpetrators of a gay murder. Helen captured the audience with her memories of coming out at the Star Hotel. Her experiences of the violence dealt out to camps, lesbians, gays and drag queens by the Newcastle police and the psychiatric institutions of the day, was a shock to many in the audience. Aversion therapy, lobotomies the bashings that occurred have never been properly acknowledged. A diverse crowd of about 50 people came along on a cold night in June. They asked questions and stayed on to chat. There will be more events uncovering the Hunter region’s LGBTIQ+ history at this fabulous venue during 2023.   John Witte 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Our formal launch of Voices from 1978 - the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held at the State Library of NSW on Tuesday 27 June. At the launch, we heard from Kate Harrison, Karl Zlotkowski and Betty Hounslow about their experiences on the night of the first Mardi Gas and in the major Drop the Charges demonstrations in July and August 1978. At times harrowing, at times hilarious, they shared reminiscences of the activism of 1978 and how it led to changes for our community. We thanked financial supporters of the book: Box Bar and Prohibition Liquor Co and their special edition Spirit of Pride Gin, and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. And Giovanni Campolo-Arcidiaco, Mardi Gras Chair, spoke about the importance of the book and the legacy of 78ers. Karen Askew contributed a fantastic portrait of the late Fabian LoSchiavo for the raffle. Karen’s work drew a lot of compliments and interest, making this the best-selling raffle we have ever had. The audience of 50 plus was very varied with 78ers we rarely see along with many of our regular attendees, young people and colleagues from other community oganisations – all moved and motivated by what we heard that evening.   David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member, Co-Chair and Secretary From left: Jason Om, Robyn Kennedy. Video: William Brougham.         Star Observer July Sydney cover. The Star Observer is Australia's longest-running publication for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities. The first edition came out in July 1979, a bold, new publishing enterprise founded by Michael Glynn. July 2023 marks 45 years of publishing of the Star Observer. To commemorate this milestone, the Star Observer hosted celebrations at the Colombian Hotel on 29th June. I was invited to speak at the well-attended celebrations and was honoured to be featured on the cover of the July Sydney edition. The Star Observer continues to publish a print copy each month in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as publishing content online.  In the July edition, Lawrence Gibbons, publisher of the Star Observer, makes a compelling case for ‘queer media’: “Now more than ever we need to support independent queer media: to counter a narrative that allows hate to be disseminated under the banner of balanced reporting, homophobia to thrive in an endless pursuit of clicks and corporate interests to control our own community conversation. In the absence of local queer media, we will lose access to our own home-grown news, views, and voices”. Visibility through queer centric media in still an essential form of activism. We can’t rely on mainstream media to reflect diverse views or diverse identities – a dedicated medium where our voices can be represented is still needed. Congratulations to the Star Observer for contributing to this objective. SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER MAGAZINE | JULY 2023    Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Back in May we reported that the SGLMG 78ers Committee had voted to award the 2023 Mardi Gras Community Award for the Spirit of 1978 to the parade group fielded by Union Pride. The actual presentation of the award was postponed to coincide with another very special celebration during Pride Month. 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pink Ban declared by the BLF in support of Jeremy Fisher after his expulsion from college at Macquarie University. This is believed to have been the very first industrial action in support of LGBTQI rights anywhere in the world. So in celebration of this, 100 unionists (and others including several 78ers) gathered at Trades Hall on the night of 13 July. We heard words from three speakers: Dr Jeremy Fisher himself, Judy Mundey (wife of the late Jack Mundey, leader of the BLF) and Neha Madhok (Director at Democracy in Colour and proud member of the ASU). And then, to close the celebrations, I was to formally present the Spirit of 1978 award. I recalled that the events of 24 June 1978 were part of an International Day of Solidarity in opposition to attempts to ban gays and lesbians from employment in schools in California (the Briggs Initiative, which ultimately failed). Ever since the 70s, and still today, our struggle has been personal, political and industrial. So I was proud to present the award to Robyn Fortescue (Assistant Secretary AMWU NSW & ACT) who accepted on behalf of Union Pride.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary   Two major recent tributes to Fabian LoSchiavo show the high regard many had for his immense contributions to queer culture and liberation. Both the NSW Parliament and the City of Sydney Council made statements during Pride Month about the impacts that Fabian had. Penny Sharpe, Leader of the Government in the NSW Legislative Council, moved a motion to commemorate Fabian on 22 June. Here is part what Penny said in speaking to the motion. In the Public Gallery to hear Penny's motion were: Fabian's sister Victoria Lo Schiavo Keighery and 78ers and good friends Kath Burns, Elaine Spicer, Diane Minnis, Barry Charles, Dave Urquhart and David Abello. On 26 June, Lord Mayor Clover Moore read a Mayoral Minute, prepared by her Senior Advisor and long-time LGBTIQ+ activist Larry Galbraith. The Lord Mayor’s Minute concluded: “Fabian will be remembered by both the LGBTIQA+ and St Luke’s parish communities for his bravery, creativity, warm-heartedness and sense of humour. His contributions to queer culture, social justice and inclusiveness within organised religion will long be celebrated.” In the City of Sydney Council Chamber to hear the tribute were: Victoria Lo Schiavo Keighery and a mix of 78ers and long-term friends including Ken Davis, Kath Burns, Elaine Spicer, Diane Minnis, Julie Bates, Siobhan Mullany, Karl Zlotkowski, Wanda Kluke and Rebbell Barnes. All those attending the Council meeting then observed one minute's silence to commemorate the life of Fabian LoSchiavo. Vale Fabian.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Because Fabian LoSchiavo played so many roles for so many people, his family is starting an online book for people to tell us their stories about him; how they met him, what impact he had on their lives, amusing anecdotes and favourite pictures of him with them. Send your contributions to: book.of.fabian2023@gmail.com. Please make sure your article; is in the body of the e-mail, (not a separate attachment), no longer than 500 words in single spacing, in 12 point, simple text (bold and italic are OK) that your 1 or 2 photo/s are jpeg or png and no bigger than 500 pixels wide, and that photos have captions, dates and permission from others in the photo. The Council of Elders provide a direct voice to the Australian Government from older Australians, informed by their lived experiences and local networks. Networks with diverse communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people. Applications close COB Friday 28 July (AEST). Applications 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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 to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037. Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, is a 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. Calendar of Events   First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 August 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023 Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 16 September 2023 by Zoom Rainbow on the Plains Festival, Hay – 17-19 November 2023 Titanium 2023 | Rainbow on the Plains | Hay Mardi Gras | Hay Sapphire Coast Pride, Bega Valley, www.Facebook.com/groups/sapphirecoastpride Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras – 9 March 2024 Wagga Mardi Gras | The biggest party Wagga's ever seen!. 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.

Queer Thinking Podcast: Now and the next 45 years - The 70's.

Queer Thinking - Now and the next 45 years: The 70s

Welcome to a very special installment of Queer Thinking – Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras are celebrating our 45th anniversary in 2023 and over this four-part series we’re taking you on a journey through time as we tell the full story of one of the largest pride movements in the world. From the protest of 1978, to over 1 million event attendees at the first WorldPride in the Southern Hemisphere and everything in between – we’re unpacking all the moments that made Sydney Mardi Gras the force for pride, progress and community it is today.

First stop: the 70s. Triana is joined by 78er legends Robyn Kennedy and Karl Zlotkowski who share their experiences of being LGBTQIA+ in 1970s Australia. They recall a Sydney on the brink of transformation in the lead-up to the very first Sydney Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978. The events that followed set off a chain of change that still continues today.

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Queer Thinking is produced on the sacred lands of the Boon Wurrung people of Kulin Nation and will discuss events that took place on Gadigal, Cammeraygal, Bidigal, Darug and Dharawal lands. We’d like to extend our acknowledgement to all lands on which you, our listeners, are tuning in from and pay our respects to Elders past and present, with a special acknowledgment to the Rainbow Elders – part of the longest-continuous culture in the world. Sovereignty has never been ceded. This Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

For our Aboriginal or Torres Strait listeners, please know this podcast may mention the names of the people who are no longer with us.

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Listen to the episode here.

Newsletter - June 2023

View this email in your browser June 2023 In this June edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Congratulations: Honours for 78ers Dr Alison Todd, Will Sergeant, Wanda Kluke Diane Minnis on 45th Anniversary Drinks at Kinselas – 3pm, Sunday 25 June David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski on Launch of Voices from 1978 – 6pm, Tuesday 27 June Diane Minnis on Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Sapphire Anniversary Celebration – Saturday 24 June Ken Davis on Thanksgiving Mass for Fabian LoSchiavo Garry Wotherspoon on In Pursuit of the Pink Triangle Barry Charles on Brilliant Young Queers – 24-25 June Information on Our Queer Futures – 6pm, Thursday 22 June Information on Making LGBTIQA+ history – 1pm, Saturday 24 June Information on A Gender Agenda Lunch – 1pm, Saturday 24 June, Canberra Information on Rainbow History Evening – 6.30pm, Sunday 25 June, Newcastle Information on Launch of Death in the Sauna – 6:30pm, Monday 26 June Information on Union Pride Mixer – 5:30pm, Thursday 13 July Photos from Pride (R)Evolution Exhibition Photo from June 78ers Lunch How to buy Badges and Books Calendar of Events.   The next 78ers Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 6 August 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au (note no lunch in July). The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting at 4pm, Saturday 16 September 2023. Pride Month events are held from 1-31 June 2023 – see Sydney Pride Festival.   Diane Minnis Dr Alison Todd (left) – Member (AM) In the General Division of the Order of Australia for significant service to medical research and tertiary education, with a portfolio of over 160 granted patents. Photo: Tracey Atkinson. Will Sergeant (centre) – Medal (OAM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to the South Australia LGBTQIA+ community as an historian, activist, 78er and glamorous Adelaide tour guide. Photo: William Brougham. Wanda Kluke (right) – Medal (OAM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for service to the community through social welfare organisations as a volunteer hairdresser to the homeless. Photo: William Brougham. Join us for Drinks to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras from 3pm on Sunday 25 June. All 78ers, partners and supporters are welcome and First Mardi Gras Inc. will be providing finger food and Kinselas drinks are reasonably priced. The event is on the ground floor at Kinselas in Taylor Square. We will have a toast to mark the recent passing of Fabian LoSchiavo, though this is not a memorial event as there will be one in early October. For catering purposes, please RSVP to: info@78ers.org.au. Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair First Mardi Gras Inc. would like to invite you to the formal launch of Voices from 1978 - the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras at 6pm on Tuesday 27 June at the State Library of NSW. To mark the 45th anniversary of 1978, we have published a collection of reminiscences and iconic images that bring those turbulent events to life. If you would like to join us for a short evening of drinks and readings from contributors, please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voices-from-1978-book-launch-tickets-638942884367.   David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member, Co-Chair and Secretary The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 78ers Committee has received a briefing from the producer of the Mardi Gras Sapphire Anniversary Celebration on Saturday 24 June, taking place at Carriageworks from 6.30-10pm. Drinks, finger food and a cloakroom will be provided. The event will be a retrospective of the last 45 years – with costumes, artwork, inflatables and moments pulled from the archives combined with performance art, music and ideas. Segments of 78er Digby Duncan’s iconic film Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters will be shown. 78ers Committee members raised the fact that not all 78ers who applied had received tickets and Mardi Gras agreed to invite all 78ers. Below is the link for it that will take you directly to the page to access two tickets. You will still need to fill in your personal details. https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/sapphire-anniversary-celebration/153793?offercode=fairday   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Fabian’s bravery, creativity, warm heartedness and sense of humour will be long celebrated. His contributions to queer culture and liberation, and to global social justice, are immense. He has helped create and enliven our communities in Sydney and beyond. His gentle satirical presence and performances have played a vast role in winning queer dignity, acceptance, equality and freedom. These words were part of my tribute at the Thanksgiving Mass for Fabian on 29 May. There were around 450 people in the church and hall and another 130 watching online. For those who were unable to attend, the recording is at: https://www.eventpix.com.au/galleries-2/fabian/ It's available for a limited time only. A group of us are planning a musical memorial event for Fabian in early October.    Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Because Fabian LoSchiavo played so many roles for so many people, the family is starting an online book for people to tell us their stories about him; how they met him, what impact he had on their lives, amusing anecdotes, favourite pictures of him with them, and any wisdom or wit that he shared with them. If you would like to contribute to the book, here are the details about format, size etc. Please help us by trying to follow the guide because we are sure there'll be a lot of stories! Send your contributions to: book.of.fabian2023@gmail.com. Please make sure your article; • is in the body of the e-mail, (not a separate attachment), • no longer than 500 words in single spacing, • in 12 point, simple text (bold and italic are OK), and • that your 1 or 2 photo/s are jpeg or png and no bigger than 500 pixels wide. Please give us captions for your photos, dates (if you have them) and if there are other people in the photos, ask for their permission to include them. The 'book' will be in pdf form so that it's easily accessed and readable, and there may be some changes along the way. It will be professionally laid out and formatted with great reverence. Thank you, in advance for your contribution, Crina, Georgia, Checka and Vic They say every day can be a learning experience, and one day a few months ago, wandering up Oxford Street, I noticed, on the artwork covering the hoardings on the renovations taking place behind, a panel with a collection of flags, advertised as ‘Flags of Importance”, adding that there were ‘22 Pride flags’. So I paused, and perused. There were some I knew – the Rainbow Flag, the Aboriginal Flag, the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Labrys Lesbian Pride Flag, and there were many others, although some I’d never heard of – an Agender Flag, a Polysexual Flag, a Genderfluid Flag, an Abrosexual Flag, even a Demiromantic Flag. Everyone was getting in on the act – a flag for all ‘deviances’! But there was no Pink Triangle. The inverted Pink Triangle (‘die Rosa-Winkel’) has a hallowed place in queer history; it was the badge that the Nazis forced our forebears to wear in the concentration camps during WWII, but had been ‘reclaimed’ by us as a badge of pride – both a reminder of the past and forever our symbol of defiance and courage. Co-Chair Ken Davis fired off the first email, to the City Council – “Sydney Council is making me angry about pink triangle flag” – since they had authorised the art. And there followed a flurry of emails (how long is an email string – there were about thirty emails back and forth on this matter). And eventually we got a response – and the Pink Triangle Flag has finally appeared on the artwork. The lesson: one small complaint from FMG, one giant leap forward for truth in history …   Garry Wotherspoon 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member As part of Pride Month, 107 Projects and Shopfront Arts Co-Op. is creating an event called Brilliant Young Queers, Saturday 24 June from 10:30am to 4pm, Sunday 25 June from 11:30am to 5pm, 107 Projects, 107 Redfern Street, Redfern. FREE, tickets: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/brilliant-young-queers-youth-pride-weekend-tickets-639042422087 As you can tell it's definitely oriented towards LGBTQIA+ youth, 12-25. But some of our 78ers have been invited to be part of some good, ol'fashioned intergeneration conversation! As Felicity Nicol the curator says, “most LGBTQIA+ Australian's are starved for some community history and all-aged interactions". Other events from 107 Projects (107.org.au) are: Community Chats Short presentations & Q&A with community organisations and Queer Seniors, Sock Drawer Heroes, some 78ers & queer elders. Generation Translation Young people are the experts of today's lingo – come test and teach the oldies how to speak Gen Z Queer. Culture Swap Live introductions re favourite LGBT+ social media, media etc. Great to see these things happening in our community!   Barry Charles 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member The Our Queer Futures panel will consider the future for LGBTQ Australians. Speakers: 78er Betty Hounslow, Equality Australia’s Ghassan Kassisieh, NSW Gender Centre’s  Eloise Brook, academic Geraldine Fela. State Library, Thursday 22 June, 6-7:30pm. FREE, register: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/our-queer-futures-tickets-640281137117 On the 45th Mardi Gras anniversary, the City of Sydney is hosting a panel at their Liberate! Exhibition. Jacqui North, Exhibition Producer will discuss photography as activism with 78er Sallie Colechin, Sarah Malone and Aman Kapoor. Customs House, Saturday 24 June, 1-2pm, FREE book: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/making-lgbtiqa-history-panel-talk-at-customs-house-tickets-634522713517 Canberra’s A Gender Agenda serves Trans, Gender Diverse, and Intersex Communities would like to invite Canberra-based 78ers to lunch on the 45th Mardi Gras anniversary! 1-3pm, Saturday 24 June at 8 Piguenit Cl. North Lyneham ACT, RSVP: support@genderrights.org.au Join us on the 45th Mardi Gras anniversary for an exciting Rainbow History Night at Bernie's Bar. Hunter Rainbow History Group will explore the story of the first Mardi Gras, and experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who have helped shape the city's cultural landscape. 6.30pm, Sunday 25 June, Bernie's Bar, 410 King St Newcastle. Join 78er Dennis Altman to celebrate the release of his latest book, and second novel, Death in the Sauna. Dennis will be in conversation with Sue Turnbull. 6:30pm, Monday 26 June, Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown. Register: www.betterreadevents.com/events/death-in-the-sauna-dennis-altman-in-conversation Union Pride was awarded the Spirit of 1978 Mardi Gras Community Award for their Mardi Gras float. We would love to have 78ers come to the award ceremony and to mark the historic Pink Bans by the NSW BLF. Fifty years ago, the BLF put down tools at Macquarie University when Jeremy Fisher was removed from his accommodation for being gay. Thursday 13 July, from 5:30PM until late, food, drinks, and speakers. Sydney Trades Hall Atrium, 377 Sussex Street, Sydney. RSVP using this link. We had a relaxed meal together at the 78ers Lunch on the first Sunday in June at The Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont. Join us in the downstairs room off the courtyard – next lunch on Sunday 2 July. RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Photo: Rebbell Barnes. 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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 to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037. Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, is a 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. Calendar of Events Pride Month events are held from 1-31 June 2023 – see Sydney Pride Festival City of Sydney Liberate! Exhibition – daily till Sunday 2 July 2023, Customs House State Library Pride (R)Evolution Exhibition – daily till Sunday 9 July, 2023 State Library Our Queer Futures – 6pm, Thursday 22 June 2023, FREE, register: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/our-queer-futures-tickets-64028 137117 Brilliant Young Queers – 24-25 June, FREE, tickets: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/brilliant-young-queers-youth-pride-weekend-tickets-639042422087 City of Sydney Making LGBTIQA+ history Talk – 1-3pm, Saturday 24 June 2023, Customs House, Circular Quay, FREE book: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/making-lgbtiqa-history-panel-talk-at-customs-house-tickets-634522713517 A Gender Agenda Lunch, Canberra – 1pm, Saturday 24 June 2023, RSVP: support@genderrights.org.au Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Celebrating our Sapphire Anniversary – 6.30pm Saturday 24 June 2023, Carriageworks, https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/sapphire-anniversary-celebration/153793?offercode=fairday First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Drinks – 3pm, Sunday 25 June 2023, Kinselas, FREE RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Rainbow History Evening, Newcastle – 6.30pm, Sunday 25 June 2023, Bernie's Bar, 410 King St Newcastle Launch of Death in the Sauna – 6:30pm, Monday 26 June 2023, Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown. Register: www.betterreadevents.com/events/death-in-the-sauna-dennis-altman-in-conversation First Mardi Gras Inc. Book Launch: Voices from 1978 – 6pm, Tuesday 27 June 2023, State Library, FREE, Booking essential: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voices-from-1978-book-launch-tickets-638942884367 Union Pride Mixer – 5:30pm, Thursday 13 July 2023, RSVP using this link First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 6 August 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au (note no lunch in July) Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023 Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 16 September 2023 by Zoom 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 2023

View this email in your browser May 2023 In this May edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Ken Davis on Vale Fabian LoSchiavo Meredith Knight on Vale Linda Bowman Karl Zlotkowski on 78ers Salute Union Pride Diane Minnis on Trans Day of Visibility Demo Pete De Waal on Phone-A-Friend 50th Anniversary Greg Reading on Pride (R)Evolution Exhibition Diane Minnis on Liberate! Exhibition Robert French on 40 Years On – 'Scandalous Conduct' Party after Club 80 Raid 2 Photo from May 78ers Lunch How to buy Badges and Books Calendar of Events.  The next 78ers Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 4 June 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au and the next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting at 4pm, Saturday 17 June 2023.   Diane Minnis Events to mark the 45th Anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras  City of Sydney Liberate! Exhibition Talk – 1-3pm, Saturday 24 June 2023, Customs House, Circular Quay,  FREE: https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Celebrating our Sapphire Anniversary – 6.30pm Saturday 24 June 2023, Carriageworks, SGLMG members only, respond to the ballot invitation sent to members in early May. If you don’t get a ticket, contact: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Drinks – 3pm, Sunday 25 June 2023, Kinselas, FREE RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. Book Launch: Voices from 1978 – 6pm, Tuesday 27 June 2023, State Library, FREE, Booking essential: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voices-from-1978-book-launch-tickets-638942884367 State Library Pride (R)Evolution Exhibition – runs until Sunday 9 July 2023   Pride Month events are held from 1-31 June 2023 – see Sydney Pride Festival. Malabar and Salina, the Eora and Dharawal lands, and the world are much less interesting places after the unexpected death of Fabian LoSchiavo on 11 May at his home by the sea. Fabian, and his various Christian personas, through his multiple contributions to queer culture and so many communities, became a very widely loved national treasure. Fabian grew up in Eastwood, in a family of Irish and southern Italian heritage, near the Catholic church of St Anthony, and the Vincentian fathers and the Daughters of Charity at Marsfield. Fabian went to Catholic schools in Eastwood and Bathurst. He had a vocation, and spent a year with the Vincentians in Campbelltown after leaving school, then another two in the Vincentian novitiate in Perth. Then he wanted to join an Order of Canons Regular, the Premonstratensians, and went to seminary in St Norbert’s Abbey in Green Bay Wisconsin. In addition to theology, Fabian studied Latin, classical Greek, Hebrew, Italian and French. Facing contradictions about his sexuality, and horrified by post Second Vatican Council modernisations in the abbey, he left and looked for alternatives in the USA, coming back to Australia to live with his sister Victoria and Michael Kheighery in Newtown in 1972. He went into Caritas in Darlinghurst for mental health interventions, and went to Dr Neil McConaghy for aversion therapy, which failed to cure his homosexuality. Fabian went to study at UNSW, focussing on archives, and started to get involved in gay groups in 1973. He remained religious, and joined the Anglican church – not the mainstream ultra-protestant Sydney Diocese, but a progressive congregation in the Anglo-Catholic tradition in Stanmore. Fabian worked casually in gay bars in Kings Cross, and put personal ads in the then-radical and queer-friendly Nation Review. His advert saying “quaerite et invenietis” – “seek and ye shall find” attracted interest from gay men who shared his fascination with traditional religious vestments. After his graduation from UNSW, Fabian worked for many decades with the NSW State Archives, until his retirement in 2012, when they relocated from the Rocks to Kingswood. Fabian was active in his union, PSA, in family history, and performed satirically as an archivist for state government celebrations. In the mid-seventies, Fabian was live-in caretaker at the Inner City Education Centre in Stanmore, a radical professional development centre associated with the NSW Teachers’ Federation; he later moved to an apartment nearby in Stanmore. He had become involved in St Luke’s Enmore, and he stayed active in that parish until his death. Fabian was extremely socially and politically conservative in the early 1970s, but became involved in gay community and activism. In 1978 he was sewing flags and banners for protests and conferences, and he came to the morning march on 24 June 1978 with a sign saying “Gay, Free and C of E”. He became active in Gay Solidarity Group. Not long after, with Prue Borthwick and others, Fabian established AngGays, the fourth lesbian and gay religious group in Sydney (after Acceptance, MCC and Chutzpah). After the first Mardi Gras in 1978, lesbian, gay and trans activism accelerated. Fabian not only had a complex vocation as a monk/nun, but was also a creative and satirical performer. In 1981 Fabian was a founder of the Gay Liberation Quire and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (as Sr Mary Volupta, later as Mother Inferior, or Mother Abyss) and later was a vocalist with the country gospel band, Eve and the Forbidden Fruits. Fabian’s public religious personas multiplied. Mother had avatars including: Monsignor Porcamadonna, the Papal Nuncio to Sydney gay and lesbian community, playing “Volare” on accordion, the Pentecostal Rev Oral Riches (or Richards, in honour of American Oral Roberts, the main proponent of the Prosperity Gospel), Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sfichtokolos, Dean Sheraton Hilton, (a Sydney Anglican Diocese Festival of Light and real estate maven) and Father Terence Patrick Francis Zavier O’Flynn, a one armed Catholic priest from Nyngan, fond of gambling and alcohol). All were anarchic satirical cultural weapons in the struggle against heterosexism, hypocrisy, sexism, racism, war, and capitalism. Fabian was tireless in performing, not just for gay men and lesbians, but also for peace, international solidarity, left and union events, for sex workers, drug users and archivists. Mother Inferior led many notorious politico-cultural interventions by the Sisters. He would come to Preterm and other abortion clinics to chat up (and scare away) the Catholic brothers trying to stop women accessing services. Gay Solidarity and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence organised a demonstration of 400 at Ryde Civic Centre outside a prayer rally by American Moral Majority leader, Jerry Falwell, aborting his plans to expand to Australia. Monsignor Porcamadonna and Mother officiated at exorcisms and raffles and dog shows at the three week Gay Rights Embassy outside premier Neville Wran’s home in Woollahra in 1983. Outside the election launch of Jim Cameron, an upper house candidate for Fred Nile’s Call to Australia in 1984, Rev Oral Riches led a Pentecostal Revival meeting at Willoughby, with the gift or tongues, and three evangelical Blood Hymns. On 4 April 1984, Sr Mary Third Secret of Fatima, and Cardinal Cozijn saved relics of different “species” from the demolished toilet, or “Wedding Chapel” in Green Park. Mother and the Sisters elevated the stainless steel urinal to an altar of worship in the Mardi Gras parade, and began a series of Reliquary exhibitions, in the Bookshop Darlinghurst and in the National Homosexual Conferences. A ferry ride to Manly inspired the Sisters to begin “Animal Gaol” walks at Taronga, and in 1990, Mother Inferior, with Cardinal Robert French, began history walks in inner Sydney. For Mardi Gras one year, Mother Inferior ran a tour of the Malabar sewage works, a “fire temple” visible across the water from Mother’s convent at Malabar. He wrote special hymns about treating sewage, without ever using any direct words. Fabian would often write and produce on an old typewriter, new witty lyrics to hymn songs, and would lead the congregation singing with his accordion, for example the ever popular versions of the Lourdes Hymn, “Ave Mardi Gras”. Led by Mother Inferior, half a dozen gay male nuns narrowly escaped death outside the Sydney Film Festival in 1985. SPI was protesting the film by Jean-Luc Godard, “Hail Mary” for the blasphemous portrayal of the Blessed Virgin as a Swiss heterosexual petrol pump attendant. As nuns chanted “The Queen of Heaven Don’t Pump Gas!”, 4,000 Lebanese Phalangists arrived, violently threatening the nuns, the film festival and the arrival of Gough and Margaret Whitlam. The petition demanding that all censorship powers be handed over to SPI as the only reliable guardians of public morals went strangely unanswered. Relations with police were not always warm. In 1986 during the visit of conservative Pope John Paul II, the Sisters turned out for several motorcades, the Pope sometimes assuming from afar they were Eastern Rite priests. Mother Inferior and Sister Mary, Mary Quite Contrary were arrested at Sydney University for the slogan: “Anti-Woman, Anti-Gay, Fascist Pope Go Away!”. On the evening in 1986 when Darlinghurst police were vacating the police station where the first Mardi Gras arrestees in June 1978 had been held, and sometimes beaten, the Sisters held a ceremony at the front door with a pig’s head on a silver platter, reminiscent of Salome and John the Baptist. This was not indicative of Fabian’s usual style. In 1989 the Sisters carried a vast papier mache head of Fred Nile on a platter in the Mardi Gras parade, and later helped mobilise thousands to welcome Fred Nile’s “Cleansing March” on Oxford Street. Written by Phil Stevenson, the anthem, “Thank You Lord for Gay Liberation” was transformed by the ecstatic preaching of Rev Oral, testifying to the “Four Square Gospel of Socialism, Feminism, Gay Liberation and Ethnic Pride”. Rev Oral with his hand in the air, like former PM Scott Morrison, would end the song with shouts of “I am Coming, Lord, I am Coming!”. Mother Inferior pioneered the Sisters providing pastoral care within and beyond the lesbian and gay communities, with multifaith ceremonies for naming children, relationship and house blessings, and memorial services. In 1983, at the start of the AIDS crisis in Sydney, Sr Third Secret brought a small safe sex publication from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Francisco, which was one of the first AIDS prevention materials distributed in Australia. Mother Inferior and the Sisters continued to play a role in safe sex education, for gay men, drug users and sex workers, though Mother used decent language, talking only of “relations” not sex, and “organs”, and “feeling comfortable with one another”, as he had been with Sr Missionary Position, Sr Boom Boom, Sr Vicious Power Hungry Bitch, Sr Florence Nightmare, Sr Freeda Peoples, Sr Kay Sera, and Sadie Sadie the Rabbi Lady, when Mother visited the San Francisco Mother House. In 1991 at the tenth anniversary celebration of the foundation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Order suffered a Schism, with Mother refusing go to the monthly collective decision-making nuncheons. One group thoroughly horrified Fabian, SPIRM (Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Reform Movement) implemented the Second Vatican Council reforms, and adopted vestigial veils, mission brown pleated skirts, beige blouses and cream cardigans, abjuring all natural fabrics. Another group, the Big Sisters of Universal Joy, wearing white Cistercian habits, were more pagan, and focussed on pastoral care in response to the AIDS crisis. Fabian paraded in Mardi Gras almost every year, in various comedic guises, usually clerical, and contributed to a range of gay groups, such as GayWaves radio, and Inside Out prisoners support network with Kendall Lovett. In 1985 “Encounters”, an ABC religion department TV program, featured Fabian’s life story, and the contradictions of being a homosexual Christian. Fabian moved to Malabar after the death of his aunt in the mid-1980s and started to transform the rooms, garden, sheds, attic and catacombs into a somewhat unascetic multifaith chapel and library, with surrounding fishponds, fruit trees and shrines. Fabian went through a process with the Catholic church to get restitution for the sexual abuse he faced while young, by priests. Fabian visited his ancestral home in Salina, near Sicily, in the late 1980s, making friends in that community, and two decades ago began a legal case to ensure his part of the family could still access the houses in the harbour of Santa Marina. During several visits to Rome, apart from seeking out incorrupt relics of saints hidden in obscure parts of basilicas and churches, Fabian played accordion for socialist events, and became a member of the far-left Partito della Rifundazione Comunista. Fabian also enjoyed travel to Malaysia and Vietnam. After retiring, engaged with his local community in Malabar, Fabian stayed active in deploying his religious personas for politics, satire, humour and pastoral duties. He always went to mass at his church, St Luke’s in Enmore, for many years teaching Sunday school. He began to teach ethics in primary schools, assisted in a klezmer band with Alex Kaufmann, and he kept sewing and riding his bike. He had a small boat to take onto the water in Long Bay. In recent years he had reversed his aversion to dogs, and became a very loving dog minder, dog companion and dog walker. Through international Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence connections, Fabian made friends with a bishop of the Holy Celtic Church, based in Switzerland, and took ordination as a priest in Apostolic Succession (via the Old Catholic Church in Netherlands), as Rev Dom Fabian. So he achieved his two vocations, as an abbess, and as a priest. Fabian was always close to his family, in recent years his sisters and brothers and their children. His bravery, creativity, warm-heartedness and sense of humour will be long celebrated. His contributions to queer culture and liberation, and to global social justice, are immense. He has helped create and enliven our communities in Sydney and beyond. His gentle satirical presence and performances have played a vast role in winning queer dignity, acceptance, equality and freedom.   Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair William Bougham’s videos of Fabian:  https://www.facebook.com/william.brougham/videos/273987291770710   Linda was born in the USA in 1946 and migrated to Australia in 1973. She was an academic; a Russian historian in the Economic History Department at the University of Sydney. Also at the School of History at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Linda was a much loved member of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir. Linda died peacefully from Alzheimer’s disease in April 2023. She is survived by her long-time partner, Dr Lyn Fong and their two adorable doggies. The photo below of Linda and Lyn was taken at the 2022 Mardi Gras, 78ers contingent, which was Linda’s last as she was too ill to participate in 2023.   78er Meredith Knight Each year, one month after the close of the Mardi Gras season, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras hosts a community awards night to celebrate achievements and contributions to the festival events. Awards are distributed to individuals and groups involved in Fair Day, the Parade, and for Individual Excellence and Lifetime Achievement. Each year there are awards for Volunteer of the Year, Best Costume, Best Individual or Small Group, Most Fabulous Parade Entry and this year, for the second time, an award for the parade entry that best connects with The Spirit of 1978. This award has been introduced by the SGLMG 78ers Committee to remind the Mardi Gras community of our movement’s origins in the politics of the 1970s. This year’s awards were held at the UNSW Roundhouse (scene of past triumphs for some of us…), suitably disco’d for the occasion and crowded with the great and good of Mardi Gras (and a few others). Alongside the SGLMG board and staff there were mobs of volunteers and organisers from Parade groups and Fair Day stalls, all hoeing into the free food. And then, as the awards were announced (like Oscars) I was called up to present the Spirit of 1978 Award on behalf of the SGLMG 78ers Committee. I reminded the crowd that the events of 24 June 1978 were part of an international Day of Solidarity in protest against moves to discriminate against gays in their work. In light of this, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of 1978 the Committee had decided to award the Spirit of 1978 award to the parade group organised by Union Pride. It’s also worth noting that 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the first union Pink Ban in 1973, called by the BLF at Macquarie University to protest the expulsion of Jeremy Fisher from his university college. Union Pride plan to commemorate this anniversary during this year’s Pride Month. The Spirit lives on.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary On 2 April, Pride in Protest organised a Trans Day of Visibility rally and march in Newtown. Over two thousand people took part, many in response to recent aggressive Christian Lives Matter demonstrations in Newtown, Oxford Street and the city. We thought it was important that 78ers show our solidarity, so we took the big solid 30th anniversary 78ers banner. It was certainly useful cover when the rain came pelting down during the speeches. Though we all were soaked as we marched up King Street. Unions had a strong presence, with members of the United Workers Union, Australian Services Union, and National Tertiary Education Union in attendance. Dykes on Bikes made a powerful impact leading the march. First Mardi Gras Inc. moved our first Sunday lunch to a brunch in Newtown and most 78ers attending came up to join the rally and some marched. Thanks to 78er Virginia Iliv for her video: 2023 Trans rally and march at Newtown NSW - YouTube.   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Peter de Waal wrote this on 13 April 2023, the day of the 50th anniversary celebration of Australia’s first telephone helpline for gay men and lesbians – Phone-A-Friend. “Today is a remarkable and memorable day for me personally and the rainbow community. “At 6pm today Australia’s first gender-specific telephone help line – Phone-A-Friend – was launched on so called black Friday 13 April 1973. And I am so proud and delighted that it was launched and begun in our – Bon and my – Balmain house’s front room. The same house where I still live but alas without Bon. Over the years its name changed to Twenty10/Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service and nationally QLife. “Over its 50-year existence it has been a quiet achiever and remarkable emotional backbone of the rainbow community. It was there ready and waiting with a sympathetic non-judgemental ear. During many rainbow communal and individual crisis, to name just a few: 1980-90s devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic; Sydney’s gay-hate crime epochs; Post traumatic 1978 first Mardi Gras; Australia’s marriage equality campaign. The list is too long to mention here. “The phone service saved many lives. And during the last half century it has supported, counselled, assisted, enriched, and empowered, our multi-faceted rainbow community, in many and varied ways. “But it’s only been possible with the multitude of past, present, and hopefully future volunteers. Who generously give and work towards a common rainbow goal of equality, inclusion, belonging, rainbow love is love. And that only the best is good enough for each and every one of us. “A press release was issued on behalf of CAMP – Campaign Against Moral Persecution, which is Australia’s 1970 foundation stone of today’s rainbow community. Phone-A-Friend is CAMP’s enduring entity of which I was a foundation member. “Tonight, when I’ll be at a celebration to mark the phone service’s golden jubilee I’ll be the oh so proud with pride in my heart ‘birthday boy’ of the year.”   Peter de Waal 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member Recently, I visited the Pride (R)Evolution exhibition at the State Library of NSW. The exhibition traverses a broad gamut of our LGBQTI+ history in Sydney, from the early days to the present. I was pleased to see that Gaywaves got a guernsey, with an installation suggestive of someone listening to our program in their bedroom. Our presence is no doubt thanks to the efforts of one of our most devoted listeners, Bill West. Bill meticulously recorded the show off air every week, recording 145 tapes between 1980 and 1990. When he died, these precious tapes, totalling 147 hours, were donated to the State Library of NSW. On one occasion, when we decided to give our radio serial ‘Gays of Our Lives’ a second run, we discovered that we had lost one of the original tapes. Thanks to Bill, we were able to obtain a copy of the lost episode from him, so we were able to replay the serial. Daniel Rogers, who put the installation together, writes: “I listened to the Gaywaves tapes like they were a radio program. I had them on in my car, in the kitchen, playing from another room. I felt like I was in a different time... the early tapes ring of a certain love, the unprofessionalism of the news reads, the familiarity between the hosts... thinking of listening to this program, alone, in my room, imagining a kind of queer life, I wanted to be there so badly.” Disappointingly, the program excerpt playing on the day I attended, consisted of none of the highlights promised in the transcripts provided by the link, but instead a not particularly interesting reading of a few lines from a short story. The exhibition runs until Sunday 9th July. Catch it before then.   Greg Reading 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member It was great to pop in recently to the City of Sydney’s Liberate! Exhibition at Customs House, Circular Quay. The exhibition is curated by Jacqui North and continues until 2 July. Liberate! features the work of eight queer photographers, including C.Moore Hardy and 78er Sallie Colechin. The photographs were on rotating display on six large screens – covering themes of Fighting For Our Lives, Party With Us!, Community Made + Queering Spaces, Transcend, First Nations and Protest. This makes for engaging presentations and you can sit or stand and watch each screen as the images scroll through. There are explanatory panels and quotes, including from Ken Davis and I in the Protest section, and these round out the stories told by the images. However, there is a gap in the Protest section, with no photos of the first Mardi Gras. There is an obvious lead in with caption to Sallie’s photo of the morning march (shown above in the Protest section sign) which lists the women “holding the banner in what became known as the first Mardi Gas”. But this could also be interpreted as the morning march being the Mardi Gras – an all too common mistake made by the media. Jacqui North is coordinating a panel discussion on Saturday 24 June at Customs House, focussing on the photography of history making moments across 45 years with four photographers including Sallie. This is FREE and will probably be from 1-3pm but check whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events. Get down and see the exhibition before it closes on 2 July!   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair Having botched their first attempt the Vice Squad together with cops from Darlinghurst Police Station raided Club 80 for a second time on 26 February 1983. This time they came prepared with still and video cameras to document the raid and gather further 'evidence'. An additional 11 men were charged. The charges included an obscure 'common law' offence of 'Scandalous Conduct' (that on 11 February had also been added to those charged on the first raid). The police raid had one positive, and ironic, effect – they now managed to unite a disparate community of bar queens, the leather crowd, activists and those who to this point had been indifferent. And again, the community responded quickly. A meeting called for Sunday 27 February was attended by over 500 people. The following motion was proposed: "This meeting called on Neville Wran, National President of the ALP to state immediately his firm intention to repeal all anti-gay laws in NSW in the immediate future." So far so good, then anger overcame rationality. The Chair of Sydney Mardi Gras, Brian McGahen, I think to garner some personal gain knowing he was to stand as an Independent against Labor for the Sydney City Council at the next election, had added the following, in relation to the forth coming Federal election: "Should such an undertaking not be given by next Friday, we call upon all gay people in Australia not to vote for ALP candidates and instead for other candidates with pro-gay policies." It passed, and was to totally wreck the momentum that we had built up in response to the raids. The media, instead of continuing the focus on police action, now changed the story to 'Gay Rights Lobby (GRL) calls on the community to vote against Labor at the Federal election’. Federal politics had nothing to do with what had been happening in NSW. In addition, it meant calling for the defeat of Max Pearce, the first openly gay candidate to be endorsed by a political party in Australia, who was standing for Labor in the Federal electorate of Wentworth. In an attempt to alter the narrative, I issued a press release stating GRL "was an impartial body set up to lobby for homosexual rights and it did not urge people to vote for or against any party" (SMH 1/3/1983). While this was picked up by some media, we never regained the momentum. Brian tried to back-track by exempting Max Pearce from the ban, but it was all too late. I, and other activists, never quite forgave Brian for this mess. The anger generated in the room, however, did have one direct result. At the end of the meeting, it was decided to march on Darlinghurst Police Station. So, on a balmy summer's afternoon, a mob of 300 angry queens moved from the Gay Centre in Surry Hills to Taylor Square. It was only when we reached Bourke Street that I spied a police car with the occupant radioing back to the Station the message that we were coming. Reaching Taylor Square, we just ignored the traffic lights and stopped the traffic as we marched across. At the Station, there was pandemonium. Cops were running around hurriedly closing windows. The front door was firmly shut. It was the only time in all the years of activism that I witnessed the cops being wrong footed. The rally was noisy. There were speeches by John Schwarkopf, the Secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Coalition, by Michael Glynn, the editor of the Sydney Star, and myself as GRL Co-Convenor. I held a letter for the Police Commissioner that we had hurriedly written. When the front door was partially opened and a Police Sargent came out, I moved forward. "What's all this about?" he asked, as if he didn't know. Then he paused. I saw concern come across his face. "Whoa!" he said. I stopped and looked around to see that the whole crowd had moved forward with me. I quietly asked everyone to move back a bit, which they did. I then turned (and I confess somewhat smugly) said to the cop, "See that's how's it's down. With civility." I then stated that our community was sick and tired of being harassed by the police, especially from that Station, and handed over the letter to the Commissioner. The crowd then broke up peacefully, though some quickly reassembled for a group photo for the Sydney Star. Over coming days, there was a demonstration outside Parliament House where people chained themselves to the railings. Delegations visited Parliament House to lobby politicians. Wran, however undermined this lobbying process when he 'ruled out any further attempts to decriminalise homosexuality this year ..." (SMH 1 March 1983) On 4 March, we held a rather rowdy ‘Scandalous Conduct' party at Club 80, to which we invited the police. They, of course, never came. There was music, and raffles. My former Co-Convenor at GRL, Barry Charles, won six cans of Crisco. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence held an exorcism of the building and Mother Inferior (Fabian LoSchiavo) blessed the crowd with amyl nitrate for holy water! Importantly, over $4,000 was raised, which became the seed funding for the Lambda Legal Defence Fund in support of the Club 80 detainees. Then, on 2 April, the Vice-Squad, based on the evidence collected at the second raid, successfully had Justice Lusher declare Club 80 'a disorderly house' and it was closed down. But that was not the end of police activity. There was another Club 80 premises established in Little Oxford Street, and this too was raided on 27 August and closed down. While the community responded with an impromptu march down and up Oxford Street, at which the police showed surprising restraint, it was to be two other actions that proved to be most important in furthering the cause – the establishment of the Gay Embassy outside the Premier's home, and the signing of Statutory Declarations by people and the confronting of the Vice Squad daring them to arrest us. These had a direct impact on the outcome of the homosexual law reform campaign in NSW.   Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member There was a great roll up at the 78ers Lunch on the first Sunday in May at The Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont. We book the downstairs room off the courtyard each month and enjoy a relaxing meal together. The next lunch will be on Sunday 4 June. RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Photo: Diane Minnis. 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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 to the PO Box. Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, is a 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 4 June 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting – 4pm, Saturday 17 June 2023 by Zoom City of Sydney Liberate! Exhibition Talk – 1-3pm, Saturday 24 June 2023, Customs House, Circular Quay, FREE: https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/events Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Celebrating our Sapphire Anniversary – 6.30pm Saturday 24 June 2023, Carriageworks, SGLMG members only invited First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Drinks – 3pm, Sunday 25 June 2023, Kinselas, FREE RSVP: info@78ers.org.au First Mardi Gras Inc. Book Launch: Voices from 1978 – 6pm, Tuesday 27 June 2023, State Library, FREE, Booking essential: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voices-from-1978-book-launch-tickets-638942884367 First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 2 July 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023 Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) 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 - April 2023

View this email in your browser April 2023 This April edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, covers events in late February and March 2023 including: Reviews – CAMP premiers at Sydney WorldPride Helen Gollan on Newcastle Pride Parade and Pink Salt Robyn Kennedy on Live and Proud: Sydney WorldPride Opening Concert Ken Davis on WorldPride Human Rights Conference Karl Zlotkowski on Pride History Group Conference Karl Zlotkowski on World Pride 2023 – Over the Bridge Richard Thode on CARR Snap Action Helen Gollan on Chillout Festival Parade Daylesford Photos from Sunrise Pink Triangle Photo Event How to buy Badges and Books Calendar of Events.  The May edition of the newsletter will cover events in April as well as planned events in late June to mark the 45th Anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 22 April 2023 by Zoom. The next 78ers Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 7 May 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au.     Diane Minnis The new play, CAMP, based on the book by 78ers Robyn Kennedy and Robyn Plaister was among the major successes of Sydney WorldPride. The play was performed to full houses across its two week season at the Seymour Centre. With funding from Create NSW, Robyn Kennedy commissioned playwright Elias Jamieson Brown to write the play. Robyn Kennedy acted as script consultant and Associate Producer. Research for the play by Elias included interviews with several participants in the book, CAMP: Australia's Pioneer Homosexual Rights Activists, by Kennedy and Plaister. On Saturday 18 February 78ers were warmly welcomed to the first Pride Parade held in Newcastle, although Newcastle Pride has been running for many years. The Parade was held on the walk along the foreshore, which gave plenty of visibility and will support their plans to have floats and be on the road next year. As the Pride Parade was held to maximise those attending Pink Salt Dinner, it was important that 78ers were present. The dinner was amazing with wonderful Aboriginal inspired food. Sadly, torrential rain stopped the dinner and dessert was served under the awning, and that was an end to a beautiful event.  Helen Gollan, Butch now and forever 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. member  “Our community has faced monumental challenges – intolerance, hostility, stigma.  In many places, these challenges remain, and hard-fought gains are threatened. Working for change requires fearless determination and resilience and that is what we share as a global community.  We are unstoppable because our task is not simply a cause – it is our very existence, our right to live freely and openly. And while tonight we celebrate, we never forget those prevented from doing so. We gather here for them.  Because no matter the barriers we face as a community, we never turn back, we never give up, we always rise.” My spoken words during the performance of “Rise” by Sheldon Riley and the Out and Loud Gay and Lesbian Choir at the Opening Concert, Sydney WorldPride on Friday 24 February 2023.   Link to spoken words during the performance of “Rise”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3J4x6FwmCM. Other segments if the concert available from that page.   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member The World Pride Human Rights Conference in Sydney 1-3 March was organised by Equality Australia. It was curated to be a large and inspiring show, focussing on the personal experiences of around 60 local and international presenters. The conference was planned to be more performative than participatory. There was good representation from parts of Europe and North America, and from Pacific Island nations, and prioritisation of First Nations peoples. The people who worked to put on such a large conference need to be commended; nevertheless, there were political and logistical shortcomings. 78ers contributed as volunteers, participants and presenters. The conference attracted controversy early on, due to its emphasis on profiling corporate sponsors, big business participation and the initially high cost ($1,700) for registration. The organisers refused workshop proposals from First Mardi Gras Inc., Positive Life and Union Pride and many other community organisations. This is despite that these workshops were to focus in part on internationalism, and though the original pitch for World Pride noted 2023 as the 50th anniversary of national Gay Pride Week and the Builders’ Labourers’ industrial action to defend a homosexual student in 1973, and the 45th anniversary of the first Mardi Gras in 1978. As a consolation, there was late offering of small “roundtables” about other topics, and brief inclusion of some speakers. The lessons of the history of queer struggles in Australia and their relationships with the international movement were de-prioritised. Quite properly the conference started with a welcome to Gadigal land, and presentations by Federal Ministers Dreyfus and Wong, and one of the NSW Liberal ministers. But often there too much attention to Australian culture and politics, a false assumption of relevance to an international audience, from both high income and low income countries. There was a strong emphasis on ensuring diversity of representation, and individual story-telling to highlight multiple oppressions within the queer world. There was much discussion of personal perspectives on intersectionality, but hardly any mention of class, and no collective strategies about destroying power structures of oppression. There was an inspiring panel on religion, with people speaking of faith journeys, notably Imam Muhsin Hendricks, who was a leader of the anti-Apartheid struggle in Cape Town. But there was no discussion on how to strategically break the social, political and economic power of religious institutions. There were also reflections on decolonisation, but this is not only about changing our mindsets. There was no discussion of actual anti-colonial struggles and how they relate to queer politics: Palestine, Kanaky/New Caledonia, West Papua, other Pacific island colonies, Western Sahara…. There was some testimony on Afghanistan and Ukraine. The theory of change of organisers and WorldPride is top down, getting funds from big business. And assuming they are the key agents for change for queer equality and freedom, through rainbow branding and selling diversity and inclusion training for managers. Ironically the session on pink washing was a panel of senior managers from Coles, Deloitte and Amex. The workplace equality session originally only had CEOs, as if the corporate world had been the reason we have won rights at work, rather than our own movement, allied with trade unions and other social movements. After some pressure, trade union leaders who could talk clearly on the realities for queer workers were included in these panels: Michele O’Neill, president of ACTU and Wil Stracke from Victorian Trades Hall. The conference failed to properly situate intersex, trans, gay or lesbian rights in the broader human rights struggles for democratic rights. The struggles against increasing authoritarianism, and for worker’s rights, reproductive rights, indigenous rights, women’s rights, child rights, social rights, media freedom, refugee/migrant rights, and the fight for environment/climate justice were not explored. The conference was addressed by Victor Madrigal-Borloz the UN Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, but it failed to build strategic alliances, with human rights campaign organisations, trade unions, and other democratic and social justice movements. 78ers Robyn Kennedy and Dennis Altman, albeit too briefly, speaking in plenaries, invoked the urgency of action around queer refugees and acute repression or ominous trends in countries such as Myanmar, China, Russia, Indonesia, Uganda, USA, Poland, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt. It was fantastic to meet with old and new activists from around Australia and across the world. The conference was an example of elite capture of the leadership of a social movement. The conference was not designed to enable debates, open discussion, campaigns, resolutions, statements, strategies and alliances for social justice. So there were missed opportunities.   Ken Davis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair On 3-4 March Pride History Group held their 2023 conference at Marrickville Library. Among the presentations were papers by 78ers Sallie Colechin (on the role of women in SGLMG) and John Witte (on the NSW Gay Trade Unionists’ Group 1978-1980). Together with Ken Davis, John also spoke on the past 50 years of trade union activism. Robert French was scheduled to speak but was unable to attend on the day due to health issues. In his absence Geraldine Fela presented a paper on the memories of a nurse in rural Victoria during the AIDS crisis. Diane Minnis was also unable to attend (due to COVID), and the panel discussion she and Ken Davis were to have hosted on Fifty Years of Activism and International Solidarity was instead delivered by Ken alone with a particular emphasis on First Mardi Gras and the heritage of internationalism, as well as misinterpretations of aspects of events in the 1970s. At the reception held the previous evening the PHG President, Shirleene Robinson (NSW State Library) presented Awards for Excellence to three past office bearers – Robert French, Diane Minnis and John Witte – in recognition of their outstanding contribution to preserving Sydney's LGBTIQ+ history   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary Sunday 5 March was the last day of Sydney World Pride 2023, and the day chosen for its symbolic public event – a mass march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Senator Penny Wong, together with InterPride visitors, dignitaries and the Rainbow Serpent, a crowd of 50,000 (or was it 70,000?) people ambled north to south over the span and across the Quay to the Domain. Walking across the Bridge is not just fun – it’s an assertion of community. Ever since the 1920s the Sydney Bridge has symbolised connection, hope, aspiration and unity of purpose.  By crossing in a crowd we declare ourselves and share the exhilaration – we take ownership of Sydney’s global symbol of connection. This is why the 78ers were determined to turn out in force, at 6:30 am on a Sunday in a part of North Sydney where 78ers rarely tread. The turnout was much larger than we expected, and as a group we put on a splendid show behind the 45th Anniversary banner, with Helen Gollan and Johnny Whitehead in the lead as motorised escorts. Job done: we declared our community and we took possession of that symbolic connection.  And as Robyn Kennedy said in her speech before we set off, we marched also not only for ourselves but for those all over the world who cannot!  The Sydney Bridge is about community, connection and hope. Video by Garry Case Watch | Facebook.   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary As we prepared for the WorldPride Bridge Walk on 5 March, I heard that Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) had organised a Snap Action in Newtown at 12 noon, in response to the very aggressive Friday night march in Newtown by Christian Lives Matter activists. I already knew about this from straight neighbours who were very upset that such bad behaviour had occurred in our Newtown community. I spoke to various people as we were preparing to march, and realised the Snap Action was something that definitely needed to be supported. Karl Zlotkowski and I agreed to meet in Newtown with the 78ers banner. It was quite a challenge after the early morning start, as we were all feeling a bit weary, and in the end only four 78ers made it to the CARR rally. Various speakers from CARR, The Greens and from the community spoke, including one member of the Lebanese community who recognised that some of the Christian Lives Matter marchers from the previous Friday night were members of his own community. He warned that they would be encouraged and energised by community opposition. 78ers Diane Fieldes and Jess Hooley also spoke, including about the distress caused by Christian Lives Matters aggression against the Pitt Street Uniting Church. After an energetic hour and a half of speeches the Snap Action broke up, with the very definite intent to continue the struggle!   Richard Thode 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Treasurer Huge congratulations to the Chillout committee, it was a wonderful day on 12 March. Each year the number of entries and Fair Day at the end of Parade are growing. Nate Byrne from ABC again this year was the MC and did a great job. As a 78er I felt proud to be there on the day with my partner Virginia. Thank you all would love to see some other 78ers next year to help keep the movement going in rural and regional areas.  Helen Gollan, Butch now and forever 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. member 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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 to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037. Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, is a 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting 4pm, Saturday 22 April 2023 by Zoom First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 7 May 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023 Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com), tickets Shop — Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) 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 - March 2023

View this email in your browser March 2023 As we were so busy in February, and a number of us have had Covid, this March edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, covers events in February 2023 including: David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski on Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Robyn Kennedy on Key to the City Presented to LGBTIQ+ Activists Richard Thode on Fair Day at the 78ers Tent Diane Minnis on Pride Pioneers Bus Tour Ken Davis on 78ers Cocktail Party Karl Zlotkowski and Sue Fletcher on Mardi Gras Parade City Hub report on Protest at George Pell’s funeral Ken Davis and Diane Minnis on the Lord Mayor’s Plaque Commemorating the First Mardi Gras First Mardi Gras Inc.’s Pre-Mardi Gras Lunch Photos from Woollahra Council’s Progress Pride Flag Raising Robert French on the 34th Annual Sisters of Perpetual indulgence Living History Walk Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers badges Calendar of Events. Instead of a Lunch on Sunday 2 April, we will have a Brunch at 11am, Klub Satellite, corner Brown and Wilson Streets Newtown. RSVP: davidpabello@gmail.com. The next First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting is at 4pm, Saturday 22 April 2023 by Zoom. The next 78ers Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 7 May 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au. Thanks to Sandra Gobbo for additional photo research.  Diane Minnis We are taking the 78ers banner to this Pride in Protest organised march and rally. Join us at the Newtown Hub (opposite the station) on Sunday, 2 April, from 1-3pm. We were delighted to launch our book Voices from 1978 The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, from the main stage at Fair Day on Sunday 19 February. We wove together the stories of over 30 people with photos to tell the saga of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Drop the Charges campaign. This was an opportunity to thank our other writer Ken Davis, editor Graeme Head and designer Hannah Evans as well as all those who contributed their stories and photos. We couldn’t have done this without financial support from sponsors Box Bar and Prohibition Liquor Co and their special edition Spirit of Pride Gin, and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. At the 78ers Tent, we sold nearly 100 copies of the 104 page, A5 book. You can get your copy for $15 plus $5 postage from Orders — First Mardi Gras (78ers.org.au) or buy it from The Bookshop Darlinghurst for $19.99. The Bookshop also does overseas orders, but best to email info@thebookshop.com.au for a postage quote. The next day we received this lovely message from Betty Hounslow: Just want to say congrats and thanks for all your work in writing and producing the book! I read it last night and it's fantastic. Puts the four ‘formal 78er’ events in their political context – both before and after – and is a much more comprehensive and sophisticated account than we're ever had before. And the seamless weaving in of the voices adds to its compelling history. So...a thousand bouquets! William Brougham’s launch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJjluceXa90   David Abello, Diane Minnis and Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member, Co-Chair and Secretary On Friday 17 February Lord Mayor Clover Moore presented the Key to the City to Robyn Kennedy who accepted it on behalf of LGBTIQ+ activists. Here is Robyn’s speech. It is a great honour to accept this key, which I accept on behalf of past and present heroes of the Pride movement; on behalf of our pioneer activists, our advocates, our AIDS carers, our community historians, and photographers who have kept our lived experience relevant and vital.  And our creative community who continue to drive a vibrant and unique queer culture of inclusion, diversity and of course, over the top fabulousness. Who else could have started a party that’s still going 45 years later? It was only a little over 50 years ago that CAMP was founded, here in Sydney. The organisation that staged Australia’s first gay and lesbian rights demonstration right here in the city in 1971.  And what a very different world it was then – and what courage it took to refuse to stay hidden in the shadows, to refuse to feel shame, to step out shouting proudly, I am What I Am. I was 21 when I found CAMP. CAMP not only changed my life; it saved my life.  And that reality of our existence is as true today as it was then.  And how much we have achieved – we forced decriminalisation of homosexuality, we made governments face the AIDS crisis, we fought until discrimination against us was illegal, and until our children could not be removed simply because of our sexuality. We won the right to have our relationships treated equally. We paved the way for evolving definitions of gender and identity. And we haven’t stopped yet. Just yesterday our first Pride Museum opened its doors. All these victories have been hard fought, often at the cost of significant personal sacrifice, but being fearless is at the heart of everything we do – our 78ers are shining examples of standing your ground against overwhelming odds.  We created a society where every single year since 1978 sequined dancers, drag queens and revelers across age, nationality, gender, and identity come together to celebrate our community, while also breaking the world record for the number of stilettos discarded in one night.  Let’s also remember that our achievements have always drawn on the support of allies – an ever growing list of allies – including unwavering supporters over decades, individuals like our Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, who, with the counsellors and staff of the City of Sydney, have contributed to making the Sydney Mardi Gras Festival the best of its kind in the world, and to making what will be the best WorldPride ever held.  Our role now is to continue to live the motto that has carried us through the decades – an army of lovers and allies can never be defeated. Happy Mardi Gras! Happy World Pride!   Robyn Kennedy 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member For this year’s Fair Day at Victoria Park, SGLMG’s 78ers Committee negotiated a much-improved 78ers tent location with the organisers and we were in the thick of things, adjacent to Pride History Group and Mature Aged Gays … and very close to toilets, a definite bonus for some of us! All 78ers were of course welcome at the tent and we enjoyed both our own company – catching up with old friends – and the company of many enthusiastic visitors both young and old(er), including many overseas visitors here for Sydney WorldPride. The tent became very hot and stuffy early on, but an enterprising 78er opened the rear flap of the tent allowing a decent airflow. Richard Thode 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Treasurer Our Bus Tour with Sydney Pride Pioneers was an event in the Pride Amplified program – a fringe festival during the Sydney World Pride and Mardi Gras season. We were thankful for the fee waiver for Not for Profit organisations, box office ticketing services and our event listing in the printed guide and website. The event was a two-hour tour of the route of the first Mardi Gras with talks outside the bus at Taylor Square, El Alamein Fountain, Kings Cross and the old Darlinghurst Police Station. We conducted two tours a day for four days – on 23, 24, 27 and 28 February. Our advertising seemed to strike a chord with participants, many from interstate and overseas. There was a good roll-up, particularly on our last few tours. We had lots of positive feedback from participants. 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. You will hear from activists who took part in this event, on 24 June 1978, and the protests and Drop the Charges campaign that followed. There was a good roll-up, particularly on our last few tours. We had lots of positive feedback from participants which translated into book and badge sales and requests for photos and book signings. It was hard to tell the story of what happened at key first Mardi Gras sites and several presenters became emotional at times. Big thanks to those who worked with me to present the tours, those who added commentary and people who sold books and badges and wrangled the box and sign – Fiona Hulme, Ken Davis, Robyn Kennedy, Rebbell Barnes, Richard Thode, Karl Zlotkowski, Barry Charles, Bob Harvey, Michael Fenaughty and Fabian LoSchiavo. Barry McKay videoed out last bus tour and edited it into this one-hour YouTube. 78ers tour of key sites of the 1978 Mardi Gras, Sydney World Pride, March 2023 - YouTube   Diane Minnis 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair In welcoming people to the 78ers Cocktail Party on Thursday 23 February, I spoke about celebrating eight things. Firstly, our pioneers who have died: Sue Wills, Sandi Banks, Lex Watson, Richard Wilson, Kendall Lovett, Ron Austin, Lance Gowland, Marg McMann, Peter Bonsall-Boone, and others. This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first national Gay Pride Week in 1973, when I came out in school uniform. I met Penny Gulliver, Diane Minnis, Katy O’Rourke, Terry Batterham, Richard Wilson, Dennis Freney, Lance Gowland, Richard Jessop, Terry Rolfe, Jeff McCarthy and others. Australian psychiatrists ceased to view homosexuality as a pathology. The Builder’s Labourer’s Federation strike for Jeremy Fisher at Macquarie University was the first time in the world a union went on strike to defend a homosexual who was not a member. Later that year there was a similar struggle at Macquarie Uni when Penn Short lost her teachers’ scholarship for a lesbian poem. We mark the 45th anniversary of 24 June1978 and the first Mardi Gras – inaugurating a new level of struggle for freedom, and looking forward to our 46th Parade in a couple of days. We are also remembering our unfinished agenda; our struggle goes on – not only about law reforms but about power and about defeating the structures of class, sexism, heterosexism, racism, colonialism and ecocide. It’s time to celebrate our 78ers generation and our diverse commitment and contributions to social justice in all its forms, through our working and political and artistic lives. And we celebrate the vitality of the current international struggle. Wherever democratic space is diminished by autocracy, queers suffer: Iran, Afghanistan, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, China. But at least Trump and Bolsonaro have gone. Let’s celebrate the contributions of the elected 78ers committee for SGLMG past and present, currently: Sue Fletcher, Diane Minnis, Penny Gulliver, Karl Zlotkowski, Rebbell Barnes, Helen Gollan and all their work on Fair Day and Parade. Tonight, we are celebrating our organisation. First Mardi Gras Inc. is politically diverse, with volunteers working hard on achievements in social media, website, newsletter, the new book and bus tours. Our Annual Reports show democracy, transparency and accountability. If you are a 78er and not a member, join up! Thanking Sandra Gobbo, Em Cunningham, Anne Morphett, Robyn Kennedy, Karl Zlotkowski, Richard Thode, David Abello, Sue Fletcher, Diane Minnis and Rebbell Barnes. The First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Cocktail Party would not have been possible without Diageo Australia who kindly hosted us in their function centre in Macquarie Street, Sydney and provided most of the drinks. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras supplied the beer and Sydney WorldPride contributed to the cost of food catering. We thank these organisations for supporting our Cocktail Party on the 45th Anniversary of the first Mardi Gras.   Ken Davis 78er  and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair 2023 Parade – the Good and the Bad This year our parade was back where it belongs on Oxford Street after two years at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This was something we all looked forward to, especially given that it was our 45th anniversary, and a near record number of 78ers turned out to celebrate. The SGLMG 78ers Committee spent months beforehand working with the SGLMG Workshop and Parade teams to deliver an event that presented the 78ers front-and-centre as the elders of the Mardi Gras community. Our parade entry is about celebrating the 78er contribution to the struggles of the past and our leadership in the struggles of the present. It is also a chance for later Mardi Gras generations to demonstrate their acknowledgement and respect for those who have gone before. In 2023 we achieved this, but only just. The Parade itself was as fabulous as ever, because we made it so – after all the 78ers know better than anyone else how to march on Oxford Street. There were over 150 of us, out of the 220 who registered, and we continued with our ongoing theme of celebrating 50 Years of Visibility with placards highlighting events from 1973. This year we added some big political slogans on the side of the bus: Unsolved Hate Murders - Why?, Russia Out of Ukraine! and Indigenous Voice – Yes!. And a few personal contributions made an appearance, including a scaled up colour reproduction of the famous Love Has No Discrimination placard from the night of 24 June 1978. A small Hello Woy Woy! sign also appeared. The crowd this year were very close – just an arm’s length away. The path up Oxford Street was narrower than in the past, in order to accommodate a larger crowd on the open roadway, and this unexpectedly brought us all closer together. There was an intimacy (a very loud intimacy) that we could never have felt at the Cricket Ground. Viewed from the air there are moments when the parade almost seems lost in the embrace of the crowd. All this was wonderful, which made up in part for several totally avoidable stuff-ups before the Parade began and (notably) at the end. The event was ticketed, with tickets promised to be released three days before the event, but they didn’t arrive till that afternoon - why? Access, security and crowd control in Hyde Park were, as usual, chaotic if non-existent despite years of experience - why? It was at the end of the parade, though, that SGLMG failed the 78ers absolutely. We have a reserved seating area at the end, from which we can catch our breath and watch the rest of the parade. This year a decision was taken to limit this to 100 places, despite the fact that more than this could surely be expected in an anniversary year.  When 220 people registered to march SGLMG refused to change their plans and our parade group was split, with the remainder obliged to stumble on to be lost in the darkness of Moore Park with no signage or guidance from SGLMG marshals to help them on their way. The parade ended, as it began, in chaos that was entirely predictable and avoidable. The disrespect shown towards the elders of the Mardi Gras community by SGLMG has been noted, and the 78ers Committee have made this clear to Mardi Gras and will make sure this doesn’t happen again in 2024. But all of this was worth it to be back on the street again!   Karl Zlotkowski 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Secretary Taking care of each other – do we need to do better? One of the things I think I realised in my youth was that mostly, we were good at taking care of each other. We took care of each other at the first Mardi Gras and during the Drop the Charges Campaign. We took care of each other in subsequent parades and political action, we took care of each other if we were drunk or out of it. We took care of each other with HIV/AIDS. We are a very broad community with divergent opinions and passions, but we mostly take care of each other when we are under attack. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade often can see over-policing or police officers being overly enthusiastic (tongue in cheek commentary). For many years we have read about post-parade heavy-handed policing. I witnessed some during the parade and the outcome surprised all of us. Let me talk you through it. During the parade directly opposite the Sideshow 78er seating area we could see two Koori women and one Koori male spectators being ‘talked to’ by police. The police had been standing right in front of them and blocking their view of the parade. We could see that it was escalating and one of the women was becoming quite agitated. The police started to remove them from the spectator area. I looked around and saw a senior police officer and a younger female police officer in our seating area so I approached them. I asked them if they could de-escalate the situation happening with their officers and the Kooris on the other side. Police response: “that is what our officers are trying to do”. My response “the Kooris are reacting to the uniform”. Police response: “the officers are de-escalating, they are dealing with it”. My response: “are you sure the Officers are de-escalating or are they escalating. We are watching this”. The police officers removed the three Kooris. We opened our barricade and were able to get the most agitated woman in. The police I spoke with allowed the other two into our area. The man had a panic attack and was extremely distressed. We stayed with him and reassured them being with us was safe. We encouraged them to sit with us and view the parade. Shortly later the young female officer I spoke with walked up to me and thanked me for resolving the situation. I saw the senior officer speak with the younger police that had removed the Kooris – in effect evicting them from the viewing area. We didn’t get badge numbers, but the officer that was the most aggressive had an Irish accent and pale hair, so he was easily identified. To our utter amazement he came up to the Koori woman and apologised to her and said ‘he was being reactive and he was sorry’. It was strange, but clearly he had been reprimanded. The woman was crying; she was scared for her male relative and what the police might do to him. They stayed with us and their night went from being scary to a good night, because we created a safe space for them. Because we know how to look after each other, because we could identify that a situation could turn really ugly quickly, but we also have a responsibility to intercept it. Taking care of each other means respect for everyone, whether it is someone you don’t know or someone you may vaguely know. All 78ers marching received an email with Parade instructions. While there were issues with some things communicated from Mardi Gras, those instructions included a message of respect and acceptable behaviour. I acknowledge there are members of our community that may have mental health challenges, but respect and taking care of each other doesn’t include abusing organisers or yelling at Committee members. We can be better than that. Let’s do better next year. Happy Mardi Gras!   Sue Fletcher 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member William Brougham’s video: 78ers at 2023 Sydney Mardi Gras - YouTube. LGBTQ+ protesters took over College and Oxford Street protesting the late Cardinal George Pell while his funeral service ran on the morning of Thursday 2 March. Prior to the rally, NSW Police sought a court injunction to attempt to prevent protesters from holding a protest outside Pell’s funeral at St Mary’s Cathedral on the basis of “safety” concerns. However, police backflipped on their initial decision after negotiations between them and Community Action For Rainbow Rights (CARR) organisers found an alternative route for the rally. While Cardinal Pell was farewelled with a Requiem Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, protesters gathered at Hyde Park yelling chants including, “George Pell, go to Hell. Take Dutton there as well!” Co-Chair of First Mardi Gras Inc. Ken Davis criticised Pell as “not only outrageous in terms of what he did as an abuser” but also what he did by “enabling exploitation and sexual abuse in structures of church nationally and internationally”. He asserted an importance in removing government funding from religious institutions, referencing the problem of Pell’s “relationship to real structures of power”. “The solution is not simply to oppose legislation against Religious Discrimination. It’s not simply to say people in religious schools or religious health services or youth services should not be discriminated against. The point is to remove government funding from these services totally. These services should be in control of the community or the government and should be held accountable as public services,” Davis said.    City Hub LGBT protestors march at Cardinal George Pell's funeral (cityhubsydney.com.au) First Mardi Gras Inc. was consulted by the City of Sydney about a plaque to commemorate the first Mardi Gras. Most of our suggestions were incorporated and we are happy with the final wording. A temporary plaque was mounted on a pole in the Kinselas side of Taylor Square in time for this year’s Mardi Gras season. The permanent plaque is due to be installed on the 45th anniversary in June 2023. We have suggested that the plaque be installed near the courthouse – where the first Parade assembled.   Ken Davis and Diane Minnis 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chairs On Saturday 18 February, the 34th annual Sisters of Perpetual indulgence Living History Walk on Oxford Street, saw a smaller crowd of 25, including my friends John and John from NY. But there was also a larger participation of Sisters in quite a while, some of whom, like Fabian LoSchiavo and Peter Mitchell, are activist colleagues who go way back. The heat was a bit much (and I did almost faint at one point), but the audience seemed to enjoy it. Despite health issues, I'm glad I did it but, honestly, I'm not sure just how many more of these presentations I have left in me.   Robert French 78er and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 78er badges and our new Always an Ally 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 to PO Box 1029 Glebe NSW 2037.   Rebbell Barnes 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member Calendar of Events   First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Brunch – 11 am, Sunday 2 April 2023, Klub Satellite, corner Brown and Wilson Streets Newtown. RSVP: davidpabello@gmail.com Pride in Protest Trans Day of Visibility March & Rally – 1-3pm, Sunday, 2 April 2023, Newtown Hub (opposite the station) First Mardi Gras Inc. General Meeting 4pm, Saturday 22 April 2023 by Zoom First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 7 May 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP: info@78ers.org.au Tropical Fruits (Lismore) Easter Party – April TBC 2023, Events - Tropical Fruits Broken Heel Festival, Broken Hill – 7-11 September 2023, Broken Heel Festival (bhfestival.com) 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.

TikTok: @rainbowhistoryclass with substitute teacher Garry Wotherspoon

Check out Garry Wotherspoon on TikTok with @rainbowhistoryclass explaining to the kids of today about the first mardi gras, and about how the queer liberation movement began in Australia

Sydney World Pride - Bridge March

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Macquarie Park came out in full force to celebrate World Pride on Thursday!

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Newsletter - January 2023

View this email in your browser January 2023 In this January edition of the First Mardi Gras Inc. Newsletter, we have: Diane Minnis and Rebbell Barnes on 78ers Cocktail Party – Thursday 23 February Sue Fletcher and Karl Zlotkowski on Mardi Gras Parade and Harbour Bridge Pride March! City of Sydney invitation to the Progress Pride Flag Raising Ceremony – Friday 17 February Information on The Coming Back Out Salon – Saturday 18 February How to register for the InterPride Reception – Monday 27 February Garry Wotherspoon on the City of Sydney Oxford Street Art Panels Robyn Kennedy on the CAMP play, Seymour Centre –15 February to 4 March Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton on How to get your 78ers badges. Calendar of Events.  First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Lunch is on at 12pm, Sunday 5 February 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP info@78ers.org.au.   Diane Minnis The Sydney Kings would like to invite two 78ers to attend the NBL Champion Pride Round on Sunday 29 January at Qudos Bank Arena. 1.30pm Sydney Flames V Townsville Fire (WNBL) 4:00pm Sydney Kings V SE Melbourne Phoenix (NBL) The Champion Pride Round will promote, celebrate and give thanks to the LGBTQ community, while showcasing basketball as a sport striving to provide a safe, healthy and accessible environment for all. Email info@78ers.org.au and we will put you in touch with the Sydney Kings.   We know you have kept this date free, and you can now get your tickets to the 78ers Cocktail Party on Thursday 23 February from 6.30-9pm. Diageo Australia, a leading premium spirits company, are kindly hosting us in their function centre at 99 Macquarie Street, Sydney and providing most of the drinks. Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is supplying the beer and Sydney WorldPride is contributing to the cost of food catering. First Mardi Gras Inc. is grateful to these sponsors for enabling us to put on this event – a gathering of the clan to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Last year, we costed venue hire and in-house catering and the prices were exorbitant and out of reach for us. Please note that we have less capacity than in 2018, only 130 spaces. So book your ticket as soon as you get this newsletter. Booking requests for this event are limited to 78ers and their partners (who may or may not be 78ers themselves). Due to capacity limitations at the venue, bookings cannot exceed two per party. Multiple bookings will not be accepted. Booking requests will be confirmed by email from Eventbrite on a first-come first-served basis, up to the capacity limit of the venue. Thereafter booking requests will be placed on a wait list for cancellations. Final confirmation of each booking will be sent by email from First Mardi Gras Inc. The entrance to the 78ers Cocktail Party will be in the laneway next to 99 Macquarie Street, Sydney – look for the Satchi logo and a 78ers Cocktail Party sign. Looking forward to celebrating with you on Thursday 23 February!   Diane Minnis and Rebbell Barnes 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Co-Chair and Committee Member Are you a 78er or do you know someone who is a 78er and wants to march in the Mardi Gras Parade with other 78ers? If you are, you need to register with Mardi Gras and the cut-off for registrations is the 30 January. The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 78ers Committee is coordinating 78ers marching in the 2023 Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday, 25 February 2023. SGLMG sent an email to 78ers asking you to register. The email has a link so 78ers can nominate to march with 78ers and advise if 78ers are interested in the reserved 78er seating at the end of the parade in the Side Show area, located on the corner of Albion and Flinders streets. The allocation of seating is limited as is the number of people who can march with 78ers. We will have more in the 78ers contingent than there are seats available, due to restrictions on available space. If you do NOT need a seat to watch the end of the parade please let us know NOW so we can secure it for someone who does. The cut-off for registrations is 30 January. If you have already registered, you don’t need to re-register, as this email is a reminder to everyone who hasn’t registered. Places are being snapped up, so this will be the last reminder.   T-shirts Mardi Gras will again supply t-shirts for 78ers who do not already have one. T-shirts are available for all 78ers, not just those who join us in the Parade in Sydney. If you want a t-shirt, in the email SGLMG sent, enter your name, nominate your size (based on standard men's sizes) and we will get the t-shirt to you.   Hats To add a bit more colour and movement to our float, SGLMG will be providing sparkling pink hats….we will be handing hats out to those who want them when we assemble next to the bus.   Placards This year we will be carrying placards continuing our theme of 50 Years of Visibility – 15 placards will salute events from 1973, such as Law Reform in South Australia. In addition, the 78ers bus will display two large banners addressing issues of concern to our community in 2023: Unsolved Hate Murders – WHY? and Indigenous Voice – VOTE YES!   Harbour Bridge Pride March on Sunday 5 March At the time of writing, WorldPride is yet to provide an update on the logistics, but we can advise that you have been sent an email asking you to register. We can also confirm 78ers will march as a group across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The walk is from North Sydney train station to the Domain. We will gather near North Sydney station at 6:30am sharp, ready to lead off after 7am. The march will end at approximately 8:30am in the Domain. Importantly, you should nominate your intention to join the march at 7am on the day if you wish to join the 78er group. You are free to nominate another time later in the morning if you wish, but you will not be part of the 78er group. 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 Harbour Bridge Pride March complete the first part of the form. If you 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. We look forward to being back on the street in 2023 and hope to see you there!   Sue Fletcher and Karl Zlotkowski 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Member and Secretary As we prepare for Mardi Gras and WorldPride, the City of Sydney would like to invite all 78ers to attend the Progress Pride Flag Raising Ceremony at the Town Hall at 5pm on Friday, 17 February. This is the start of Mardi Gras 2023 and the first of the Mardi Gras/World Pride events. The Lord Mayor will make a special presentation on the evening. To register you (and partner) for the Progress Pride Flag Raising Ceremony, complete the third part of the form. The City of Sydney will then email you an invitation to which you will need to RSVP. Tickets are now on sale for The Coming Back Out Salon, a spectacular celebration of LGBTIQ+ older people and elders. An afternoon concert and tea dance celebration in which the LGBTIQ+ broader community can gather alongside our LGBTIQ+ elders to eat, drink, dance, reminisce and dream together into the future. Featuring The Sydney Youth Orchestra, Robyn Archer, Deborah Cheetham, Paul Capsis, Nana Miss Koori, Tina Del Twist, Nefertiti LaNegra, The Huxleys, with more performers to be announced. This looks like a great event for 78ers with a cocktail hour, concert (with seats for all) and then dancing for those whose knees can take it! Saturday 18 February 2023, 2pm - 6pm Sydney Town Hall Dress: Fabulous! Tickets: $50 Full / $40 Concession + Booking fees Tickets are affordable to ensure everyone can attend. If ticket prices are too much for older folk, please get in touch. This is InterPride’s invite-only event to welcome travellers to Sydney for WorldPride and all 78ers and their partners are invited! You can mix and mingle with InterPride invited guests, the festival team, Human Rights Conference scholars, city officials and talent at the Town Hall. It's the perfect way to say gidday to all our friends from across the world. The Reception starts at 6pm, Monday 27 February 2023, Sydney Town Hall and is a free, invite-only event. To attend, enter your name, and the name of your partner/guest, on the second part of the form. The City of Sydney has recently erected artwork panels, by artist Amy Blue, on Oxford and nearby streets that celebrate the LGBTIQ+ history of the area. The panels are great and they go all the way around from Foley Street to Oxford Street and up to Palmer Street. They are very colourful, and conducive to "ah, remember that'! The 78ers get two mentions – see the photos above and below.   Garry Wotherspoon 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Member 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.   Rebbell Barnes and Bill Ashton 78ers and First Mardi Gras Inc. Committee Members Calendar of Events First Mardi Gras Inc. Pre Mardi Gras Lunch – 12pm, Sunday 5 February 2023, Terminus Hotel, Pyrmont, downstairs room, RSVP by email 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, Victoria Park First Mardi Gras Inc. 78ers 45th Anniversary Cocktail Party – 6.30-9pm, Thursday 23 February 2023, Diageo, 99 Macquarie Street Sydney 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 Pride 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 - 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.

We, The City: Queer, Deadbeat, Outsider - Toby Zoates

This week on We, The City Blue speaks with Toby Zoates.

Toby is a queer punk artist who works in the mediums of painting, animation, film, comics, writing and cartooning. Toby is an original 78’er, he was part of the group of protestors who formed the first Mardi Gras march in 1978 in Sydney. Toby and I discuss his most recent novel, Punk Outsider, which chronicles how Sydney has changed from the late 70s til now..

Listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or click here to listen on PodBean. Access the transcript of the episode by clicking here.