We welcome the publication of Tranznation, an important new study launched by the Australian Research Centre of Sex, Health and Society at LaTrobe University. The report confirms that the oppression of transgendered people runs deep. The findings of Tranznation are based upon an online study of 253 transgendered Australians and New Zealanders. Doing it tough…. Read more »
LGBTQ
Same-sex relationship equality: Organising to win!
Last June, Federal Member for Melbourne, Lindsay Tanner, told attendees at Pride Or Prejudice, a queer community forum, why the Australian Labor Party (ALP) had voted with the Howard Government to pass homophobic amendments to the Marriage Act. Not surprisingly, Tanner copped flack from queers angered by the bi-partisan support for the legislation which defined… Read more »
Activists fire up for Equal Love
On 1 December 2005 the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the highest court in the country, ruled that same-sex marriages have the same legal status as those between a man and a woman. In contrast, the Howard Government legislated an explicit ban. On Saturday, 13 August 2005 — the first anniversary of the reactionary Australian… Read more »
One year on: queers fire up to resist same-sex marriage ban
August 13, 2004 was a bleak day in Australia’s history. It was the day the Federal Parliament enacted legislation banning same-sex marriage — the only country in the world to do so! This happened with the support of both the Coalition government and the ALP opposition. August 13, 2005 will be a more positive occasion…. Read more »
Bob Brown: Not quite revolutionary
Bob Brown — environmental activist, turned Senator — has loomed large on the Australian political landscape for nearly three decades. In 1983, when the first issue of Outrage, a new gay and lesbian magazine, hit the streets, I was on the editorial board. We considered our interview with Brown to be something of a scoop…. Read more »
Defeat John Howard’s homophobic wedge politics: defend gay marriage!
Last Federal election, John Howard lied about “children overboard” and succeeded in whipping up racist panic and hysteria around refugees on board the HMV Tampa, a tactic many commentators think won him the election. As the next election looms, he is up to the same tricks, and this time it is gays and lesbians he… Read more »
Challenging the last frontier
“I remember the collective meetings organising Stonewall rallies back in the ’80s — it was fabulous! Since Stonewall, lesbians and gays have managed to win important changes in relation to anti-discrimination legislation. But the last frontier is relationships and families. When the government announced its plans to ‘defend marriage’ it also slipped in an announcement… Read more »
Lesbian and gay families are finding a voice!
“I went to New York last year and had the amazing opportunity to see where the Stonewall Riots happened. I want to draw some parallels with the current fight around gay families and Stonewall. Gay and lesbian families have existed for a long time privately. But there is now an increasing amount of public tension… Read more »
Not the Church! Not the State!
In the early ’70s, when Gay Lib blasted onto the political scene, gays, lesbians and trannies demonstrated against the repressive institutions of the Church and State. A police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York sparked two nights of riots. This, coupled with the mass arrests at Sydney’s first Mardi Gras, are credited with… Read more »
Harry Hay 1912 – 2002: Refusing to be a model homo
In 1982, while visiting Los Angeles, I met Harry Hay. I was a young gay liberationist and Marxist feminist and the 70-year-old Hay was a radical icon — Commie, gay pioneer and fearsome critic of gay community sell-outs of every stripe. Harry Hay has left quite a legacy. During the 1940s he reached the bold… Read more »
