The Secret History of Atralia's Gay Diggers | SBS Voic

Contents:

• JAKE'S STORY OF BEG GAY RAL ATRALIA
• 10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
• ATRALIA HAS LONG HAD A GAY BEACH SUBCULTURE BUT THEY HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN SAFE SPAC

JAKE'S STORY OF BEG GAY RAL ATRALIA

Different generatns of gay and lbian dividuals will provi sight to what has been like to live a gay or lbian life Atralia om the 1940s to the prent, when attus have shifted so remarkably.

The project will terview five different generatns of “ordary” gay men and lbians providg ep sight to how dividuals negotiate social change their timate liv. This project is the first prehensive natnwi oral history project unrtaken wh a diverse range of members of Atralia’s lbian and gay populatn.

First, will bolster and diversify the Natnal Library of Atralia’s digal llectn by providg up to 300 hours of lbian and gay oral histori. More broadly, the project will vtigate how lbian and gay dividuals have navigated a perd of extraordary social change, and the impact of this transformatn on lbian and gay liv and cultural narrativ. Rearchers on this project acknowledge the important gay and lbian oral histori that have prevly been nducted by other rearchers, cludg the ongog efforts of the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv Melbourne.

10 GREAT ATRALIAN GAY FILMS

Furthermore, the bulk of existg oral histori have foced on activists wh the gay and lbian muny, rather than “ordary” Atralians. Interviews for the Atralian Lbian and Gay Life Stori project are beg nducted wh participants born between 1930 and 1994 who self-intify as same-sex attracted. rponnts born before 1940, who reached sexual matury at a time when male-to-male homosexualy was illegal and was aggrsively policed.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS

those born after 1985, many of whom feel they live a “post gay” era where ias about the meang of gay and lbian inty are shiftg. It will provi a rource equivalent to the Before Stonewall: A Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenred Oral History llectn, held by the Brish Library Sound Archive Collectn. It will serve to foster broar awarens of lbian and gay liv – and the ways which generatns of lbian and gay Atralians have shaped a profound transformatn of social attus Atralia.

ATRALIA HAS LONG HAD A GAY BEACH SUBCULTURE BUT THEY HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN SAFE SPAC

Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras – SGLMG is one of the olst and ntuoly operatg LGBTQ+ anizatns Atralia and was built on the foundatns laid by early muny activists who fought for queer rights a time of opprsn. Midsumma Ftival - this annual ftival  Melbourne is one of Atralia’s leadg and long-nng LGBTQ+ events and is nsired alongsi Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras as one of the major pri celebratns the untry. Once I was livg away, however, I realised that wasn’t my hometown that didn’t like me beg gay; I didn’t like myself for beg gay.

My sex life and my sexualy were the gossip sphere for such a small amount of time that, by the time I returned to Atralia, people had actually fotten that I’d intified as gay. The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert (1994)While same-sex marriage was only ma legal Atralia 2017, the untry has a fairly strong rerd on LGBT rights, and Sydney is one of the most gay-iendly ci the world. Before the 1970s, the sexualy of probable gay characters was not ma explic, for example the effemate sal assistant  Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938).

The Set (1970) is the first Atralian film wh homosexualy as a central theme, while gay men appeared sexploatn favour such as Atralia after Dark (1975) and The ABCs of Love and Sex: Atralia Style (1978), which H was for homosexualy. Sign up to BFI Flare emailsGet the latt #BFIFlare news and ticket release Max 2: The Road Warrr (1981) featured a gay villa (the leather-clad Wez, enraged by the slayg of his lover), while more sympathetic homosexual characters appeared prison drama Stir (1980) and fay melodrama Mull (1988). The 1990s were a goln era for gay Ozzie films, while the new lennium has seen a glut of low-budget gay surfer dramas, cludg the easy-on-the-eye Newstle (2008), the nihilistic Drown (2015) and the downright bizarre Tan L (2006).

The Naked Bunyip (1970)Homosexualy was tnip to many of the filmmakers behd the wave of sexploatn documentari that flourished Atralia the 1970s, which often served as an exce to show tillatg shots of lbians gettg down to bs the bedroom. Not so The Naked Bunyip, the grandfather of Atralian sexploatn, which a lengthy segment is voted to a gay male dock worker, who talks ndidly about his life. The film draws parallels between the close mascule relatnships that form unr the Atralian phenomenon of ‘mathip’ and homosexualy, while talkg heads discs the importance of crimalisg gay sex, which at the time of the documentary was a crimal offence  Atralia.

Bond himself was gay, an early bar scene looks like a scene om William Friedk’s S&M thriller Cisg (1980), while is clear that some sort of sexual act, probably a rape, tak place between the teacher and Doc after a vlent stggle, sendg the protagonist to another spiral of spair. The Clic (1982)In this fun and bawdy bo of scy edy and sex tn aid, we dip to a day the life of a VD clic, where a laid-back doctor (Chris Haywood) and a pdish medil stunt (Simon Burke) tend to patients of all walks of life, om ank sex workers to ashamed hoewiv, om promiscuo gay men to cheatg hbands. Appalled when a motached man the wag room flirts wh him, the stunt’s homophobia be manift the dramatic scene when he realis the doctor, too, is gay, snarlg: “Those men e here and they drop their pants for you.

It’s boosted hugely by a very likeable performance om Haywood as the gay doctor, who eventually manag to fe a bond of iendship wh the nservative youngster. The Everlastg Secret Fay is one such film, an often homophobic tale of a young man who be termed to climb the social ladr and live the high life when he be the object of sire of a closeted homosexual polician.