9 bt LGBTQ+ and gay bars Melbourne

Contents:

• THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
• MICHAEL HURLEYASPECTS OF GAY AND LBIAN LIFE SEVENTI MELBOURNE
• THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE
• GAY MELBOURNE
• MELBOURNE GAY TOURS
• GAY HISTORY: ALAN MCKAIL, DIGNER, MELBOURNE (1888-1931).

THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS

Lucda Horrocks shar oral histori of the Gay Liberatn Movement  1970s Melbourne the Culture Victoria exhibn, Out of the Closets, Into the Streets.

MICHAEL HURLEYASPECTS OF GAY AND LBIAN LIFE SEVENTI MELBOURNE

In 1970s’ Melbourne a group of stunts ma a stand for gay pri at a time when homosexualy was crimalised and discrimatn and abe was wispread.

For the past year I have been rearchg this fascatg and urageo group of people for a documentary film and digal exhibn lled Out of the Closets, Into the Streets, which explor the Melbourne Gay Liberatn Movement. So to unrstand what was at stake for lbians and gays to take to the streets, we need to st ourselv back to an earlier mdset. ‘If we found ourselv tapulted back to the 1950s would be kd of a nightmare, ’ says Dr Graham Willett, historian and thor of Livg Out Loud – a history of gay and lbian activism Atralia.

As Graham explaed when we terviewed him for our project, while a mp scene (the term ‘gay’ was not ed before the 1970s) had flourished Melbourne sce at least the 1920s, was hidn, d and discreet.

THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE

‘Mostly what [gay and lbian] people had to put up wh was the discrimatn, the sense that they were disgtg the ey of lots of people or somehow flawed’ says Graham.

Abandong her parents’ Salvatn Army relign which nmned her homosexualy, the 18-year-old began searchg for a group which would accept her. ” I’d read this dreadful book by Angele Stoll on homosexualy who said that lbians were men trapped women’s bodi.

Peter McEwan, a 1972 Melbourne Gay Liberatn Front member, rells beg arrted by police on the beach when he was seventeen, dragged through two urt s, sent to a psychiatrist, and taken to Parkville Psychiatric Clic.

GAY MELBOURNE

Gay Liberatn arrived Atralia 1971 when the young wrer and amic Dennis Altman, who had been the Uned Stat rearchg the emergent gay movement, returned to publish Homosexual: Opprsn and Liberatn.

The gay rights groups were fluenced by the Vietnam anti-war movement, the Indigeno rights movement, and, particular, Women’s Liberatn.

MELBOURNE GAY TOURS

‘It’s impossible to thk of Gay Liberatn whout also talkg about Women’s Liberatn and the enormo impact that had, ’ he says, distctly rememberg the moment he first read Kate Millett’s Sexual Polics while flyg to the US 1970. ‘Gay Liberatn always saw self as part of a bigger radil social movement and felt a lot of empathy and nnectn wh other radil social movements. Gay Lib activists veloped a sue of playful rpons which challenged this straight culture, cludg genr nfn or radil drag, graffi mentary, gay pri march and on one ocsn a piic the Botanic Garns which same sex upl played sp the bottle.

GAY HISTORY: ALAN MCKAIL, DIGNER, MELBOURNE (1888-1931).

‘Gay liberatn didn’t want equaly, they wanted transformatn of everythg, ’ says Graham Willett, ‘ wasn’t jt about gay people, wasn’t a mory movement. Influenc of femism were felt everywhere Gay Lib, cludg the formatn of nscns raisg groups and the short-lived Effemist iative. While they were dog that, there were lbians hammerg on the door, but beg locked out, for lbians wh the Gay Liberatn Movement, the sexism of gay men, was also a problem.

Ju Munro was one of those who chose to stay wh Gay Lib, feelg that ‘the guys were really my brothers arms lots of ways terms of the fight, the stggle, and I wanted to support them, ’ she says.