Aspects of Gay and Lbian Life Seventi Melbourne - No 87 May 2011 - La Trobe Journal

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. 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. ‘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.

MICHAEL HURLEYASPECTS OF GAY AND LBIAN LIFE SEVENTI MELBOURNE

” 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 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.

‘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.

THE BT GAY BARS MELBOURNE

‘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 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.

GAY MELBOURNE

Gay Lib and the early activist gay rights groups of the 1970s began important work unsellg, law reform, and equal opportuny and anti-discrimatn.

As the s went on, foundg Gay Lib members took the polil lsons learned the formative years and beme lears Atralian society. And llectively, this group of young people – who took the brave step of g out publicly, owned their sexualy and were proud of who they were – ntributed to a revolutnary change attus towards homosexualy.

MELBOURNE GAY TOURS

The project featur a short documentary film, d terviews, and a digal gallery of maniftos, photographs, posters, flyers and newspaper articl om the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv llectn, pictg the moment lbian and gay people took to the streets to challenge the stat quo. The story was produced by Wd & Sky Productns llaboratn wh the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv (ALGA) and is based on the 2015 physil exhibn of the same name curated by Nick Henrson, drawg on the rearch of Graham Willett.

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

They were om the Gay Ex-Servic Associatn, and they rried a wreath dited to ‘all brothers and sisters who died durg the wars’—but they would never get to lay at the shre. “I don’t know where all the gays and poofters have e om, ” he was later famoly quoted as sayg, “I don’t remember a sgle one om World War Two. “There were thoands of ex-servicemen who were mp, I thk I went through 300 of them myself, ” he told the magaze, a py of which is prerved by the Atralian Lbian and Gay Archiv.