GAY SOLIDARITY GROUP NEWSLETTER NUMBER 2

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Formerly Gay Solidarity Group (Established in 1978)
PO Box 1675
Preston South Vic 3072
Australia
e-mail: josken_at_josken_net

LGS HOME PAGES: http://www.josken.net

ISSN 1446-4896

Vol.1 No.2 JUNE 1979 Box 380, P.O., BROADWAY, N.S.W., 2007, AUSTRALIA
GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK
SATURDAY to SATURDAY
JUNE 23 — JUNE 30

It's a week of gay solidarity when lesbians and male homosexuals have the opportunity to come out and show the world that we are gay and proud.

GSG would like to see gay people in all Australian States make GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK an annual event in their own cities. If Sydney can do it so can you.

SYDNEY, 1979

A potted Report of GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK 1979 - Sydney

The week kicked off on SATURDAY NIGHT, June 23, with the Gay Mardi Gras ANNIVERSARY DANCE at Balmain Town Hall. The women's music group SWIFT KICK and the Southern Star Mobile Disco (Lambda Listening) combined to present a capacity crowd of gays and their friends with fantastic dance music live and taped. SWIFT KICK is a "must" for any future gay dances. They're terrific!

SUNDAY, June 24: The gay feature film, "Word is Out," the gay movement play, "As Time Goes By," and "Cabaret Conspiracy"' brought out a lot of gays for many varied reasons because each of these events offered different aspects of the gay scene in Sydney.
MONDAY June 25: The day began at 9 am with a half hour on ABC Radio when Carolyn Jones interviewed three gay activists on the City Extra programme about GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK with particular emphasis on the IYC Gay Forum. The interviews were followed by a phone-in to the programme. Callers addressed their queries to the three gays for answers. Excellent publicity and wide coverage in NSW. Any gay group who wants to hear a tape of this segment should contact GSG, Box 380, P.O., Broadway, NSW 2007.
At 10 a.m. a group of around 40 people picketed Central Police Court in a peaceful demonstration to demand that all police charges still pending from the 1978 arrests be dropped. It is still necessary to remind the public about the situation.
The IYC Gay Forum on Monday night attracted approximately 100 people to the NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium. On the subject of children's sexual emergence, the Forum if it did nothing else confirmed the fact that kids are left to cope with their own developing sexuality because of the failure of the nuclear family and school systems to provide any satisfactory development guidance. There was a lot of hobbyhorsing around but the Forum was controversial enough to indicate that understanding and the acceptance of the child's right to choose homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle must be followed through more decisively by gay groups like GSG. On the organisational side two things were obvious: consideration in future must be given to providing child care at such events as well as the need for a roving mike in the audience.
TUESDAY June 26: The GSG Wine and Cheese Night at the Filmmakers proved to be immensely popular. Barbara Creed's film, although a trifle dated now, was shown to the hundred or so people who turned up and was discussed controversially in the cinema and later back with the wine and cheese in smaller groups.
WEDNESDAY June 27: This was the opening night of the lesbian play, "Shift," at the Trades Hall and drew almost a capacity house. It is the story of how one woman coped with her lesbianism. It's a play of life portrayed by an extremely talented and competent, women's theatre company, OUTSKIRT. If you missed it during Gay Solidarity Week you can still see it. It continues for the first three weeks during July on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. in Room 33, 1st floor, Trades Hall, Goulburn St., Sydney. $3, $1.50
THURSDAY June 28: The student rally in the grounds of Sydney Uni at lunchtime successfully presented the gay lifestyle as an acceptable alternative to heterosexuality.
Around 150 gays got together in Hyde Park for a CANDLELIGHT RALLY followed by a CANDLELIGHT MARCH to Parliament House in Macquarie Street to emphasise the need to rid the State of its anti-gay bias in legislation. The theme was the PINK TRIANGLE —symbol of oppression and repression of gays in society.
FRIDAY June 29: The GSG PARTY at the Tin Sheds was GAY and PROUD for the best part of a hundred GSG supporters including fourteen visitors from Canberra (ACT GSG) and several from Melbourne, some representing the 5th national Homosexual Conference collective.
BUT THE DAY TO REMEMBER WAS SATURDAY June 30!
Between seven and eight hundred people marched from Town Hall Square through the main streets of Sydney singing and chanting on Saturday morning to the RALLY and Gay Alternative FAIR in Hyde Park, the highlight of which was a consciousness-raising performance by a group from the Women's Action Theatre. The Fair wasn't exactly well supported but the few stalls there did reasonable business with books, clothes, badges and posters. The beautiful sunny weather brought out a lot of the public who showed interest in what they probably considered the "novelty" of open gayness.
The brilliant climax to GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK 1979 was the MARDI GRAS at night when between 2000 and 3000 danced and sang down Oxford Street to George Street and back. Those in fancy dress certainly added to the over-all spectacle —the largest gay demonstration anywhere before in Australia.


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GSG would like to thank all the people who helped in so many various ways to make GAY SOLIDARITY WEEK 1979 such a huge success. We are particularly indebted to the Filmmakers Cooperative, Women's Action Theatre, the Gay Theatre Company, the NSW Teachers Federation, to a host of people from other gay groups and our own, as well as to Campaign and 2 double J, Tribune and Nation Review and other Left newspapers who gave us a good deal of pre-publicity.

OUR YEAR

The record of the Gay Solidarity Group has been very much the story of the upsurge in gay liberation activity in the last year. We can't bring back the experiences and the feelings - elation through to despondency - that we have had. Nor can we relive the turmoil, or the debates we went through. But we can learn from our work, our past victories and defeats. We can see where we've come from.

In the second issue of our long overdue newsletter, when we're getting together a week of activities to mark the Stonewall and Mardi Gras anniversaries, we thought we'd include a brief guide to our history. We're not revelling in past glory, nor trying to reopen old wounds yet maybe this outline can dispell some confusion and set the record straight for our own recollections and for the information of those in other cities.

1978 APRIL
Letters arrive from the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade committee, asking for solidarity actions to coincide with their march at the end of June. A handful of people form a group to organize some activity for June 24. Later the group's plans expand to include a march, a forum, and a mardi gras. The name becomes Gay Solidarity Group.
MAY 21-23
Gay Film Festival at the Paris Theatre. 900 attend the premiere of "Word Is Out" from America, many staying back after to discuss the film and the gay movement here.
JUNE 24
Saturday morning Gay Rights March, larger than any previous one in Australia. Peaceful. Demands: End police harassment, repeal all antigay laws, legislation to defend lesbians and homosexual men from all discrimination. Various groups in the march are offended by the participation of others --lesbians, sadomasochists, catholics, socialists, and zionists. Eventually all march. Rally after in Martin Plaza. Forum in the afternoon in Paddington Town Hall and is crowded out. Discusses Anita Bryant campaign in USA, and other issues the gay movement faces internationally. The Mardi Gras attracts unexpected numbers to Taylor Square. Although it has a permit, cops harass the carnival while it moves down Oxford Street. They commandeer the sound truck at Hyde Park, and angry participants march up William Street to the Cross. Cops attack as people move back down Darlinghurst Road. The result is 53 brutally, and illegally, arrested. Vigil outside cells at Taylor Square, bashings inside. A celebration of the 1969 Stonewall riots has turned into an Australian equivalent.
JUNE 25
San Francisco: 300,000 march; New York: 85,000 march. CAMP headquarters in Glebe Point Road are a hive of activity all day: organizing meetings and press conferences.
JUNE 26
Outside the illegally closed court in Liverpool Street, hundreds protest the arrests. Seven more are arrested. Solidarity telegrams come from unions, organizations from interstate and overseas. "Herald" publishes names, addresses, jobs of those arrested.
June 27
Delegation to see NSW Labor premier Wran. 50 picket the NSW Tourist Bureau in Adelaide.
JUNE 30
400 march against Sydney arrests in Melbourne.
JULY 1st
Heated meeting of 300 people votes to hold protest march on July 15.
JULY 15
2000 participate in largest gay rights action ever in Australia. 14 arrests at Taylor Square cut across the success of the march, and cause deep disagreement amongst our ranks. Solidarity protests in Adelaide, Brisbane, and elsewhere.
AUGUST 20
Gay Rights/Drop the Charges Motorcade to Parramatta.
AUGUST 25-27
Almost 1000 lesbians and homosexual men take part in the 4th National Homosexual Conference. Cultural activities and important discussions on fighting right-wing mobilizations and how to push our rights in the unions.
AUGUST 27
On the last afternoon of conference, 104 people are arrested. 73 are arrested in Taylor Square, while obeying a police order to disperse from a march to protest a Right to Life Rally in Hyde Park. Others are arrested at Hyde Park.
SEPTEMBER 2
Lesbian Independence Day rally.
SEPTEMBER 16
Drop the Charges rally in Trades Hall.
SEPTEMBER 23
Coalition Against Repression rally. GSG joins with other groups to expose the anti-democratic nature of the Festival Of Light, whose current tour of Mary Whitehouse flops due to various protests at all her meetings.
SEPTEMBER 24
First meeting of Gay Trade Unionists Group.
OCTOBER 3
GSG pickets NSW Premier Wran's election campaign opening at Ryde.
OCTOBER 6
First trial of August 27 arrestee. Acquitted.
OCTOBER 18
Herald editorial defending itself from GSG complaints about publishing names etc, of those arrested.
OCTOBER 16-20
Australian Council of Salaried and Professional Associations calls for conferences of gay union members to combat discrimination.
NOVEMBER 4
Unhindered GSG march: Drop the Charges, Solidarity with California Gays against Griggs.
NOVEMBER 11
Founding meeting of GayFed - the NSW Federation for Lesbian and Male Homosexual Rights.
DECEMBER 18
NSW Teachers Federation affirms rights of homosexual teachers.
JANUARY 12
PremierWran met at 6 am at Sydney Airport by GSG picket. GSG had called on groups in New York, San Francisco and London to "welcome" Wran while he was overseas.
JANUARY 26
Charges dropped against Taylor Square arrests of August 27.
FEBRUARY 3
Newcastle NSW: picket at Star Hotel for anti-gay advertisements, for sacking gay staff, for excluding "puffs".
FEBRUARY 12-16
Anti-discrimination Board phone-in for lesbians and male homosexuals.
MARCH 26
GSG pickets Sydney City Council meeting. Council should endorse Gay Solidarity Week, not hinder permits for activities.
MARCH 31
GSG greets International Day of Action for Abortion Rights.
MAY 6
GSG contingents in Newcastle and Sydney May Day marches. Small numbers because of rain.
MAY 22
Acquittal of two lesbians charged with offensive behaviour for being affectionate in Hyde Park.

Sexuality & Children

IYC refer to The Child. But children are either boys or girls who have very different expectations of life. Boys can expect at least a degree of independence, a job or career etc. Girls on the other hand grow up expecting to be mothers, to be to some extent dependant on a man in marriage and to have to sacrifice self-interest in the interests of others.

Why is it children have such very different expectations of life? Why does their orientation to so many things differ? The standard argument refers us back to biological differences, claiming that biology sets the pattern for subsequent development. Somehow then, what we are is supposedly a result of our biological makeup. But to be biologically male or female is not the same as being masculine or feminine. All children are a product of how their parents and society have treated then - and their own view of themselves is a result of this process. Biological factors pale in significance compared to the impact of social custom and social constraint. It is precisely such rules and taboos that impose femininity and masculinity on children, not biology. Further, what society accepts as masculine and feminine behaviour radically changes over time, so how can it be a product of biology? In the 19th Century a mark of middle class femininity was regular dizzy spells (no doubt induced by the uncomfortable clothing women wore). Today, one of the hallmarks of middle class femininity is to be independent, sophisticated and career-minded. It is hard to see how biology could dictate such a change!

For most of us our sexuality has been imposed by society's need to reproduce the next generation. If we are born female then our upbringing demands we become feminine so that we will want to become wives and mothers. This means we have to give up (sometimes without even knowing it) a whole range of other things we may have wanted to become or do. We cannot be female and aggressive and tough; or male and gentle and passive. Nor of course are there many of us, male or female, who can be both tough and gentle. As the only socially acceptable form of sexual expression, heterosexuality excludes the possibility of other sexual and psychological expression existing, either standing alone in their own right or in conjunction with heterosexuality.

Reproduction still dominates sexuality even though contraception such as the pill increasingly allows sexual experience to be freed of such constraints. Even in this content however other forms of sexuality are prohibited. Deviation from the heterosexual norm is still punished through legal and moral sanctions. Women who choose not to have children are considered abnormal; women who terminate pregnancies through abortion are under legal threat and morally frowned upon. Men who are not competitive and aggressive are considered failures. Male homosexuals and lesbians are attacked by the state, the media and popular opinion and are denied not only the freedom to express emotional and sexual feelings openly, but also the security of social acceptance.

In their relationships with children male homosexuals and lesbians are particularly under attack. Somehow, lesbians lose their status as women and mothers because of their lesbianism. Time after time they are denied custody of their own children in divorce settlements when their lesbianism is known. There is an uproar when lesbians seek artificial insemination to bear their own children. It is also virtually impossible for male homosexuals and lesbians to adopt children. Homosexual teachers must keep their sexuality secret and some have been sacked for being outspoken publically, politically or professionally about their sexuality. But on what possible grounds could it be argued that children must be protected from homosexual teachers? If this argument had any logic at all, children would need to be protected from both homosexual and heterosexual teachers. If children recognised and understood heterosexual, homosexual and lesbian relationships then they would be in a position of greater freedom of choice in terms of their own sexuality.

Limitations on sexual expression are not just constraining for adults and children. They also produce intolerable situations, the reality of which is often denied. Rape and incest are two outcomes of the oppressive way our sexuality is constructed. The evidence of incest appears more widespread with each survey conducted and yet right wing IYC supporters continue to uphold the model of the nuclear family as the protector of children. Equally women are claimed to need the protection of men and yet growing numbers of women are subjected to rape, physical assault, male harassment and domestic violence. Surely so many exceptions disproves the claimed righteousness of "normality."

If we are to seriously consider the rights of children then we must acknowledge every aspect of their lives. Sexuality and emotional expression are an important part of existence, both for adults and kids. Children no less than adults, should be allowed the possibility of full emotional and sexual development.

Gay Solidarity rocks the Australian Journalists' boat !

The Gay Solidarity Group has proposed to the Australian Journalists Association (AJA) that its members consider formulating a code of honour in the reportage of comittal proceedings against accused persons in Australian Law Courts.

GSG has commended the Swedish journalists' code which acknowledges the desirability of protecting individuals from needless suffering and rules against the naming of even those convicted unless they have been sentenced to at least two years in prison.

GSG has asked the AJA to take into consideration the fact that the publication of thenames, addresses and personal details of accused persons after comittal proceedings enables the community to exact a punitive penalty against the accused long before the case comes to court for determination.

Such a socially-responsible journalistic code would certainly serve to highlight the cavalier attitude of the State and many Australian newspaper proprietors towards the "presumption of innocence" on which criminal justice in Australia is supposed to be based.

As back-up, GSG provided the AJA with the evidence that a number of people whose nanes, occupations, addresses and other personal details had been published by the Sydney Morning Herald in a long list following the dismissal of charges associated with a gay and women's rights march on August 27 (1978) in Oxford Street, Paddington, had received anonymous, abusive letters through the post.

It is understood that investigations are under way by postal authorities concerning a considerable number of these letters which the departnent has intercepted. Quite obviously the publication by the Herald of the details GSG complains of were the direct cause of these unwarranted penalties.

GSG also approached the Sydney Morning Herald again to review its policy. GSG asked the Press Council to reopen the matter which was the subject of a complaint that failed last year by Melbourne Gay Liberation.

The Sydney Morning Herald has refused to budge. The Press Council has also refused to reopen the matter but stated that it may be publishing a booklet setting out details of the situation.

The Australian Journalists Association simply acknowledged the GSG request and indicated that the matter would be looked at when more information on the Swedish journalists' code was available —May 10, 1979.


Those police records

In the April issue we recommended that people who had been acquitted or had police charges withdrawn, should write to the NSW Police Commissioner, Box 45 GPO, Sydney, NSW 2001, asking that their records be destroyed. The demand has to be in writing though.

In one case where this was done concerning an August 27 arrest, the Police Commissioner replied to the effect that it would be done. The person in question or that person's accredited representative was invited to attend the destruction of the related records at the Criminal Records Office in Sydney.


Thanks a lot, people

The newsletter collective and GSG members wish to thank those who made donations towards the production of the Newsletter as well as taking out a $2 subscription. We were particularly grateful to the subscriber who added a thirty dollar donation.


YOUR LAST CHANCE to help us choose an EXCITING NAME for the Gay Solidarity Newsletter. Send us your stunning entry by July 16. Fabulous mystery prize!


BY PERMISSION. The article, "Sexuality and Children," was reprinted from the Feminist Broadsheet "Who's Kidding Who in the Year of the Child." For more info 'phone Helen, Sydney 5691877.


REMEMBER THE MARDI GRAS ARRESTS! SUPPORT GAY SOLIDARITY! SUBSCRIBE TO THE GSG NEWSLETTER.


From Overseas

The letter below appeared in the NEW SCIENTIST, May 17,1979, following a review of William Masters and Virginia Johnson's latest book of psycho-gobble-dee-gook, "Homosexuality in Perspective." We think Alan Wright's letter is worth reprinting for Australians to read.

Queer-bashing

I was angered to read your review of Masters and Johnson's "Straight Talking on Homosexuals" (This Week, 26 April, p 244). That these people should be happy to try to interfere with a person's natural sexuality is something I would have expected any thinking reviewer to criticise heavily. Instead you report that the "success rate" in reversing (sic) homosexuality was less "gratifying" than other areas of their work— loaded words which show a clear bias.

The book presents statistics which claim to show that a permanent or at least long-term switch to "heterosexuality" is possible more than half the time among gays who seek to change. But being able to function sexually with a person of the opposite sex is something many married gays succeed in doing, while Kinsey, though finding that one in three males reached orgasm with someone of the same sex, did not conclude that one in three males is homosexual. Gays who seek a change in their sexuality are under an overwhelming pressure to conform to a heterosexual "norm". Masters and Johnson claim to have not borne in mind why a homosexual person should seek to alter his/her sexual orientation in the first place. It is no coincidence that heterosexuals never seek to alter the direction of their sexual attraction!

Gays have to fight the brainwashing which tells them that they are sick, perverted, inferior and so on, and which they often internalise to such an extent that in their self-hatred they become as anti-gay as some heterosexuals. To respond to a request from a gay under such pressure with "impartial help" of the kind M&J offer is clearly a form of queer-bashing. Would they, I wonder, "help" black people become white, if asked? The sale of cosmetics to black South African women to lighten their skins is sickening.

The book and your uncritical reporting of the activities of M&J are going to lend more credence to something which the whole gay community and any other thinking, feeling person should find repugnant --Alan Wright, Birmingam.


New laws? You're joking

In February GSG applied to the Sydney City Council and the NSW Police for approval of its proposed street processions during Gay Solidarity Week (June 23 to June 30).

On Friday, May 18, GSG received a letter from the Town Clerk which stated: "with regard to your application to conduct a street procession through the streets of the City on 23rd and 30th June, 1979, ... I advised you that under the terms of the Summary Offences Act, 1970, applications to conduct processions are approved by the Commissioner of Police, who, before dealing with an application, shall take into consideration any representation made by Council.

"It is now advised that Council, at its meeting held on 14th May,1979, resolved that this Council acknowledges that the authority to approve street marches lies with the police and accordingly rescinds its present policy on this matter.

"In view of the above, your application for the conduct of a march through the streets of the City on the dates referred to should be forwarded directly to the Police, and not this Council."

Signed L.P. Carter, Town Clerk.

On May 25 GSG learned officially from the NSW Premier's Department that the repeal of the NSW Summary Offences Act (1970) and the Amendments to existing criminal legislation to retain some offences received Royal Assent on May 11.

A Sydney Morning Herald Report, 12/4/79, explained that under a new Public Assemblies Act, if the police are given seven days' notice of the details of a march route and the numbers expected, marchers will not be prosecuted for existing obstruction offences.

The police will have to establish before a District or Supreme Court judge a prima facie case that the march will cause inconvenience or danger before it can he refused.

If the police receive less than seven days' notice, and they object, the onus will be on march organisers to seek permission from a judge.

Writing in the May-June Newsletter of the Council for Civil Liberties (NSW), Carolyn Simpson had some scathing remarks to say about the new Public Assemblies Act. The new provisions relating to Public Assembly "are worst of all" because of the dishonesty with which they have been represented. In fact the new law is almost as draconian as that operating in Queensland.

"Ostensibly, the Public Assemblies Act liberalises march laws in NSW. In reality, the laws become even more rigid. "If you want to hold a public assembly (which on the common law may be any three people with a common purpose!) you must notify the Commissioner of Police of your intention and give hin certain information about your proposed assembly. After such notification, if the Commissioner has not obtained a Court Order prohibiting your assembly, it is authorised. BUT your notification MUST STATE:-
1.the date of your proposed assembly;
2.the time; the purpose;
3.the proposed route (if a procession);
4.any other prescribed information;
5.the number of participants expected!
6.and contain the signature cf a person who indicates in writing that the SIGNATORY TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR ORGANISING AND CONDUCTING THE ASSEMBLY!"

Who ever knows how many are expected to turn up at an assembly? Who can take responsibility for conduct (especially knowing how, in the past, trouble has been created by the police!). If the assembly is not SUBSTANTIALLY IN ACCORDANCE with the particulars furnished, then its participants lose the protection against prosecution for their participation. Some protection!"


A sell-out by any other name...

The civil liberty objection to the Summary Offences Act was an important reason for Premier Wran's unequivocal promise in 1976, as leader of the Opposition at that time, THAT WlTHIN TWO WEEKS OF AN A.L.P. VICTORY AT THE POLLS, THE ACT WOULD BE REPEALED. And three years later, writes Carolyn Simpson, the repeal was well over due. "Now we have the promised repeal, OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR finds itself in the new OFFENCES IN PUBLIC PLACES Act."
"Whilst there is a slightly different slant, there in no reason to believe that the judiciary will have any more difficulty in finding it proved now than it has previously. The new offence now bears the title in the Act 'serious affront or serious alarm' and the new provision in Section 5 of the Act is 'a person shall not without reasonable excuse in, near or within view or hearing from a public place or school behave in such a manner as would be likely to cause reasonable persons justifiably in all the circumstances to be seriously alarmed or seriously affronted - Penalty $200.'
"The same Act recreates the offence of obscene exposure, obstruction of traffic (a favourite against demonstrators), damaging fountains, shrines, monuments, and statues and defacing walls.
"The offence of trespass is transferred with some alteration to the Enclosed Lands Protection (Summary Offences) Act."
The repeal of the Summary Offences Act IS NO REPEAL AT ALL. The truth is that the offences formerly covered by the Summary Offences Act (1970) HAVE BEEN RE-ENACTED THROUGH A SERIES OF NEW ACTS!


"Who needs a crystal ball when you're dealing with government?"

Keeping in Touch

If you want to know how things are going in other areas here are details of other publications. Council for Civil Liberties (NSW): Ordinary Membership $10 pa., Students S5 pa., Pensioners $2 pa., Box 201, P.O.Glebe NSW 2037. Lesbian Newsletter (VIC): $6 pa., Box 49, P.O. North Fitsroy,Vic.3068. Gay Changes (Sth Aust.): S4 pa., Box 501, P.O. Norwood, Sth Aust.5067. Body Politic (Canada): 1st Class mail, $20; 2nd class mail, $10 Canadian. Address: TBP, Box 7289, Station A, Toronto, ON M5W 1X9, Canada. Rouge -new women's national newspaper: For six issues, Individuals (Aust) $5; Institutions (Aust) $10; Rouge Collective, Box 180, P.O.Wentworth Bldg, Sydney University, NSW 2006

News clips from near and far

SYDNEY: Mardi Gras (June 24) and Hyde Park (Aug.27) charges against same person dismissed because magistrate found police charges unproven but a group of women arrested in Hyde Park (Aug.27) convicted.

USA: Anita Bryant and spouse have a new plan to rid the world of homosexuals. It includes hotlines, counselling (?) centres and for the really stubborn "ranch complexes(?) for in-depth rehabilitation." Their new book —no, not The Juice Extractor— but "At Any Cost," a nuclear pink and white Mein Kampf, shows how grimly determined they both are. It's not orange squash

CANADA: Two Ontario Teachers Federations have taken a major step towards job protection for gay teachers by amending their anti-discrimination policies to include sexual orientation.

CANBERRA: The A.C.T. Gay Solidarity Group completes plans for a Gay Radio Day. If you can pick up the station, it's Monday, June 25, from 6.30 a.m. through to 1 a.m. on 2XX (1008 - AM).

MELBOURNE: "Young, Gay and Proud" banned by Victoria's Minister of Education, Lindsay Thompson. All books, films and audiovisual material which "foster homosexual behaviour" have been effectively banned from all State schools by the Victorian Minister. Gay Teachers & Student Group (Box 35, P.O. Fitzroy, Vic.3065) suggests that Interstate people can help by writing letters of protest to Melbourne newspapers and the Vic. Minister of Education.

BRISBANE: Qld Minister of Education Bird said last year that homosexuals would not be employed in the State teaching system. From next year special Education Dept. Teams will be using criteria including "personal and moral" standards to assess teachers seeking jobs.

ADELAIDE: Sth Aust. police it seems are back in the business of entrapping homosexual men on the old "offensive behaviour" charge. They are wearing plain clothes ostensibly to deter bashers.

LONDON: 3 months after granting custody of her two children to a lesbian mother a male judge has ordered that the children be turned over to their father. The mother went to live with her female lover thus breaking one of Judge McMahon's several severe restrictions on her. Apparently the father is a wel1-known wife basher and yet the judge didn't consider it to be as bad as two lesbians living together.

MELBOURNE: 5th National Homosexual Conference will be on the last weekend in August (Fri.31st, Sat.Sept.lst and Sun. Sept.2). The theme: "Come Out, Be Active, Fight Back, Educate." For information contact Ken Howard, 12 Park Pde, Nth Fitzroy, 3068.


How sexist are gay men's attitudes to women?

Do you ever refer to women as chicks, luv, birds, tarts, sluts, bitches, honey, dearie, sweetie, ladies or girls?

Do you ever refer to other men as chicks, birds, ladies, girls, bitches, sluts, etc?

Do you ever use the word "cunt" as a swear word or as an insult to another person?

Do you use the word "chairman" instead of "chairperson?" And ''man" when you really mean people?

Do you ever use the phrase "just like a woman" or "typical of a woman?"

Do you refer to child-rearing or household chores as "women's work?"

Do you ever use the phrase "she's only a woman. What do you expect?"

Does your mother do your washing and ironing or wait on you in any other way?

Such sexist references are all too common and make women angry and disillusioned that homosexual men are ao unaware of their attitudes and seen still to be so unprepared to change.

Are you aware that while sexism exists in this society all people are oppressed including homosexual men? Because you don't relate to women physically or emotionally does not mean that you do not have sexist and oppressive attitudes towards women.

What would you do if a sexist remark such as one of those above was made by another man in your presence? Would you just let it go by or would you attempt to raise the consciousness of this man by pointing out his sexist attitude?

For the sake of unity in the gay movement start talking to each other about your attitudes to women. There is just so much benefit to be realised and enthusiasm from the energy of lesbians. Let it not be lost because of frustration, anger and disappointment because gay men are not prepared to raise each other's consciousness about their sexist attitudes towards their sisters.


STOP URANIUM MINING
MARCH WITH US: SATURDAY, AUGUST 4th 1979
10am BELMORE PARK

Teaching Sexuality

In the June '79 issue of The Body Politic, Jane Rule, author of "Lesbian Images," writes: "To say that any sexual activity between adults and children is exploitative because of the superior size and power of the adult is really to acknowledge that, overall, relationships between adults and children are unequal. Why we feel more concerned over children's sexual dependence than over their physical, emotional and intellectual dependence says more about us as sexual incompetents than as responsible adults.

'Children are at our mercy. They are at each other's mercy as well. It makes about as much sense to leave children's sexual nourishment to their peers as it would to assume that the mud pies they make for each other are an adequate lunch. I use the term "sexual" rather than "sensual" because it seems to me that both our embarrassment about and focus on genitals make us the inept sexual creatures most of us are. A child's need for physical contact is as sexual as our own. It takes as little imagination to know that a child's sexual appetite is different from an adult's as it does to figure out that a new born baby can't eat an apple or a steak. We don't therefore refuse to feed an infant.

'If children's sexual independence were as thoughtfully taught as their ability to feed them selves, masturbation would become the satisfying accomplishment that it should be.

'More important than judging the quality of other people's experience and relationships is the exercise of our own memories. Certainly my own initiation came long before I was legally adult.

'Though a number of males around my age offered to participate, a woman ten years my senior was "responsible," at my invitation and encouragement. The only fault I find with that part of my sexual education was the limit her guilt and fear put on our pleasure, the heterosexual pressure even she felt required to be put on me. What she did "for my own good" caused both of us pain. If I were to improve on that experience now, it would not be to protect children from adult seduction but to make adults easier to seduce, less burdened with fear or guilt, less defended by hypocrisy."

Jane Rule says so much more that makes sense in her article, "Teaching Sexuality," one wonders where we were when "discernment" was handed out!


GSG is still looking for a permanent home. Write to Box 380, P.O., Broadway, 2007, if you know of vacant premises in or close to the city at a really low rent.


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Mannie & Kendall Present: LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY ACTIVISMS

Mannie has a personal web site: RED JOS: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Mannie's blogs may be accessed by clicking on to the following links:

MannieBlog (from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2005)

Activist Kicks Backs - Blognow archive re-housed - 2005-2009

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)






This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 19 APRIL 2017

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