LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY NEWSLETTER

NUMBER 21

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

LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY NEWSLETTER
#3, May/June 1992
PO Box 380 BROADWAY NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA

STONEWALL '92 EVENTS

25/6 Forum organised by the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby it the Lobby Centre, 2nd floor, 74-78 Oxford St, Darlinghurst.

27/6 Stonewall March and Rally. .Meet at Sydney Townhall at 12pm noon. Bring yourself, your group, your banner. Let's make it BIG.

28/6 Cultural Dissent Stonewall Special. At the Resistance Centre, 23 Abercrombie St, Chippendale. For more details phone 690 1977.

30/6 International Socialist Organisation Forum on gay and lesbian liberation from Stonewall up till now. Held at the Trades Hall, 4 Goulburn St, Sydney 7pm.

4/7 Lesbian and Gay Solidarity annual Stonewall dinner. At Heffron Hall, 8pm. Fee at door: $6 cone, $12 normal ,$15 for the wealthy(!)• Guaranteed tasty home-cooked food, speakers and entertainment. Don't miss it.

UPDATES
• On the Initiative of the Gay and Lesbian Holocaust Memorial Project, a number of individuals and groups are co-ordinating solidarity activity with the Cambodian detainees. The basic common position is that the Australian Government should respect these people's human rights, give then decent living accomodation and services and let them stay in Australia. All of them are suffering from traumas due to torture in their country, and if they are sent back they face more torture and death.
• Gays and Lesbians Against Racism is busy organising a workshop on Racism and Violence. Initially this will be an internal exercise. Hopefully it will be extended. Also in the planning stages is a Hotline for people to report instances of racist attacks. This info will be compiled, cases night be publicised (anonymously - all info is confidential) and referrals (for counselling, legal advice and so on) will be made as necessary. GLAR can be contacted by writing to PO Box 9, Darlinghurst 2010.
• On Friday 12 June a special dinner was held by Rights for All Male Sex Workers to celebrate the launch of their newsletter. Toyboy News is believed to be the first ever newsletter for male sex workers.
* Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives Inc (ALGA) is updating its List of Periodicals. Groups producing their own newsletters and other publications are encouraged to send copies to ALGA PO BOX 124, Parkville, Vic 3052.
COPS OBJECT TO T-SHIRT

At the rally at the end of the May Day march one of the participants was approached by two cops It seems that they objected to his T-shirt, which read: Dance Proud, Fuck Safe, Make Revolution."

Their point was that people might find it offensive. When challenged as to whether any one had made a complaint, one cop pointed to the other.

What stinks about this is that the Summary Offences Act allows them to make their own arbitrary decisions of what's offensive. Obviously harrassing us is not offensive.

GOING TO NEW ZEALAND?

Three gay men recently visited New Zealand for a holiday. As soon as their passports were checked they were asked to move into another room by the airport officers and were asked why they were there.

This was pretty unusual. They did not look like terrorists. Nor have they sported limp wrists and a lisp. So why were they interrogated?

They were pulled aside as soon as their passports were looked at. So was there a code on their passports? If so, what kind of code? More to the point - why?

This may sound a bit paranoid. But how else to explain the event? There is nothing to be surprised at if the Aussie and New Zealand authorities are cooperating in matters of intelligence. On the other hand why would three guys who in various ways are gay and AIDS activists be accosted in this way?

These guys are now trying to find out what really happened. If anything comes up, then we'll be raising a stink.

LET'S CUT THE BULLSHIT

Following continuing complaints about police harrasment of men at beats, and following talks between ACON, the Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby Legal Rights Service, Sue Thompson the Police Gay and Lesbian Client Services Consultant and Police Comnissioner Lauer's Chief of Staff, a working party of high ranking police officers was set up to study the whole issue.

Notwithstanding all this (in)activity police harrassment and entrapment is still very much the cops' favourite. It's incidence has not diminished. Makes you think: are all these talks and negotiations meant to keep us happy and quiet while nothing is really changed? Is liaison just a sop? To buy us off?

Of continuous concern is the police claim that the hierarchy is in favour of changes but it takes a while to spread the changes at the lower levels of the force.

This claim does not wash anymore. No more than the claim about police anti-Aboriginal racism or their racism in general. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald about cops harrassing Asian Youth was callously dismissed by the regional commander. His term for harressment was "effective policing."

Talk seems to be getting us nowhere. Our biggest mistake would be to depend on the goodwill of the police force. There is no goodwill. What is needed is for the police force powers to be restricted and strictly defined. To start off with the Summary Offences Act has to be repealed. Maybe our "representatives" could put in more effcrts in that area.

PAST EVENTS
* May Day March and Rally. With world capitalism on the off:ensive it is essential to organise a strong fightback. It was good to see that this year's march has slightly grown in numbers. The lesbian and gay contingent was there, as usual, made up of three groups: Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, New Left Party Lesbian and Gay Group and the Order of Perpetual Indulgence.
* GLAMA pickets Basic Instinct. Gay and Lesbian Action on Media Association, on May 14, organised a picket outside Hoyts Cinema in the City to protest the anti-lesbian movie Basic Instinct. With chants and placards reading "Catherine Did It" the picketers hoped to spoil the movie for those who went in to see it.
* ACT UP protests for the availability of DDI, on June 12. Our bureaucracies still don't give a damn that every delay in making drugs available means that more people die. Their (lack of) action isn't just callous. It is plain 'downright criminal.
RADIO.
GAYWAVES goes to air every Thursday night from 8pm to 10.30pm on 2SER FM 107.3>MHz.
WILD GALS goes to air every Saturday Night from 7pm to 10pm on 2RSR FM 88.9MHz.
GAYWAVES is recruiting for more lesbian members. If interested write to PO BOX 473 Broadway 2007 or ring 330 3000 during broadcasting time.
GAYZETTE

Melbourne's monthly newsletter of gay and lesbian activism is available from PO BOX 108 North Carlton VIC 3054 for $15 ($5 concession) for one year.

LESBIAN AND GAY SOLIDARITY

LGS meets on the second Thursday of every month at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre (opposite the station) at 8pm. Meetings are due:

July 9 August 13
Sept 10 Oct 8

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

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 26 APRIL 2017

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