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

ISSN 1446-4896

At the January 14 meeting, members of LGS discussed whether the organisation should continue its existence or fold up.

LGS has played a unique role in Sydney on various fronts. It has consistently brought international gay/lesbian issues to the fore, with a variety of pickets, petitions, publicity and organising tours for visiting activists. LGS has regularly organised contingents to participate in non gay/lesbian specific events, marches and rallies, ensuring our very visible presence outside of our 'ghetto', building alliances and joining coalitions.

However, due to a number of factors, LGS has been weakest in its intervention in Sydney gay/lesbian politics. Primarily this is due to its very small core of active members. Those same people are all extremely involved in other activist work in radio, AIDS and care work, as well as in other gay/lesbian organisations. Which means that not enough time and energy is left to put into gay/lesbian politics specifically through LGS.

At that meeting it was decided that LGS would concentrate on the following areas: help build the interagency network; approach unions to ensure that they retain anti-discrimination policies regarding gays and lesbians and to urge other unions to introduce such policies ; initiate the organising of the Stonewall events for this year; work towards a national conferonce; focus on the repeal of the Summary Offences Act in alliance with the other major categories of victims of police harrassmont and brutality - Kooris and sex workers.

However wo can only carry out this agenda if enough people commit themselves to it. If members/ supporters do not attend meetings and take up some of the work load we might Just as well call it quits.

So... if you genuinely believe that LGS has something to offer get your act together!

In Sydney one of the gay and lesbian radio groups planning a float in this year's annual Mardi Gras Parade approached several business houses for assistance in decorating and mounting the float

Woolworths Variety Chainstores and supermarkets were asked if the company would donate four sets of festoon lights or make a cash donation. Woolworths managing director, Roger Corbott, is quoted as saying to the radio group's representative: "I certainly won't be helping out your type of people. We don't go for anything queer. We like normal families."

Asked whether or not he thought he was being homophobic, Roger Corbott said: "Take it as you will "

The Wild G.A.L.S. (Gay and Lesbian Show) presenter who had approached Woolworths in Sydney said he thought that it would be in order for lesbians and gays to boycott all Woolworths stores and supermarkets. Ho said he won't be shopping at Woolworths again.

LGS recently wrote to MHOL - Movimiento Homosexual de Lima - in Peru to obtain a correct address for Nicaraguan organisations. Following a brief exchange of correspondence LGS and MHOL will be exchanging newsletters/ bulletins.

MHOL operates nn a country which absolutely lacks democracy. On the one hand the country is run by a dictatorship headed by President Fujimori. On the other hand the population is terrorised by guerilla groups which claim to be left -wing but in reality are anti-popular. The 'Maoist' Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) has committed huge atrocities against the population and particularly targets homosoxuals and transvestites. In the last three years more than 40 transvestites have been killed in Lima by groups called "rnata cobros"(kill faggots). The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) has claimed that it will not tolorate homosexuals

On the other hand, the real Left has joined in condemning Shining Path, which does not discriminate between the population and its democratic organisations and the forces of dictatorship in its choice of targets. At the third meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum (an annual meeting of left wing political parties and movements of Latin America and the Caribbean) in Managua, Nicaragua, a resolution was passed condemning Fujimoro's military self-soup and the Sendero Luminoso's acts of terrorism against the Peruvian peoples.

"In addition to political violence (according to the ILGA Bulletin 2/92), the economy continues to deteriorate, so that many people cannot afford even the most basic necessities. With an average monthly salary of 40USD, people just can't survive. And in MHOL our budget cannot keep up with an inflation rate that was more than 7000% In 1990', Rebecca Sevilla (secretary of MHOL) added.

"In spite of the country's serious woes, MHOL has made great strides. During the last few years the group has grown from a mere handful of activists who founded it in 1985 to the total of 500 people who are now involved in its activities like workshops, seminars and social events, MHOL also runs one of the strongest AIDS prevention programmes in Latin America. The group operates an AIDS hotline, "SID-AYUDA", which is staffed by more than a dozen volunteers who answer more than 100 calls per month. A team of promoters hand out information about AIDS and free condoms throughout Lima. At the end of 1991, MHOL was distributing moro than 70 thousand condoms and 30 thousand leaflets every month."

Tho latest development in Peru has been President Fujimoro's crackdown on suspected homosexuals in the diplomatic service. LGS has responded to an international appeal by writing a protest letter to Fujimoro.

The Cardinal Newman Catechist Centre, a Catholic organisation, publishes a newsletter which does not believe in the charity that it hypocritically preaches to its flock. In reply to an anti-gay joke, LGS sent in the following reply to the editor:

"Your article on "Acquired Interesting Death Syndrome" with the tired joke about gay being an acronym for 'Got AIDS Yet?' is yet further proof of the intransigent hatred of the Catholic Church for lesbian and gay people. Although individual Catholics, including gay and straight priests, nuns and brothers have made outstanding contributions to the struggle against AIDS and prejudice, the real attitude of the hierarchy is more clearly stated in your publication. You also include a plug for the semi-fascist book "The AIDS Cover-Up, the Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS".

Your newsletter certainly advances the cause of Christian hypocrisy, bigotry and poor taste.

Perhaps in coming to terms with homosexuality you should more closely read the biography of the Cardinal whose name you bear, or at least review the contradictory history of Catholic attitudes to homosexuality as recorded by John Boswell in his "Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality".

Following the acquittal of two gay bashers in South Australia late last year, LGS wrote to Mr Sumner, South Australia's Attorney General:

We are outraged at the SA Supreme Court jury decision to acquit two men who brutally bashed a gay man. That a jury could come to such a decision is an indictment of South Australian heterosexist society, its laws and its lawmakers.

Wo join our South Australian gay brothers and lesbian sisters in demanding that you:

We trust that, in the name of justice, you act on the above demands."

We received a reply from Mr Sumner in which he essentially said that nothing can (read "will") be done. He pointed out that the jury system is widely representative; that SA's Equal Opportunity Act was the first such legislation in Australia (tell that to the victim!) and finally that the law relating to self defence (which allowed the bashers to be acquitted - LGS) "will be monitored but at this stage it does not appear that any change is necessary. It is most unlikely that the change to the law on self-defence led to the acquittal in this case."

If we can't get justice through the legal system then we reserve the right to obtain justice by our own means.

GAYWAVES! Thursday nights. 8pm to 10.30 pm. 2SER FM 107.3MHz. Gaywaves needs more lesbians on its collective. Call on 330 3080 during the broadcast WILDGALS Saturday nights. 7pm to 10 pm. 2RSR FM 88.9 MHz

Melbourne monthly newsletter of gay and lesbian activism. Contact P O BOX 108. NORTH CARLTON. VICTORIA, 3054. Subscriptions: $15 one year. $6 concession.

Second Thursday of every month, at the Newtown Community Centre (opposite the railway station) at 8pm. Next meetings: April 8, May 13, and June 10

Our letter to Downundor '98 was picked up by the Sydney Star Observer and generated a bit of discussion in its letters pages. However, the letter itself was far too short to really lay down the many reasons why we object to the Gay Games and modern organised sport in general. So here's a longer article which attempts to briefly explain our outlook on the issue.

We take issue with modern competitive sport as a phenomenon of the modern capitalist world. Modern sport is not tho same as recreational physical activities indulged in purely for personal leisure. Modern sport was created by developed capitalism at the end of last century. It was, from the start, seen by the ruling classes as the ideal means of inculcating in the worting masses values such as competition and concepts such as 'may the best man win', a cultural outlook which would be ideal for controlling potentially unruly workers.

Tho first International games were held as sideshows to universal Exhibitions where the economic world powers were gathered. It didn't take long for these powers to realise that these games could bo useful to them in their own right.

From capitalism to imperialism, and the Games as developed in Europe were exported along with troops and diseases. To this day this is an ongoing process in which any country less developed than the prosperous 'North' can look to absolute bankruptcy. As it is, these countries' ailing economies (a result of Imperialism) are further crippled by their attempts to participate fully in and succeed at the Olympics.

The way sport is organised replicates an ideology useful to capitalist society. It is competative, one person or team matched against another. Fun games which do not replicate this "survival of the fittest ' social-darwinian approach do not find a place in this scheme of things.

Sport is organised hierarchically, with the players themselves being just the chess pieces pushed around by a hierarchy of trainers, clubs, and sports federations. The irony of all this is that sportspeople have often been forced to take industrial action to defend their own interests.

Federations make all the rules in an authoritarian manner probably much enviod by many governments which have been forced to concede to pressures for democratic reform. No such pressure is conceded within the 'sporting' political world.

Sport is characterised by the striving for victories, by a belief in the idea of extreme individualism rather than cooperation. This is a way of people taking on ruling class values which run counter to their own objective interests. This is no outrageous claim. Government after government has made statements to that effect, especially about how healthy sports is to people's minds. In Paris 1968, after the French government recovered control from the radical student and worker revolt, the first institution it resorted to to normalise the situation was sports. No wonder governments invest so heavily in nurturing sport, and have made it a compulsory component of school curricula.

The pressure to perform better and to win medals is so great that sportspeople are forced into many activities detrimental to their health. Drug taking, while presumably illegal even according to federations' rules, is inevitable. There is only so much the unaided human body can do. Beyond these limits props are needed.

Drugs are not the only problem. Blood transfusions to increase oxygen are another practice. But torture goes beyond artificial techniques (which we shall see no end of; the search for undetectable drugs etc will go on).

Athletes are pushed way beyond their limits. The result is a high level of attrition, of injuries and even deaths. What's supposed to be pleasurable turns out to be quite the opposite.

Even more alarming is the effect of 'catching them early'. Children are assessed from earlier and earlier years to glean the best. No matter liow many fall broken by the wayside.Those who do not succeed pay a high price. Gymnastics is possibly the best example of how young girls' metabolism is warped - a situation which will not heal after they are "past it" when still in the prime of their lives.

Modern society (starting from the previous century) has been absolutely obsessed with the mental and moral health of its children. One of the more laughable phonomena (to us today) was the claim that 'healthy' cereal breakfasts were one way of keeping children and young people away from tho dangers of masturbation. Another prescription was and still is sport. It is used to repress young peoples' sexuality. Condemnable by all, it should touch more than a few chords among us gay, lesbian and transgender people.

Sports is an industry in it own right, and in more ways than one. First off, the sportsperson is a commodity in his/ her own right. Victories are the product, the payoff.

This one single fact has led to a common practice, that of the sportsperson selling him/ herself to tho highest bidder; such decisions have more to do with money than the practice of 'sport ' itself.

More obviously, sport has a large number of industries catering for it. Advertising is always pushing for more and supposedly better products to be bought

Industry investment in sport is also evident in the struggle for advertising and sponsorship. Which culminates in the obscenity of the World Olympics. In Madrid one company alone received the contract for selling condoms, so the Peruvian teams were not allowed to use their own.

Countries vie for the Olympics to take place in their cities. The staging of these games is seen as a huge, enormous boon for the national economies. Which is why we've seen Fahey go to extrome lengths to entice the Olympic Committee. What's not so well known are the devastating effects that these blighted games often have on the local populations - higher rents, evictions, 'temporary' suspension of democratic rights such as the right to rally (this happened for instance in Perth for the Americas Cup), cleaning up of strays, street kids and destitute people, homosexuals and prostitutes (could the banning of nude beaches have anything to do with Sydney's bid for the Olympics?) huge municipal debts, the threat to whole communities (the proposed levelling of Sydenham for a third runway and a direct railway line from the airport to Homebush).

One of the biggest myths is that sport, and particularly the Olympics, is above politics, and yet it has been nothing if not political. In terms of sexism it is still a domain for men. Women participate. And win medals. But it's not quite the samo, is it? A female athlete is still dealt with in terms of her "womanhood", and whose wife or daughter she is. There is still a mystique of the supposedly female body. A female bodybuilder is an aberration. Men still dictate all the rules.

Internationally sport is another area for diplomacy. China with its ping pong diplomacy, the USA and the ex-USSR competing for medals, North and South Korea at each others' throats, the USA boycott of the Moscow games, the reciprocal USSR boycott of the Los Angeles games...The list goes on and on. Nor is this a new phenomenon. The Berlin Olympics were aimed by the organisers (not just the Germans) as a showcase for Nazi Germany.

Tliis article by no means exhausts all that could be said. But by now it should be obvious that sport is about everything except the pleasurable pursuit of physical activity. It is not the same as a leisurely ride with a pushbike. It is not the same as a dip in the sea or a romp across a field. It has very definite characteristics.

How are the Gay Games the same as sport? Notwithstanding its 'philosophy' of 'doing one's personal best' and 'participation by all' it still features all the distinctive features of sport. The Games are still competitive. At the end of it all a few people will receive medals. They still buy into the ideology of mainstream sport, with a crossover between the Gay Games and mainstream games by a number of athletes. Its promoters compare it with the World Olympics and the Commonwealth Games in terms of performance, records broken, medals won. The features which do make them different turn out to be insignificant because of the way in which the Games buy into tho dominant ideology.

Finally a question has to be asked about what sport means to us as gays, lesbians and transgender persons. Are we trying to prove our "manhood"? Should we even seek to do so? Isn't this another way of seeking acceptance rather than asserting our identities no matter what 'others' think of us?

How many people, even straights, have gone through hell in school because they couldn't compete in school sports? How many have been terrorised, beaten up. called wimps and faggots and nancies and pansies, not only by the kids but also by their sport instructors? To many queers sport has been directly experionced as an oppressive institution.

That should be reason enough for not embracing it.

CURRENT NEWSLETTER AND ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

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

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This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 26 APRIL 2017

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