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

ISSN 1446-4896

South African Justice Minister Dullah Omar was quoted in Capital Q on 19 September 1997 as announcing his intention to oppose a high court application by the National Gay and Lesbian Coalition aimed at bringing the criminal law into line with the Constitution. The action aims to decriminalise sodomy and to excise outdated laws including those which make it criminal for gay men to touch or hold hands at a party of more than three people. The Constitution recognises the freedom of sexual orientation.

LGS is writing to the South African Justice Minister to object to his reported opposition to the high court application, and to advise him that a similar tourism boycott by gays and lesbians to South Africa as is in place for tourism to Zimbabwe will be proposed internationally if he carries out the reported opposition.

Mother Abbyss has donated S10 to help with the costs of producing the LGS newsletter and we wish to thank Mother for this worthy and worthwhile support - which helps to keep lesbian and gay activism alive - through the newsletter.

The Women's library is having a short story competition with closing date being 31 January 1998. Details are as follows:
closing date:31 January 1998
entry fee:S10 per story or S20 for 3 stories
maximum:2500 words
Work must not have been previously published or have previously won an award.
Other conditions apply

For an entry form and conditions of entry, please send a stamped self-addressed envelope to:
Short Story Competition
The Women's Library Inc
PO Box 271
NEWTOWN NSW 2042

SPAIDS (AIDS Sydney Park Tree Planting Project) has its next tree planting day at Sydney Park on Sunday 12 October 1997, between 10.30am and 3.30pm. All are welcome, and members of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence will bless the ceremony at about 12.30pm. South Sydney City Council provides the trees, spades, site, water, AND A BARBECUE LUNCH with sausages, onions, sauce, bread and butter and cold drinks.

Franca Arena and Deirdre Grusovin have become homophobic to such an extreme extent that they are equating paedophilia only with homosexuality. Statistics show that child sexual abuse is, in the large majority of cases, carried out by adult males on child females. Arena and Grusovin are convinced that children are made into homosexuals by being sexually abused as children. They refuse to accept that they are homosexuals because they were born that way.

Grusovin and Arena must be actively campaigned against to stop this abuse of their parliamentary power and they must be exposed for what they are - homophobes of the worst sort waging a war against lesbians and gay men in the community. We have had enough wars waged against us in years gone by, and with the political climate having turned very sharply to the right, these wars are raising their ugly heads again.

The Premier of NSW Bob Carr has declined to address the issue of Equal Age Of Consent, which was one of the recommendations of the Wood Royal Commission. This campaign must be continued until the issue is resolved, with equal age of consent for heterosexual males being the same as for homosexual males.

Zimbabwe is persecuting and prosecuting its former President Canaan Banana over allegations of homosexual abuse of.males who had worked for him while he was president. Lesbians and gay men should remember to avoid Zimbabwe when making travel arrangements to Southern Africa until such time as President Robert Mugabe has backed down from his reactionary stance on the issue.

Lesbian and Gay Solidarity has copies of Graham Carbery's History of Mardi Gras at $10 per copy. To obtain your copy, contact us at the above address or phone Mannie on (02)9718-1452.

On 10 July 1997 about 30 people attended a community forum at the Pride Centre, sponsored by Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, the Anti-Violence Project, 2010 Lesbian and Gay Youth Services, Pride representatives and members of other gay and lesbian organisations, including Lesbian and Gay Solidarity.

The forum was called to discuss the issue of Aboriginal Reconciliation within gay and lesbian communities. A statement of support had been put out by the above-mentioned groups and the meeting was called to discuss further collaboration between groups to ensure further progress on reconcilation issues.

A group of Gay Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men has formed a group called "BlackOUT" and meets regularly at the Pride Centre. The group is currently being supported and auspiced by Pride, and are asking for financial support for events such as Corroboree III being held at the end of September 1997. For further information about the group contact Paul Canning or Bronte Morris or Tony Creighton. at the PRIDE Centre (02)9331-1333

The Australian Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu continues with the issue of a newsletter by the campaign organisers. For copies of the newsletter and to assist with the campaign to free Vanunu, contact Rev Tom Henderson-Brooks on (02)9360-6844, fax (02)9360-1759, St John's Church 120 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, or Linda Kaucher and Kel Dummett on (02)9665-6059 fax (02)9665-3054. Vanunu was jailed by the Israelis for ostensibly exposing their nuclear arsenal secrets and has been jailed for 18 years in solitary confinement - 11 years having already passed, and Vanunu's health, both physical and mental, has begun to deteriorate badly. Your support for his release is urgently required.

The campaign to reinstate the North Melbourne TAFE three continues. The Three were sacked for their continued union activism after several in their group were retrenched despite evidence showing demand for their course was high. They are being targeted by TAFE management also for seeking support from students at North Melbourne TAFE. Teachers unions throughout Australia have continued providing support, the notable exception being the New South Wales Teachers Federation which has ignored attempts by Federation members to obtain support and publicity for the campaign. To offer support and to find out what you can do to help, contact Alison Thorne on (03)9386-5065 or Reinstate the Northern 3 Campaign c/- PO Box 266 West Brunswick Vic 3055.

Other countries still violating rights of GLBT (gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals) include Zimbabwe, Namibia, Swaziland, Brazil, Singapore, China, Romania, Russia, USA, France, Thailand and others. Please advise LGS Newsletter of other known abusing countries so that we can continue to report and monitor them.

This newly formed lesbian, gay and transgender group aims to improve access by sexual minorities of local government services. Meets bi-monthly at the Local Community Services Association (LCSA) 66 Albion Street, Surry Hills. Next meeting 3.30pm Friday 10 October. Input welcome from gay, lesbian and transgender people. Information from Roy, (02)9211-3644, or Christine, (02)9525-3790.

Reverend Dorothy McRae-McMahon has resigned from her position in the Uniting Church after outing herself at the recent national conference in Perth. Opposition from such homophobes as Gordon Moyes of the Wesley Mission have made her official position in the church heirarchy untenable. Christianity creates yet another martyr!!!

The Electoral Commission has rejected complaints about Fred Nile's party's attempts to obtain new members in its declining popularity by allowing it to change its name to the Christian Democratic Party. This means that in the minds of voters it will be confused with parties of similar names in other countries. The fact that Fred Nile's party is neither christian nor democratic has been ignored by the Electoral Commissioner.

The first National Carers Conference for people involved with care of People Living with HIV/AIDS was held at the Park Royal Hotel in Sydney during the weekend of 27/28 September 1997. Between 100 and 150 people from all over Australia attended, and topics were wide ranging, from burnout of carers to the changing scene brought about by combination therapies treatments. The workshops were well attended, and it is hoped that there will be more such conferences in the future. The Conference was organised by AFAO (Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations).

Walter was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and died on September 11 in Melbourne. Many of us in Sydney knew him because of his association with Melbourne's first organisation for homosexuals, Society Five, in the early 1970s. Walter was one of its founding members. He was either secretary or president of Society Five during the years 1972-1986. Some of the services Walter helped create within the organisation included a telephone advisory support and an excellent library at a time when there were no gay bookshops, no gay press to speak of, and no positive books about homosexuality in most public libraries. When Society Five closed down, Walter continued to run a phone advisory service from his home almost until he died.

Others of us valued Walter Hillbrick for his courage in taking up unpopular causes. He didn't shrink from voicing his anger at injustices, which made him a good front person for a gay organisation, particularly in the hostile 1970s. It certainly didn't start at that time though. According to Gary Jaynes who met him first in 1971, Walter went to prison as a conscientious objector during WWII which led to his co-founding in 1945 of the Prison Reform Council in NSW. Even in his old age his refusal to be quiet about the injustices of age of consent laws put him at odds with conservatives in the gay communities as well as the law.

Even, it seems, in death he wasn't allowed to rest. The day after his funeral, Melbourne Police phoned his home and spoke to a close friend who was there. A city mission health care worker had seen what he considered to be illegal porn on a visit before Walter was hospitalised. This person phoned the police. Walter's friend was outraged and the police undertook to get the person to phone and apologise, which he did.

The editors of LGS Newsletter will be going to South Africa from 18 October 1997 to 30 November 1997 and issue 6 of the newsletter will be produced during December 1997.

FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS DIED OF HIV/AIDS.COMMEMORATE THAT SPECIAL LIFE IN THE STONEWALL/MARDI GRAS AIDS GROVE

OPPOSITE ST PETER'S RAILWAY STATION

10.30am to 3.30pm Other 1997 plantings: Sunday *12 OCTOBER Sponsored by SOUTH SYDNEY CITY COUNCIL and the •SPAIDS Tree Planting Project; Info: Mannie 9718 1452.

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

RED JOS BLOGSPOT (from January 2009 onwards)

This page updated 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 and again on 24 APRIL 2017

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