The editors were having a six-week holiday in South Africa during October and November 1997, and, as a consequence, the 6th issue of 1997 will now be combined with the first issue of 1998 as the editors try and get their act together.


1) THANKS

We would like to thank the donor of a cheque for $25 to help with the production of the newsletter. You know who you are - thank you very much - every little bit helps!


2) SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa produced many items of interest - from a gay and lesbian film festival in Johannesburg during November to a meeting with people in Cape Town trying to do AIDS caring and education with little or no financial help from the public or government. Since our return we have sent them some Australian journals, leaflets and pamphlets. The two organisations are Wola Nani - Embrace, at PO Box 16082, Vlaeberg, Cape Town, South Africa, 8018 email: wolanani@iafrica.com; and FOPWA - Friends of People with AIDS, c/o Seliena Williams, 11 Steamboat Road, Strandfontein, Cape Town, South Africa.

A few interesting discoveries: attached to the library of the University of the Witwatersrand is a South African Gay and Lesbian Archives. We were fortunate to have met the archivist, seen material there, which was sent by us to South Africa, and we donated a copy of Graham Carbery's book, A History of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, to their Archives.

A gay and lesbian film festival was on in Johannesburg during November, and we decided to go and see a Chinese film, which had been banned in China and other countries, and we were going to be lucky enough to see it in Johannesburg! The film is called East Palace, West Palace. We bought our tickets and sat down in the cinema, only to be told that the film was not going to be allowed to be shown at the Festival, and we would be seeing instead a film called Chasing Amy, an unexciting non-lesbian/non-gay film. What a letdown!

Time did not allow us to see any other films at the Festival, some of which held great promise.

SOUTH AFRICA:  JUSTICE MINISTER OPPOSES DECRIMINALISATION
On August 22, 1997, the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE) and the South African Human Rights Commission launched an application in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court to decriminalize adult consensual same-sex relations.

On September 15,1997, Justice Minister Dullah Omar opposed this application and has until October 6, 1997, to state his reasons. The IGLHRC is deeply distressed by this apparent retreat from human rights.

Quoted from International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) Vol. VI, No. 5, 1997.

However, EXIT, a South African gay and lesbian newspaper stated in its November 1997 issue:
"Justice Minister Dullah Omar's opposition to the court application by the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and the Human Rights Commission dissipated recently following negotiations between the Coalition, the ANC and the Minister. The court action has been brought in the Johannesburg High Court to strike down the common law offences of "sodomy" and "unnatural sexual offences" and various other statutory offences including the provision of the Sexual Offences Act that criminalises acts between men at a party. The unopposed case will now be heard by the High Court on either November 18 or 25."

We were unlucky enough to be out of Johannesburg on 15 November 1997 when the South Africa" National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality held a rally and meeting calling for support for lesbian and gay equality:

"Apartheid laws criminalised many of us (South Africans) including lesbian and gay people. Equality means equality for all. Equality means the repeal of all unjust laws. In November 1997, the Johannesburg High Court will hear an application to decriminalise adult same-sex conduct."

SCRAP UNJUST LAWS NOW!

We also renewed acquaintance with a gay artist who has a brother living in Sydney, and who did a drag show outside the court that was challenging the old laws on homosexuality.

At the date of sending out the newsletter we have not heard the outcome of the court case and believe that the hearing may have been postponed to some date in 1995.


3) SPAIDS AND KING STEAM

The Sydney Park AIDS Tree Planting Project used to leave its flyers on the steps at King Steam. However, last October a manager in a very unpleasant manner told the project that in future he would not tolerate the flyers being left.

We hope King Steam's patrons will Pick up the flyers elsewhere when the project is able to publicise the planting dates in June, August and October each year.


4) ZIMBABWE

The President has behaved like a dictator in calling out the police and troops to quell riots which have been brought about by the collapse of the economy, due in large part to the graft and corruption current in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Just as Mugabe is trying to blame white people in Zimbabwe for the country's financial troubles, so has he tried to blame whites for causing black Zimbabweans to be homosexuals.

It will be necessary to keep a human rights watch on proceedings. In Zimbabwe as its troubles increase and instability grows, making scapegoats of many people in the country.


5) VANUNU:

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 30 January 1998 from Tel Aviv states:

"Mordechai Vanunu, jailed for 18 years for revealing Israel's secret nuclear weapons program, may be moved out of the solitary confinement he has endured for the past 11 years, an Israeli MP says." - The Telegraph.


6) STRAND ARCADE:

The owner of a gay and lesbian shop in the Strand Arcade is busy having a costly legal battle against the owners and agents of the building concerning posters and flyers advertising his shop and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The management and owners have backed down slightly with the threat of legal action, but there are still problems remaining in relation to a display board outside his premises, called Loot.

As a thumbing of noses to the Strand Arcade management, the gay male nuns Mardi Gras History Walk on Sunday Afternoon, 15 February, walked through the Arcade in habit with the 50 plus gays and lesbians on the walk. The nuns explained the reason for the diversion.


6A) EXTRA

The Sydney Morning Herald, in an editorial on Friday, 6 February, showed its homophobia again by recommending that the gay male nuns of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence be banned from the Mardi Gras parade. Despite numerous letters of protest to the Letters Editor, none were published by her.


7) HOMOPHOBIA AND THE NEW SOUTH WALES TEACHERS FEDERATION

In its journal, Education, November 10, 1997, the NSW Teachers Federation has an eight-page lift-out on the Anti-Racism kit.

LGS has, for some years, tried to pressure the Education Department to make the Anti-Homophobia Kit compulsory, as is the Anti-Racism kit in NSW schools, but to no avail. The NSW Teachers Federation has not done anything to try and induce the State government to make the kit compulsory and it thus demonstrates its own ongoing homophobia. Homophobia at teacher level is also assisting the student homophobes to get away with almost everything, and this is an alarming situation.

If you happen to be a teacher and a member of the NSW Teachers Federation write a letter to the President urging the organisation to take some positive action in this regard.


8) FURTHER INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

MALAYSIA: continues its oppression of lesbians and gays by introducing a new law imposing fines and strokes and/or jail for sexual "offences" including prostitution, heterosexual adultery, lesbianism and Sodomy.

SAN MARINO: one of the world's oldest and smallest countries legalised gay sex on 9 July 1997.

ECUADOR: A raid on a gay bar and continuous harassment by the police sparked off several days of demonstrations in the town of Cuensa, according to the newspaper Hoy. The demonstrations marked the first mass public protest by lesbians and gay men in Ecuador.

MEXICO AND ARGENTINA: are also on the list of countries which are involved in homophobic actions and abuses of human rights against lesbians, gays bisexual and transgender people in their countries. (Emergency Response Vol. VI No. 1997)

CHINA: Tolerance grows for homosexuals in China - Shanghai and other cities have gay and lesbian communities, which are celebrating their sexuality more openly without harassment in various venues and with various activities.

SINGAPORE: The oppression continues as human rights are denied to lesbians and gay men in that country. The organisation People Like Us (PLU) failed to have their society registered officially, and government discrimination continues. You can assist by contacting PLU on their website: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/3878/

LGS wishes to acknowledge that the above international items were "pilfered" from South Pacific Pearl Vol. 3, No.2 November 1997. Thank you, Sydney Asians and Friends and best wishes for 1998.


9) FORBIDDEN LOVE BOLD PASSION:

Forbidden Love Bold Passion is an exhibition covering ninety years of Australian lesbian history told through the stories of a number of unique women spanning the decades from invisibility to invulnerability. It's a traveling exhibition curated in Melbourne and for its Mardi Gras showing it includes the personal stories of four famous Sydney lesbians. The exhibition is at the Australian Museum as part of the Mardi Gras Festival until 23 March 1998. The exhibition is a joint project of History Inverted and Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives Inc.


10) THE AUSTRALIAN LESBIAN AND GAY ARCHIVES:

The Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives still needs support in all ways. You can assist them by writing to ALGA at PO Box 124 Parkville Vic. 3052. They still have copies of Graham Carbery's History of Mardi Gras, so contact them for your copy as we have run out of copies in Sydney at the moment.


11) THE GAY AND LESBIAN IMMIGRATION TASK FORCE.

The Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force (GLITF) was established many years ago in response to the problems encountered by gays and lesbians wishing to have their partners live with them in Australia. GLITF's main object is to make sure that its members have the latest information about changes to the Migration Regulations and the Migration Act and to know the way the Immigration Department is interpreting those regulations.

GLITF may be contacted at PO Box 400, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010 email: glitf@dot.net.au
Phone: (02) 9380-5950, info-line 1902-262-155, fax: (02) 9569-1661


12) SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN MARDI GRAS

This year, 1990, is the 20th birthday of the Parade. LGS hasn't participated as a group for many years. Some original members will be there this year as part of the 78ers leading float.

Others will be participating in walking groups, one of which is the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives which is also having it's; 20th birthday this year. ALGA was established as an initiative of the 4th National Homosexual Conference in Sydney in 1978.


13) BLACK + WHITE + PINK:

Black + White + Pink: lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender communities reconciliation working group:

In 1997 a group of organisations from Sydney's gay and lesbian Communities produced a Statement of Support for the process of Reconciliation with Aboriginal communities. The statement was signed by the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project, PRIDE - Sydney Lesbian and Gay Community Centre, 2010 Lesbian and Gay Youth Services and the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby and was sent to the Australian Reconciliation Convention in May 1997.

If your organisation, or individual members, would like to become further involved in the communities Reconciliation Process, please contact Bruce Grant for details of planned activities. Black+White+Pink has regular meetings and is open to all organisations and individuals within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

Secretariat, c/o Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project PO Box 1178, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, phone:(02) 936O-6687
sgs100@hotmail.com

Interestingly, Wik armbands, "Stick with Wik" are being sold to) be worm by participants in the Mardi Gras Parade on 28th. By lesbian designer, Deborah Kelly, they are $5 each. Phone (02) 9516-4126.

THE FUTURE OF THE PARK
South Sydney City Council has a ten-year management plan to turn the park into a regional recreation ice for residents of the inner city and visitors.