ISSN 1446-4896 ISSUE 3, 1998, NUMBER 38
MAY - AUGUST 1998

             

1) SPAIDS:
Sydney Park AIDS Tree Planting Project: next planting is planned for SUNDAY, 26 JULY, 10.30am until 3.30pm even if it rains. Council provides a barbecue lunch and you are invited to picnic with us and our guests--some of the gay male nuns of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI). The AIDS Memorial Groves are now quite substantial and Council has begun to signpost them. This 26 July planting will continue from where we left off in May along the small creek at the south west end of the park. Easy access from Barwon Park Road.

2) ANTI-RACISM DEMO:
There is to be a street march and protest rally in Sydney on SATURDAY 1st AUGUST endorsed by the ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT. Assemble 1.30pm ARCHIBALD FOUNTAIN Hyde Park North for a march to the First Fleet Park Circular Quay for a MONSTER RALLY.  It's obviously to do with the latest outrageous statements being made by Hanson about the 1967 Referendum. Incidentally, here"s what the Sydney Morning Herald's KOOKABURRA columnist had to say about Hanson (27.6.98): "She has managed to attend only 66 of 209 votes on legislation since she has been in Federal politics, and has failed to vote on issues as central to her alleged agenda as work for the dole, immigration laws, native title and small business. She serves on not one parliamentary committee. In short, she contributes almost nothing to the parliamentary process of policy formulation. She claimed $14,000 in Canberra travel allowance for the final six months of last year, more than any other backbencher." Maybe we should ask our local Federal MPs about their attendance records etc and what they claim in travel allowances, eh? The ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BOARD has called for details relating to any instances of anti-lesbian/anti-gay/anti-transgender references or actions Pauline or her media spokespersons may have made or may make. "Phone the ADB on (02) 93185420 to report any and ask for the Complaints Officer.

3) THE 78ers EXHIBITION:
If you missed out on seeing it at MARDI GRAS TIME and expected to be able to get up to Newcastle to see at the Regional Museum you are likely to be disappointed. At the very last minute we have learned that it has been rejected because it does not have sufficient "local  content" to meet the Museum"s "community space" criterion. Sadly the Museum has apologised for a communication breakdown. However, the good news is that the Museum because it likes the look of it has suggested that it would be considered for next year if it became the centrepiece of a local project such as the story of  lesbian and gay volunteers at the Newcastle ACON/CSN office which would certainly make the HUNTER CONNEXION. So, it"s a case now of WATCH THIS SPACE!

4) ARCHIVES TO CELEBRATE:
On Saturday, 29 August, the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) will celebrate its twentieth anniversary with a GRAND DINNER in Melbourne. Formally established at the Fourth National Homosexual Conference held in Sydney in 1978 --the year of the violent police attacks on lesbians and gays in their first Mardi Gras, and even in their Conference"s own peaceful footpath procession a few months later. The Archives" home in Melbourne has built up an incredibly large collection of materials relating to all aspects of lesbian and gay life in Australia. Their collection has become an invaluable research resource to students and scholars and is continuing to build. At the Anniversary Dinner the Archives will be announcing details of an ANNUAL PRIZE to be awarded to the best fourth year thesis on gay, lesbian, bi- sexual, transgender or queer themes in any discipline. It will also announce its WEBsite and will award its very first Life Membership. Incidentally , we have copies of Graham Carbery"s "A HISTORY OF THE SYDNEY GAY & LESBIAN MARDI GRAS" for sale --over 280 pages including photos and an index, 1978 to 1995, absolutely fascinating. Treat yourself! SPECIAL PRICE $10 COPY. Proceeds to ALGA. Contact Mannie: e-mail on  josken_at_zipworld.com.au

5) The STOLEN CHILDREN: THEIR STORIES.
While we"re on the subject of books, we would like to recommend Carmel Bird"s collection of stories including extracts from the Report of the National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families by government laws in Australia since early last century. 100 thousand reasons for saying sorry NOW! This collection of stories and perspectives is redemptive. It is a step towards healing the suffering of the Stolen Generations and it urgently demonstrates the importance of national compassion and a true spirit of reconciliation to every Australian. In a preface to the book Sir Ronald Wilson, the Commissioner of the National Inquiry, has written "The National Inquiry disclosed that many of our fellow Australians are still suffering from the wounds inflicted by past laws, practices and policies which, notwithstanding that they have been devised with the best will in the world, were ill-conceived and led to gross violations of human rights. It is not too late for the nation to gain release from the burden of this shameful part of its history."

Dr Roberta Sykes in a Sydney Morning Herald review (4 April) revealed that an estimated 100,000 Aboriginal children were removed. (NSW, for example, has "lost" many of their records but concedes that 10,000 children at least were taken in this State alone.) The book costs under $20 from bookshops and a great part of the royalties from sales will be paid to the indigenous people whose stories are recorded in the work. It"s a painful read and leaves one wondering how these people can be so forgiving. Would  whites make the same allowances under similar circumstances for their enforced lot?


6) FROM HIROSHIMA TO JABILUKA march and rally SATURDAY, 8 AUGUST.
Assemble 12 noon around the Archibald Fountain, Hyde Park North (See advertisement back page). In a reply to an LGS member, the Federal Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley wrote: "The Australian Labor Party remains opposed to the Jabiluka project proceeding. Our position," he said, "is based on concern for its environmentally sensitive location, the fact the mine is opposed by the traditional owners of the site, and our general opposition to the opening of any new uranium mines in Australia."  Beazley, nevertheless, fails to say that back in government his party will rescind the Howard government"s approval of uranium mining at Jabiluka. Check the records?


7) ZIMBABWE!
One of Zim's most prominent gay activists, Keith Goddard, has been arrested under the country"s sodomy law and could face a seven year sentence follow- ing the campaign of repression led by Mugabe against lesbians and gays.. Goddard was arrested after a year of blackmail attempts against him. In May 1997 he began receiving letters from Siphephele Kuma. Both were arraigned --Kuma charged with extortion, Goddard with sodomy. Kuma faces trial 27 July, the date is yet to be fixed for Goddard who is on bail pending trial. (BrotherSister, 9 July issue.) Send letters of support  for Goddard to GALZ, Private Bag A6131, Avondale HARARE Zimbabwe, and boycott holidays in  Zimbabwe.

8) 12th WORLD HIV/AIDS CONFERENCE IN GENEVA.
(Q 10 July) At the conference demonstrators made this statement about one of the drug companies: "Merck should have no part in a conference entitled "Bridging the Gap."" The demonstrators" reason for the statement: Merck had refused to be involved with the UNAIDS pilot programme on cutting drug prices in the developing world. In support of those "Bridging the Gap" demonstrators isn"t it time Sydney and Melbourne HIV/AIDS groups coordinated an action on the streets (like ACTUP used to do) to draw attention to the current situation with the exorbitant price of drugs which make them out of reach of developing countries? How many people heard the Radio National programme direct from the Conference which introduced Anglican priest from Uganda, Gideon Byomagisha? The conversation revealed that 90% of the people who are infected with HIV, and are being infected, live in countries which cannot even afford clean water much less advanced antiviral drugs ... countries whose cities sometimes have a one-in-three prevalence of HIV infection. African countries south of the Sahara, for instance have 90% of the world"s infections yet can access only 13% of available treatments. Current estimated world HIV infections total 30.6 million which will rise to 40 million within the next two years.

9) AIDS ACTIVISTS IN PANAMA DEMAND ACCESS TO MEDICATIONS!
PROBIDSIDA, a foundation dedicated to the well being and dignity of people living with HIV/AIDS in Panama, has initiated a campaign demanding access to anti-retroviral therapies from the Caja de Seguro Social (government health care provider). In support you could send a letter to PROBIDSIDA's lawyer: Sr Ricardo Lachman, Apartado 9654, Zona 4, PANAMA, Rep de Panama. FAX 507-264-4730 or E-mail: nquinter@pananet.com


10) BRAZILIAN GAY MAN WINS PROPERTY RIGHTS CASE:
Milton Alves Pedrosa, a businessman from Belo Horizonte, capital of the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, has won a unanimous decision in the High Court of Brazil to the right of half the estate of his partner who died of HIV/AIDS in 1989. They had lived together for more than seven years. The Minister in summing up the case stated: "A judge nowadays can- not deny that two people of the same sex can form family ties."

11) ROMANIA REJECTS LEGALISATION!
In Bucharest the Romanian Chamber of Deputies has voted down full legalisation of homosex. Heterosex still rules the roost! "It would be immoral to legalise homosexual sex," according to Christian Democrat MP Emil Popescu, "homosexual couples are sterile. They cannot breed. We want a healthy nation," he said. Can you believe it in this day and age! As a gesture of defiance, boycott Romanian products particularly imported jam from that country.

12) SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES: 
High Court Judge Jonathan Heyer in upholding the lesbian and gay equal rights clause in the new South African Constitution has ruled that the apartheid-era laws against gays and lesbians are a relic of intolerance, ignorance and fear of what is different, and violate the country's new Constitution. In celebrating the ruling Mazibuko Jara of the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality said: "Our history records the litany of South Africans who have been drowned in vats in prisons, burned at stakes, hanged on gallows, tortured and banished for expressing a sexuality that differed from a heterosexual norm." (SSO, 14.5.98)

On Saturday, 18 July, NELSON MANDELA, President of the new South Africa, celebrated his 80th birthday. Throughout the republic there were huge parties including one in Cape Town opposite the infamous Robben Island where Mandela spent more than 18 years as a Black political prisoner. Lesbians and gays held their own very special party to celebrate his birthday and his support for their recognition in the new Constitution.

13) CENSORSHIP MOVING IN AGAIN!
Draft Guidelines from the Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC)  have ominous  implications for lesbian and gay publications and need to be fought at all stages. We may have come out of the closet for the best part of 30 years, but gays and lesbians have to remember our fight is far from over. Eternal vigilance has to remain a catch cry for us.

14) AGE OF CONSENT:
In England activist group OutRage has protested that despite recent equalisation in the age of consent (after all these years since the 1957 Wolfenden Report) it will not apply to gays in the self-governing dependencies of The Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. In NSW (oldest State in Australia, mind you!) we've got a government too scared after 14 years to equalise age of consent for us because they may lose next election votes. Have you had a go at your local MP in Macquarie Street lately? Why not drop your State parliamentary rep a letter demanding equalisation of age of consent with heteros?

15) WELCOME BACK
from Indonesia to Helen (Melbourne) and Michael and Danny (Sydney). All three were there during the recent political upheaval and the violence and rape which occurred in some of Indonesia"s big cities.

16) SPECIAL THANKS
to Christine Bird and John Witte for their donations to costs in producing the LGS Newsletter. The editors appreciated your support.