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The Third National Conference on AIDS was held in Hobart in the first days of August. 1400 delegates attended, with sex workers, haemophiliacs, people living with AIDS, Aboriginal communities, drug injectors, and gay men well represented.

There was a lot to be proud of at the conference, with community education and care efforts doing better in Australia than in many comparable countries. Dominant at the conference was the understanding that this epidemic is caused by a non-discriminatory virus, whose spread can only be fought by massive public education.

Right wing positions that AIDS is caused by faggots and junkies, and that testing, quarantine and "just saying no" are the solutions, were marginalised within the sessions, save for the shadow federal health minister, Wilson Tuckey, whose insult to the conference has been well publicised.

Evident still in many quarters is the idea that heterosexuals (white and male only) have nothing to fear in this epidemic. You can hear this line from scientists, from New Age journals (eg. Nexus), from liberals, from socialist sects, from hard-line conservatives (Podhoretz), from gay writers (Randy Shilts), and indeed from people living with AIDS (Michael Callen). This is the mainstay of the most serious resistance to the widespread public response to AIDS and to generalised safe sex campaigns. Fortunately, Health Minister Blewett took a strong line against this self serving denial.

A high point in the conference for many were the presentations by controversial New Yorker, Michael Callen, who was diagnosed with full AIDS more than six years ago. His political agitation in organising people living with AIDS, and his research into survival strategies are important ingredients in making people living with AIDS central in AIDS work in this country, rather than passive subjects of help, sympathy, and experimentation.

The irony of holding the conference in Tasmania, where consenting male/male sex carries a 21 year penalty was not lost on delegates. Several key speakers — scientists, church leaders and politicians — openly condemned the Tasmanian government for its failure to repeal the buggery laws and its prohibition of needle exchanges. The Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group organised a display during conference, and has begun a petition campaign. Meetings were held with gay activists from the mainland, and in the final plenary all delegates were obliged to mark a minute's silence in solidarity with their struggle.

Please support the Tasmanian efforts by circulating their petition widely.

Unfortunately Hiroshima Day activities were smaller this year. Unfortunate, because warships with nuclear weapons are about to arrive in our harbours, we are further than ever from dismantling the US bases, and uranium mining is protected by our conservative federal government. Nevertheless lesbian and gay contingents took their usual boisterous place in the marches around Australia. In Sydney and in Hobart Enola Gay issued a leaflet 'Money for AIDS, not for War" contrasting the massive spending on armaments with the shortfall in expenditure against the epidemic.

Delegates to the Hobart conference circulated the statement after one key speaker had derided the idea that the federal government could increase AIDS spending by decreasing other budgets. Enola members and other delegates demanded a cut to defence spending and polarised the conference debate. Gay delegates attended and spoke at the Hobart Hiroshima rally on Saturday 6 August.

This year saw a revived week of diverse activities to mark the international lesbian and gay pride celebrations. GSG held its tenth anniversary dinner with over 80 people at Erskineville Town Hall on June 25. A big thank you to our speakers and entertainers: Clover Moore (MLA), Paul O'Grady (MLC), Aboriginal leader Millie Ingram, Eve and The Forbidden Fruits, Canta y Lucha, and the Rev Oral Riches.

The July 1 rally at Parliament House was a success with 300 women and men. It was important to focus on the threats to our rights posed by the new Liberal government in NSW -- Summary Offences, closing of gay/lesbian services, censorship, backsliding on anti- discrimination protection, and so on. Initiated by GSG and Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, we saw this as a preparatory exercise, gearing ourselves up for a long period of political alert, a process that the Trade unions, the womens movement, and the Aboriginal communities have also begun.

With memories of the Section 28 struggle fresh in our minds, lesbians and gay men were more than happy to join Irish and trade union supporters in giving Margaret Thatcher a hostile reception in Sydney and Melbourne. On August 4 the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby banner was prominent in the rally at the Power House Museum in Sydney, and our strong and vocal opposition was evident in the media. Our Melbourne friends tell us that lesbians and gay men made up half the 1500 strong rally there that preceded her visit to Sydney, becoming a sensation in overseas and local newspapers.

A Gay and Lesbian Arts Association has been formed, triggered by knowledge of the struggle in Britain, and by the persecution of Sydney lesbian sculptor Cath Phillips. She has just been fined $400 by a Victorian court for exhibiting a work which ran foul of their Summary Offences Act. The judge decided that "promotion of homosexuality" was a contravention of community standards. This outrageous attack on an artist, and recent censorship of exhibitions in Sydney, are very worrying signs. A public launch for G&LAA will take place at Belvoir St Theatre 7pm on Monday 22 August. Enquiries to the Performance Space on 698 7235.

Legislative moves by the Festival of Light and its many supporters in both major parties to return abortion laws in New South Wales to the dark ages are being met by a vigorous campaign by the womens movement. It is important for all gay liberationists to mobilise for the march on Saturday 20 August, 11am Belmore Park.

The lesbian and gay youth refuge, Twenty-Ten, is one of our most important service agencies in Australia, one of our most precious gains. With the new NSW regime committed to family ideology, Twenty-Ten is on the firing line, its management, its target group, its funding all under threat. In NSW we will be fighting for many years to come moves to hand over autonomous and government social services to the large church charities. Clearly this means that lesbians and gay men will have less access to services that don't make denial of our sexuality a precondition for help.

We all need to put Twenty-Ten and its defence at the top of our agenda. Help circulate the petition as widely as possible.

The Latinamerican Club is holding a dance and drag show at 7pm on Saturday 27 August at Erskineville Town Hall. Tickets are $7.

A Second Asian Regional Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association is being held in Tokyo on November 20/21. Melbourne 3CR lesbian and gay radio people arc hoping to go; donations to help fund their trip can be sent to "GL Radio", c/- 3CR, 21 Smith St Fitzroy, VIC.

The annual general meeting and committee elections for ACON will be held on Tuesday 6 September. GSG supporters are encouraged to renew their membership (or join) and take part.

Our meetings are held on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at 8pm at Men Opposing Patriarchy, 4th floor, 56 Foster St Surry Hills. The next meetings are: Thursday August 25, Thursday September 8, and 22.

For more info ring 519 6469, or 211 0499 (10am- 6pm, ask for Ken).

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 26 APRIL 2017

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