#lgbt history in australia

[queerasfact]

NAIDOC Week

It’s NAIDOC Week in Australia, a week acknowledging and celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture.

If you’d like to learn a bit about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander queer history, we’ve put together a few links to get you started.

Peopling the Empty Mirror: The Prospects for Lesbian and Gay Aboriginal History by the Gays and Lesbians Aboriginal Alliance (1994) - an essay reviewing literature on Aboriginal sexuality, and discussing future of Aboriginal queer history

ATSI Rainbow Archive curated by Andrew Farrell - an online archive active from 2014 to 2021, cataloguing links from across the internet referencing queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences.

What do we know about queer Indigenous history? by James Findley (2018) - an article in which Findley speaks to queer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about their understandings and experiences of queer Indigenous history.

Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives edited by Dino Hodge (2015) - an anthology of essays and personal stories by twenty-two First Nations people exploring identity, culture and queerness.

We are far from experts so if you have links to more sources feel free to add them.

[nando161mando]

[jay-wasreblogging]

AN UPDATE TO THE PETITION OF IMPLEMENTING CLARE'S LAW (DVDS) ACROSS ALL STATES AND TERRITORIES IN AUSTRALIA - ITS BEEN SUBMITTED TO PARLIAMENT!!!

PLEASE SIGN IT IF YOU'RE AUSTRALIAN!!!

(a law that would require the disclosure of an individual's violent history to potential partners - more info below)

Samantha Cox, who started the petition updates below

Dear valued petition signers,

I am pleased to inform you that our petition to initiate Clare's Law, a domestic violence disclosure scheme, has now been officially submitted to the Parliament of Australia. I want to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing support and dedication to this important cause. Your voices have not gone unheard, and we are one step closer to making a real difference in the fight against domestic violence. As the petition is presented to the House of Representatives on the 11th of September 2024, I urge you to continue your support by signing and sharing the new petition. Together, we can make a lasting impact and ensure the safety of individuals affected by domestic violence. Thank you again for your unwavering commitment.

The new petition can be accessed via the link below of by going to the Australian Parliament House website and searching for e-petition EN6437.

Sincerely,

Samantha Cox

[saresmusings]

It takes balls to be a fairy, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras 1983

By William Yang With kind permission of William Yang National Library of Australia

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

A queer venue in my hometown, pretty popular with queer elders, is moving. It would be great if anyone out there can please help out with the move, through a donation. Even just a reblog might help a little if you can't donate at the moment.

[userdocumentary]

QUEERSTRALIA (2022) Episode 3 dir. Stamatia Maroupas

[aphantpoet]

To gays that “don’t need Pride”

I’m glad that you don’t, I’m glad hat you feel comfortable in whatever country you live in, so much that you don’t see the need for pride. That is a luxury so many of us don’t have. 

Pride in America was triggered by Storme Delavre and driven my Marsha P Johnson and Silvia Riviera. Two transwomen of colour and a GNC butch lesbian, some of the most marginalised and spurned groups within our community today.  They and people like them need pride.

It is still illegal to be gay in over 74 countries, still, Queer people love and fight and lose- these people need pride.

It is still not illegal in many “progressive” places to send a kid to conversion therapy, a dangerous and abusive practice that kills  That’s not even mentioning all of the anti trans and Don’t say Gay laws that are being introduced, laws that are designed to  target trans and GNC people. These people need pride.

Just because you have forgotten where the fight for queer liberation started does not mean everyone has because, for so many of us, that place is still reality. 

[violetscarnationszine]

Transgender people are not new, and neither is their history of oppression

I have found an article about gender crossing in 19th century Australia! This seems like a great jumping off point worth investigating further.

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids,

Here are some good things that happened in 2022!

January:

Canada bans conversion therapy

Greece allows gay men to donate blood (for the first time in 45 years!)

Israel legalizes surrogacy for gay couples

People in Switzerland are now able to legally change their gender without having to undergo surgery first

February:

New Zealand bans conversion therapy

Nonbinary people in Columbia are now entitled to a birth certificate with a "nonbinary" sex marker

Nayarit (Mexico) allows same-sex couples to adopt

Kuwait overrules a law that has been used to criminalize transgender people

Jowelle de Souza makes history as the first openly transgender parliamentarian in the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago)

March:

Chile legalizes same-sex marriage

 France removes the deferral period for gay men donating blood

The United States announces an overhaul of TSA protocols to implement gender-neutral screening at checkpoints

Wales (United Kingdom) bans conversion therapy

Kristin Crowley makes history as the first openly gay (and the first female) chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department (United States)

Diana Zurco makes history as Argentina’s first openly transgender newscaster

April:

Santa Catarina (Brazil) now allows nonbinary people to change their gender marker without having to file a lawsuit

Jalisco (Mexico) bans conversion therapy

The United States issues the first passport with a nonbinary gender 'X' option

May:

Greece bans conversion therapy

Lithuania allows gay men to donate blood

Croatia allows same-sex couples to adopt

Austria removes the deferral period for gay men donating blood

June:

Hidalgo (Mexico) now punishes people offering conversion therapy with up to 3 years in prison

Quebec (Canada) allows people to be classified as a parent (rather than a mother or father) on their child's birth certificate

North Carolina (United States) no longer demands proof of surgery from people who wish to change their gender marker

Spain prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status

Kamala Harris made history by hosting the first Pride Month reception by a sitting vice president at their residence (United States)

July:

Switzerland legalizes same-sex marriage

Antigua and Barbuda legalize "same-sex behavior"

Andorra decides to legalize same-sex marriage (the law will come into effect in 2023)

Slovenia legalizes both same-sex marriage and adoption

Ariana DeBose makes history as the first queer woman of color (and the first Afro-Latina) to win an Oscar for acting (United States)

August:

India expands the definition of family to include "queer relationships"

Chile equalizes the age of consent

In Saint Kitts and Nevis, same-sex activity is no longer illegal.

Vietnam declares that homosexuality is not a disease and bans conversion therapy

Ellia Green makes history as the first Olympian to come out as a trans man (Australia)

September:

In India, the State Medical Councils can now take disciplinary action against doctors who provide conversion therapy

Cuba legalizes both same-sex marriage and adoption

 Durango (Mexico) legalize same-sex marriage

Canada removes the deferral period for gay men donating blood

Kim Petras and Sam Smith make history as the first openly transgender woman and the first openly nonbinary person to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (United States)

October:

Latvia allows civil unions for same-sex couples 

Paraguay bans conversion therapy

Byron Perkins makes history as the first out football player at HBCU (United States)

Duda Salabert and Erika Hilton make history as the first two openly transgender people elected to the National Congress of Brazil

November:

Singapore decriminalizes gay sex

Singapore also lifts censorship of lgbt+ media

Hidalgo becomes the first state in Mexico to recognize nonbinary people

Ireland removes the deferral period for gay men donating blood

December:

 Barbados legalizes "same-sex acts"

Here is to more good news in 2023!

With all my love,

Your Tumblr Dad

[batshit-auspol]

June 2004: An LGBT rights group sailed to an island off Queensland Australia, and declared it a sovereign kingdom in order to perform same-sex marriages, which were illegal in Australia at the time.

This led to the Australian government formally recognising it as a hostile nation in order to ban pride flags from government buildings.

Despite this, Australian governments did largely act cordially with the Kingdom, with government departments addressing communications to "The Gay Embassy" and acknowledging the Kingdom's mission in a number of letters.

The Gay Kingdom declared peace with Australia in 2017 after same-sex marriage was legalised, and formally re-united with the mainland shortly after.

Follow for more batshit moments in Australian politics

[queerasfact]

In February 2017, Australian senator Eric Abetz complained about a rainbow flag flown in the Department of Finance, commenting that:

“...this particular flag is the flag of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, which has declared war on Australia. ... It is the flag of a hostile nation…”

In doing so, Abetz inadvertantly became the first Australian politician to acknowledge the seccession of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom, which was founded in 2004 in protest against Australia’s refusal to recognise same-sex marriage.

Check out our podcast to learn more about the Kingdom!

[Images: Eric Abetz, a frowning man in a suit; The Kingdom’s emperor Dale Parker Anderson stands beside a rainbow flag]

[northern-passage]

No Pride with Genocide!

You have probably seen the grotesque images of jubilant Israeli soldiers holding the pride flag on top of our scorched Gazan lands infiltrating social media feeds last week. The Israel State cynically publishes on its Twitter account, “The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza,” as it proceeds with its genocidal crusade and its concomitant Zionist propaganda campaign. We view these images with immense feelings of frustration and uttermost disgust, and we see through their despicable tactics of weaponizing homophobia and queer violence for colonial means. The following are notes from Queers in Palestine, elaborating on what such imagery tries to accomplish and what underpins their production:

1. Zionist Colonization is Anti-Civilization 

Colonial and Imperial powers have long used their fabricated lies of “civilization,” “rights,” and “democracy” to justify their plunder, military rule, and capitalist accumulation. We learn this from global histories of European colonization across Abya Yala, Asia, Africa, Turtle Island, Aotearoa, and Australia. The Zionist colonization of Palestine is no different. Oftentimes, the pretext of all of these bloodied invasions is that the “civilized” world is invading racialized communities to bring culture, education, and liberalism and instill it in societies it deems barbaric, immoral, and uncivilized. The images of the LGBT flag supposedly claim to bring rights and liberties to Gaza, but unironically, the soldier stands on top of the debris of hopes, dreams, and human remains of Palestinians he himself and the army he serves bombed moments before. The flag merely stands to reaffirm the simulacrum of colonization, death, white supremacy, and destruction. 

2. Israel Erases Palestinian Queerness

The images of the Israel Pride Flag and the other with the text, “In the name of love” send a clear message: Israel will not allow queer liberation unless it’s through its settler-colonial genocidal project. To that, we say No! We queer Palestinians have a vibrant, diverse liberation movement that is part of the Palestinian anti-colonial movement. For decades, we have been tirelessly working on carving up and maintaining a space for Palestinian queer life amongst our communities and not despite them. We are everywhere: in schools, streets, prisons, hospitals, and at the forefront of every confrontation in every corner of Palestine, from the river to the sea. What we are working towards is a Palestine liberated from colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalist exploitation.

3. Queer Opacity in Times of Hypervisibility

In a time when Palestinians are being prosecuted without trial, student movements shut-down and students in universities suspended and detained, and solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians at large are attacked and criminalized, visibility has proven itself to be a frontline of resistance against the erasure of Palestinians worldwide. In Palestine, Israel’s surveillance apparatuses hunt any expression for Palestine’s right to exist as grounds to attack, incarcerate, and murder Palestinian life. This over-fixation on the supposed lack of Palestinian queer visibility steers the attention from Israel’s campaign against all Palestinians – workers, activists, students, feminists, queers, and otherwise. Israel and its allies dangerously decontextualize the violence queers suffer from its historical colonial roots, and dissociate it from the impacts of current settler-colonial violence. This is an attempt to portray Palestinian society as unsafe for queers to legitimize the annihilation of our people, and in turn our annihilation as queers. Under Israel’s surveillance & police state, visibility, opacity and invisibility are survival and resistance tactics we use interchangeably, and aren’t always a matter of choice. None of us is safe under settler-colonization.

4. These Images Endanger Queer People Worldwide

The Pride Flag has long been hijacked and homonationalised. It represents a narrow and limited understanding of gender and sexuality and excludes the myriad of sexualities in the colonized world. This homonationalism renders colonized sexual and gender attitudes illegible to the liberal gaze and forces us to speak a language that compromises our experiences. Under nationalist and colonial regimes, our bodies and sexualities will always be regulated. What the pride flag has come now to represent is a commercial, imperialist, and white supremacist sexual ideologies, and this, in turn, puts us queer people in danger. This homonationalist project hinders our fight against anti-queer violence within our communities because our identities and sexualities are constantly being hijacked by the empires and colonies that brought destruction upon us. We need to reject such associations that only strengthen queerphobia in colonized societies, especially during this time in Arab and Muslim communities, when the soldiers and armies that are destroying our homes and killing our parents, siblings, friends, and children are doing so in the name of LGBT rights. 

5. Colonialism & Empire are Anti-Queerness

In the past, colonial projects sought to eliminate any sex-gender organization systems that fell outside of the European binary patriarchal model of man-woman. We learn this from the British criminalization of the Hijra in South Asia, or British and French social organizing efforts to enforce a binary sex-gender system in Yoruba Land, or Portuguese and Spanish efforts to eliminate “two-spirit” indigenous North Americans – deeming all uncivilized in need of external civilization. This was also the case in Palestine under British-Zionist military occupation, as same-sex relations and other diverse gender practices became criminalized and demonized. All the current laws in Gaza that criminalize queerness are, in fact, British and are upheld by Zionism. However, it becomes evermore absurd that rhetorics of bringing queer liberation to Palestine have been now hijacked by Zionists and, for the most brutal reasons, in service of annihilation of Palestinian life and mass destruction. We, Palestinian queers, position our movement for liberation alongside anti-colonial and anti-racist movements globally, and we stand firmly in objection to any attempt to hijack our movements, or exploit our bodies.

In the name of revolutionary love, a love which fuels our struggle for liberation and yearning for freedom, rooted in our love for our communities and our land; we tell you, there is no pride with genocide, and there is no pride in settler-colonialism.

Our pride can only come through true liberation for all, for us and for all the peoples fighting worldwide.

A Liberatory Demand from Queers in Palestine | Pinkwashing - Decolonize Palestine

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 14 June 2014, LGBT+ activists visited Cato Island in the uninhabited Coral Sea Islands and declared an independent Gay Kingdom in protest at discrimination against same-sex couples by the Australian government, which governs the islands. The Australian government at that time was attempting to change the law to prevent same-sex couples married overseas having their relationships recognised in Australia. One Dale Parker Anderson (pictured) raised a rainbow flag on the island, declared himself Emperor, and claimed the Coral Sea Islands as a homeland for gay and lesbian people. The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, as it was formally named, dissolved itself after Australia legalised gay marriage in 2017. This Pride month, check out our timeline of LGBTQ history in our Stories app: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/tag/7789/lgbtq-history https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=644214321085120&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[f1ghtsoftly]

All The Feminist News You Missed This Week 2/23/24

From a US Perspective

Hey all, sorry for the lateness, I had a deluge of stuff to work on for some projects/events I’m putting on in the spring and summer!! Will be back to a Friday afternoon release next week!

US News:

NYT profile on suggestive instagram accounts for minors, and the parents that run them.

Read Here (PAYWALLED)

Alabama: Alabama Supreme Court Rules That Embryos Are People

Oklahoma: Trans Teen Dies After Bathroom Beating

Relevant Context: Nex Describes The Incident In Detail Shortly Before Death

Ohio: Adult Film Star Kagney Linn Karter Dies By Suicide at Just 36

Washington: Women Win Class Action Against Tech Company Oracle

Missouri: Kansas City Unveils First Women’s Sports Stadium

New Jersey: New Lawsuit Against Glouster County Prosecutor Alleging Anti-Woman/Anti-LGBT Discrimination

South Carolina: First Federal Trial For Hate Crime Killing of Trans Woman is Underway In Columbia

Nikki Haley backs Alabama Supreme Court, Asserts Embryos Are People

International:

Australia: Woman Murdered by Husband in After Repeatedly Going to Police

Indonesia: Meet The All Female Firefighting Crew in Borneo

Tunisia: Oscar Nominated Film Depicts Women’s Radicalization By The Islamic State

France: French Film Awards Under Pressure Due To Sex Trafficking Scandal

England: British Woman Loses Appeal For Citizenship After Joining Islamic State

Japan: Women Participate in Traditional Japanese Festival For The First Time in 1,250 Year History

Want this sent to your email each Friday? Subscribe here

[satellites-halo]

Hi, can I ask you a few questions about intersex? I'm trying to inform myself more about this topic. it's okay if you don't want to answer, but could you recommend another blog to answer my questions? my two questions are why intersex belongs to the lgbt community and what is afab transfem and amab transmasc /genq

Hi I can totally answer this <3 thanks for asking so respectfully!

Discussion of IGM, intersexism, and transphobia below. It got a bit long so putting it under the cut lol

1. Why does intersex belong in the LGBTQ+ community?

Intersex people are often oppressed alongside other LGBTQ+ people. We are a minority in the world, directly challenging the idea of a binary sex and, therefore, seem to 'inherently' challenge a binary gender in a way that makes conservatives and gender critical people uncomfortable. (It's important to note that intersex people can be cisgender, though, and identify with a binary gender themselves.) Recently, Peru classified being transgender, nonbinary, or intersex as having a mental illness (warning for transphobia, homophobia, and intersexism in the comments of that article). We are seen as inherently disordered, inherently breaking the 'rules' of being cisgender and being heterosexual no matter how we identify, because our bodies are not 'normal'.

Intersex babies or children with 'abnormal' genitals are often operated on, having their genitals mutilated to conform to a perisex ideal. This was done to 'avoid gender identity confusion' and is still done today, though through advocacy and speaking up in larger communities (like the LGBTQ+ community), people are now more likely to be aware of the fact that this is not something these intersex children tend to appreciate once they are adults.

There's a lot to intersex history to look at and see how our rights are inherently tied to gay and transgender rights as well, so I'll just bring up one final example for this. In 1979 in Australia, a cisgender man who had been born intersex at birth and raised as a man had his marriage annulled on "the basis that an intersex man could not be legally married because marriage can only be between someone who is seen to be wholly male and someone who is seen to be wholly female."

2. What is an AFAB transfem and an AMAB transmasc?

Answering this requires me to go over some terminology. Definitions have been muddied a lot recently, and this is something I want to approach properly. I'd also like to say that I am transfem myself, and I'm looking at this purely from the perspective of what the intersex communities definitions of these are. I will not be going into other definitions of these identities or doing discourse over what is and isn't valid.

(c)AFAB = (coercively) assigned female at birth. Not necessarily someone who is female

(c)AMAB = (coercively) assigned male at birth. Not necessarily someone who is male

AXAB = assigned (x/intersex/neutral) at birth. This is almost never used in real medical settings, and is instead a form of self identification for intersex people or people who do not want anyone to know their AGAB for any reason.

I'm going to be focusing on AFAB transfems for this, since that's what I feel confident talking about as a transfem, but this also applies for AMAB transmascs.

An AFAB transfem is an intersex person who was coercively assigned female at birth, but either went through IGM, had a masculinizing puberty, or otherwise doesn't have experiences that line up with typical Female-ness. Due to this, this person may develop complicated feelings about gender and go on hormones, dress a certain way, go through surgeries, or present themselves a certain way to transition to female. Sometimes they go through name changes and get stricter with what pronouns they prefer (ex: going from being ok with having they/them used to wishing that people only use she/her). Some of these people see themselves as cisgender women, while others may see themselves as a transgender woman or transfem due to the shared experiences between them and MTF trans women. It's important to remember with this that these people are not claiming to be MTF, and should not go into communities specifically for MTF transgender people, but are still transfeminine in a uniquely intersex way.

Here's some language I think it'd be helpful for u to learn:

xtf- intersex to female

itf- intersex to female

xtm- intersex to male

itm- intersex to male

xtx- intersex to (nonbinary/genderqueer/agender/xenogender/etc)

itx- intersex to (nonbinary/genderqueer/agender/xenogender/etc)

intersexism- prejudice against intersex people

perisex/endosex/dyadic- not intersex

salmacian/altersex- transitioning to have mixed/unconventional genitals. this is not the same as being intersex, but is important to know since they are used to avoid people saying "I am transitioning to be intersex"

I think that's itt... If any other intersex people want to add on feel free to but pls don't bring discourse under this post 🫶 also sorry if this is kinda messy haha I'm rlly disorganized xP

[userdocumentary]

QUEERSTRALIA (2022) Episode 1