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25.01.2022 Out of the Archives - COYOTE COYOTE is an American sex workers' rights organization, its name is a backronym for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics. Founded in San Francisco in 1973 by Margo St. James and Jennifer James, It's goals include the decriminalization of prostitution, and elimination of social stigma concerning sex work as an occupation. These photographs document the COYOTE contingent in the 1989 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade come from an album compiled by Rober...ta Perkins, Australian sociologist, writer, and transgender rights and sex worker rights activist. The Archives holds important sex worker rights holdings, including material relating to Australian Prostitutes Collective, Scarlet Alliance, Victorian Prostitutes Collective, RhED, SWOP, Vixen, and activists such as Robert Perkins. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

23.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Onto the airwaves Archives' Committee Member Nick Henderson was on Triple Bi-Pass hosted by the wonderful Ruby and Alex this Bisexual Awareness Week, to talk about all things bisexual+ history, and Archives' news including our name change and forthcoming relocation to the Victorian Pride Centre.

23.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Queer Oz Folk The Archives' Dr Graham Willett will be speaking as part of the Interventions Showcase: Books for a Radical 2021 to introduce a new imprint on queer Australian History - Queer Oz Folk. A Q&A will follow the presentations. DATE: Sunday, 6 December 2020 ... TIME: 4-6pm (AEST) REGISTER: free, ticket includes Zoom link. See more

23.01.2022 Out of the Archives - 'The man who died before his disease had a name' "This man’s death was a mystery for more than a decade. Then a young doctor figured out what had killed him and rewrote Australia’s medical history in the process." This article, by ABC RN health reporter Olivia Willis was produced to accompany an episode of their Patient Zero podcast, which "tells the stories of disease outbreaks: where they begin, why they happen and how we found ourselves in the middle of a really big one." ALGA has provided a range of archival images to accompany the article.

22.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Wicked Women UNSW Galleries Curator Kelly Doley introduces ‘Wicked Women’, a sex positive magazine created for and by lesbians in Sydney. From 1987 to 1996, the magazine published 28 issues and two anthologies, each providing a unique snapshot of lesbian subculture at the time. The complete 28 issues are held at the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, 26 of which are on display as part of ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’. 'Friendship as a Way of Life' clos...es on Saturday 21 November. Alongside the exhibition, the companion program 'Forms of Being Together' includes a collection of talks exhibiting artists and guest speakers, including Archives Committee Members Nick Henderson and Daniel Marshall. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

22.01.2022 Out of the Archives - CAMP Women's Association Newsheet The CAMP Women's Association Newsheet was produced to document the activities of the special interest group of the same name within Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) NSW. Their name was chosen to cash in on the initials it shared with the conservative Country Women's Association (CWA). Key figures in its production included CAMP Co-President Sue Wills and Gaby Antolovich. The Archives' incomplete holdings of the ...CWA Newsheet are one of a number of lesbian titles that were digitised as part of the GALE 'Archives' of Sexuality and Gender - Part IV' database, which will be accessible for free onsite in the ALGA Reading Room once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, as well as from other subscribing research libraries. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

22.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1978 the Tasmanian Parliamentary Committee on Victimless Crime tabled their report recommending the decriminalisation of sex between consenting adult men in private. The Committee was chaired by Dr Julian Amos (Labor), who stated that the report and its recommendations were an accurate reflection of community attitudes; however, the Committee was split down party lines, with thee Labor politicians in support, and two Liberal members opposed. The repeated refusal... for the Tasmanian Parliament to pass laws decriminalising homosexual acts, led to a long drawn out community campaign led by the Tasmanian Gay & Lesbian Rights Group from 1988. Tasmania became the final Australian jurisdiction to repeal its anti-homosexuality laws, which were finally repealed on 1 May 1997. Image: Lillian Lowe, Tassie Report Calls for Law Change, Campaign, n.38 (November 1978), p.6.

20.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Bi Visibility Day The Archives recently acquired a small number of items documenting one of earliest (possibly the first) Australian bisexual group, in the Papers of Keith Stodden. The group was formed in Melbourne in 1975, and followed on from the paper on bisexuality given by Lyn James at the 1st National Homosexual Conference. The first meeting was of the group was held on 21 Sep 1975, Lyn and Carol Meade’s house in Glen Iris. The Archives holds a sig...nificant and growing collection of material documenting Australian bisexual history, from gay liberation era flyers and manifestos on bisexuality to the Records of GAMMA (est. 1977), newsletters from the flowering of Bi activism in the 1990s to material documenting the resurgence of bi activism in recent years. Find out more on our holdings via our website, or contact us on: [email protected]. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21. See more

20.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1989 the Revenge parties were held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as fundraisers for the Queensland Association for Gay Law Reform (QAGLR). These fundraising parties followed on from the first major public demonstration in favour of decriminalisation in Brisbane less than two weeks before, on 31 August 1989, when several hundred people demonstrated outside Parliament House in Brisbane. Opinion polls published by The Bulletin during at the time indicated that ...a majority of Queenslanders thought that private homosexual conduct between consenting adults should be decriminalised, though a majority did not support equal rights for gay people. The law reform campaign sought to make decriminalisation a key issue in the 1989 Queensland state election, which was to be held on 2 December 1989. QAGLR supported law reform candidates including Leo Baird (Electorate of Gregory) and Tanya Wilde (Electorate of Merthyr). While neither candidate was successful, law reform proved to be a key issue differentiating the campaign from the major parties. Following the victory of the Labor Party led by Wayne Goss, a review was undertaken into homosexual law reform. Goss' government largely implemented the changes recommended by the review in the Criminal Code and Another Act Amendment Act 1990, which was passed by the parliament on 28 November 1990 and received royal assent on 7 December 1990. However, the age of consent was only equalised to 16 years for all sexual acts in 2016.

19.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1972 Melbourne Gay Lib held a demo in City Square, billed as 'a unique treat for Melbourne’s busy shoppers’; find out more about that demo and Gay Lib in Melbourne via our online exhibition 'Out of the closets, into the streets': https://bit.ly/2Vn4RP4. Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

18.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 2017 Australia ‘voted’ yes for marriage equality!* (* ok, technically responded to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey). The Archives has been actively collecting and preserving material relating to the marriage equality movement since its inception, from posters to placards, photographs to tshirts, badges to rainbow letterboxes, and much more! For information on our holdings, or if you have material you’d like to donate, please get in touch: [email protected]. Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

18.01.2022 Out of the Archives New phone who dis? The Archives recently received the donation of a specially designed rainbow Optus Motorola International 6200 Wave from Dennis Muir. The limited-edition phones, in an edition of 6, were part of a ‘Midsumma Yes!’ pack for the 1997 Midsumma sponsor Optus in conjunction with Capital Q. Optus came onboard as sponsors of Midsumma in 1996, the first time an LGBTIQ community event in Victoria had gained a major commercial sponsor; their spons...orship continued till 1999. We hold a growing collection of corporate pride related objects, from beer cans to socks, bandanas to underwear, etc. find out more or donate: [email protected]. Support the collection, preservation and celebration of Australia's lesbian, gay, trans, bisexual, intersex, sistergirl and brotherboy history, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

18.01.2022 Canberra SpringOUT Pride Festival launched last night, find out more about their events via their Facebook page and website. The Archives unfortunately can’t make it to Fair Day this year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but Committee Member and National Film and Sound Archive curator Nick Henderson is hosting an online screening of Australia’s first trans documentary, the newly restored ‘Man into woman: the transsexual experience’, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director John Ruane, and one of the subjects of the documentary Chanelle St Laurent.

17.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1956 the racier sections of the Australian press were preoccupied with the decision of theatre companies in Melbourne and Sydney to stage productions of Tea and Sympathy. Truth trumpeted the ‘She-Male Play’, ‘Very Queer Brew’, and ‘Sordid Sex Play’, deploring its immorality and its shocking themes. And the nature of these themes? Tea and Sympathy tells the story of Tom Lee, a sensitive young man, suspected by his schoolmates of being a homosexual, because he pre...fers Bach to sport, and spends his time in the company of an older woman. The play was quite explicit in its treatment of homosexuality. Tom is caught swimming with a teacher, also thought to be ‘that way’. And there is something distinctly suss about the school housemaster, who is his chief tormentor presented as being altogether too hostile, for the standard Freudian reasons. Most of this disappeared in the film (which arrived in Australia in 1957). In the end, Laura, the housemaster’s wife, decides to fuck Tom, to prove to him that he is perfectly normal. The play ends with Laura unbuttoning her blouse and the line: Years from now, when you talk about this and you will be kind’. There is no question of this being a gay-friendly play. The whole point is that Tom is being unjustly maligned. And yet, it nonetheless spoke to many camp men, whose lives were as damaged as Tom’s, but with none of the relief of their being really heterosexual.

17.01.2022 Trans Awareness Week - Mx Margaret Jones In 1977, a young Margaret Jones composed a musical piece as a way to explore and express their feelings around gender and gender fluidity. Years later, Margaret named this musical piece 'Androgyne Prophecy'. You can see a recent performance of 'Androgyne Prophecy' here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LXuHBzcw1s&feature=youtu.be Years later, Margaret would become involved in advocacy for trans, gender diverse and intersex people in We...stern Australia. In the 1990s they attended meetings of the Chameleon Society of WA; in the early 2000s Margaret had leadership roles in TransWest: The Transgender Association of Western Australia and was a member of the International Foundation for Androgynous Studies. From 2001-02 Margaret was one member of WA's Gender Identity Working Party, which made recommendations for amendments to WA's Equal Opportunity Act. The working party recommended that gender identity, with a broad definition, be added to the category of protected attributes. The state government did not adopt this recommendation, and still only 'gender history' is protected in WA anti-discrimination law. Margaret has their own website with important aspects of trans history, including a great timeline of WA's milestones and organisations: http://mixmargaret.com/watgtsintersex-history-western-austr. - guest post by Prof Noah Riseman The Archives are marking Transgender Awareness Week by sharing items and stories from transgender holdings each day, continuing the ongoing commitment to the preservation of Australian trans history. #TransWeek, #TransAwarenessWeek

17.01.2022 In Brisbane #OnThisDay in 1967.

17.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1982 the first Gay Games opened in San Francisco. The opening ceremony at Kezar Stadium included the end of a torch relay, carried from the site of the Stonewall Riots in New York, and a performance by Tina Turner. A total of 1,350 competitors from over 170 cities globally participated over the 9 days of the event. Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was the brainchild of Olympic decathlete Tom Waddell and others, whose goals were to promote the spirit of inclusion,... participation, and personal growth. Event organizers were sued by the International Olympic Committee less than three weeks before the event, forcing a late name change. The Australian Team of sixteen was led by Peter Todd, who won gold in Men's Physique. However, it was in swimming that Australia received its greatest success, with Bobby Goldsmith winning four gold, 11 silver and 2 bronze. All up the Australian Team won 21 medals. The Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the first and subsequent Gay Games, including the papers of participants, Gay Games Sydney organisers, as well as Federation of Gay Games and Team Sydney representatives. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

16.01.2022 Recent acquisition - 'The rise of the versatile: gay male sex roles in Australia' (2020) Thank you to the author and former ALGA Committee Member Peter Di Sciascio for donating a copy of his new book. "In the last 20 years gay men in Australia have been undergoing a revolution in the way they have sex and the culture and community that supports it. The revolution has been happening largely unnoticed by those most affected. We now have a situation where the changes are not und...erstood or accepted, to the detriment of parts of the gay community. In this book Peter Di Sciascio delves into the past and the present in an attempt to understand the changes in sex roles and their impact on the everyday gay man. Come on the journey with him as he finds that gay men seem set to have to live with a more complex sex system than many want." Copies are available from your favourite queer bookstore in Melbourne Hares Hyenas. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

13.01.2022 Trans Awareness Week - Birth certificate reform In 1976, a group called the Study Group for Legitimisation of Sex Reassignment prepared a petition calling for the Victorian government to change the law to allow trans people who had gender affirmation surgery to change their birth certificates. It read: 'The humble petition of the undersigned citizens of the State of Victoria, respectfully sheweth ... 1) That persons having undergone sex reassignment operations find the Government Statist will not amend birth certificates. 2) That an unamended birth certificate prevents such persons from assuming their reassigned sexual identity. 3) That the Registration of Birth Deaths and Marriages Act, 1959, section 10, amended 22nd December, 1970, and section 40A allows alterations to be made to birth certificates. Your petitioners therefore pray that: The Government Statist be instructed to amend birth certificates for sex reassigned persons who furnish him with a declaration that such surgery has been performed. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray for your thoughtful consideration to their plea.' The petition accrued 315 signatures, and the ALP MLA for Footscray, Robert Fordham, presented it in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It would not be until 2004 that the Victorian parliament passed such a reform. In 2019, the Victorian parliament again amended birth certificate law to remove the surgery requirement and allow gender markers beyond the binary. Guest post by Professor Noah Riseman. The Archives are marking Transgender Awareness Week by sharing items and stories from transgender holdings each day, continuing the ongoing commitment to the preservation of Australian trans history. #TransWeek #TransAwarenessWeek

13.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1982 the 8th National Conference of Lesbians and Homosexual Men finished up at the Australian National University in Canberra. The program for the final day, which was written up on sheets now held by the Archives, included sessions on: Gays and trade unions; New approaches to counselling; Black, Third World, Immigrant and Refugee Gays; Gay and lesbian radio; Links with the peace movement; Australian Gay Archives [that's us!]; Australian Association of Homosexual Rights Lobbies; Gays and religion; Gays and the ALP; and The gay movement relating to the gay community. The Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the National Conferences, from archives and audio recordings, to photos and objects.Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

12.01.2022 National Portrait Gallery: Coming out of the Archives - In Conservation (online) Friday 20 November 2020 12:30 1:15pm Free - bookings essential... Celebrate the past as we chat all things love, intimacy and sex with Nick Henderson from the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Here we’ll explore some of their portraits and how archives are vital for our collective story. Presented as part of the Canberra’s annual SpringOUT Pride Festival (31 October-29 November 2020) which celebrates Australia’s most LGBTIQ-friendly city and its LGBTIQ community in all its fabulous diversity. Make a booking and the Gallery will email you 24 hours before the program with instructions on how to connect with us using Zoom. Image: Max, Claudia, Jamie, Lex, Phil, Alice, Roy, John, Lady Paula Howard (lower left) and Lottie (lower right) at Jamie and Lex's wedding, Kew, Melbourne, c. early 1970s unknown photographer, ALGA

12.01.2022 #OnThisDay 35 years ago the Darwin Gay Society held a fundraising Extravaganza, Bake Off, and a performance of The Rocky Whora Show! The Archives has digitised our holdings of the Darwin Gay Society Newsletter, also known as the Darwin Gay Informer and Darwin Gay and Lesbian Society Newsletter, for the Archives of Sexuality and Gender (ASG) database. We have also digitised Lesbian Territory and national periodicals that include information on the Northern Territory. These dig...itised periodicals form part of our 'Australian LGBTIQ Periodicals' collection comprising 150 titles and ~240,000 pages. The ASG database can be accessed by logging onto eResources of the National Library of Australia, State Libraries of Victoria and NSW, as well as some university research libraries, and post Covid-19 lockdown from the ALGA Reading Room. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

11.01.2022 Out of the Archives - "Their AIDS Crisis and Ours" With World AIDS Day coming up on December 1st, join the Archives' Dr Graham Willett TONIGHT for an online event presented by Thorne Harbour Health "Their AIDS Crisis and Ours", reflecting on responses to the AIDS epidemic in Australia. Date: Wed 25 November, 2020... Time: 6-7pm Address: Online Register for this FREE event via the link below See more

09.01.2022 Trans Awareness Week - Transgender Liberation and Care In May 1995 Jonathan Paré and Sharon Saunders convened the first meeting of the peer-led organisation Transgender Liberation and Care (TLC) at the Darebin Community Health Centre in Northcote, Melbourne. About forty-five people showed up to the very first meeting (invitation below). TLC became a one-stop shop for all things transgender: it was a support group; delivered education to workplaces about support for transgende...r staff; facilitated meetings with recently out transgender people as well as their partners and families; provided education for transgender people on a range of topics; and served as an information point for referrals and advocacy for transgender people. TLC continued to run in Victoria until about 2002. One offshoot of TLC was the Victorian Transgender Rights Lobby, established in 1997. That subgroup disbanded in early 1999 and re-formed as the independent organisation Transgender Victoria - which is still around today. - guest post by Prof Noah Riseman The Archives are marking Transgender Awareness Week by sharing items and stories from transgender holdings each day, continuing the ongoing commitment to the preservation of Australian trans history. #TransWeek #TransAwarenessWeek

09.01.2022 Vale Michael Bernard Kelly (1954-2020) The Archives were saddened to hear of the recent death of Michael Bernard Kelly, best known, perhaps, for his activism with the Rainbow Sash movement, but whose work and calling reached far beyond, as an author, educator, retreat leader, and spiritual counsellor. The Rainbow Sash movement was founded in 1997, to expose and challenge the Catholic Church’s oppression of queer people and the ‘contracts of silence’ by which the church operat...ed. Michael has described how On Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 1998, when the movement formally began, around 60 people were publicly refused Holy Communion by Archbishop George Pell. In Catholic culture worldwide this was unprecedented, and it created a media storm. It was a peaceful protest, but a powerful one that sustained many LGBTIQ people of faith and their families and friends. His faith dated back to his childhood, and at 17 he joined the Franciscan order, where he became disillusioned as his sexuality and his calling came increasingly into conflict. In later years he was a factory worker and a clerk and taught for 13 years in Catholic secondary schools. In San Francisco (the US one and one in Nicaragua) he participated in the movement against nuclear weapons, sharing the ‘gospel of liberation’ with campesinos, and ran retreats for people living with HIV/AIDS. Back in Australia he was living quietly on the Mornington peninsula until he was asked by a young friend to join him in wearing the rainbow sash. As so often in his life he said ‘yes’. As an author Michael's major works included Seduced by Grace: contemporary spirituality, gay experience and Christian Faith (Melbourne : Clouds of Magellan Press, 2007), Christian mysticism's queer flame : spirituality in the lives of contemporary gay men (New York : Routledge, 2018), and The Erotic Contemplative: Reflections on the Spiritual Journey of the Gay/Lesbian Christian (Melbourne : Clouds of Magellan Press, 2019), the latter being a study guide the accompany the re-release of a six-volume lecture series recorded in 1994 and published in 1995 by the Erospirit Research Institute. When Graham Willett, from the Archives Committee, visited him at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre between lockdowns, he was in good spirits and keen to chat. We were honoured recently to be entrusted with a small package from Michael containing sashes and clippings for our collection, which adds to a range of our existing holdings relating to Michael's life and work including an oral history recorded by Dino Hodge. In 2009 Michael was interviewed for the oral history / testimony project Portraits in Faith in Melbourne in 2009 following the Parliament of the World's Religions, for which he had convened an LGBT-focused session: https://portraitsinfaith.org/michael-bernard-kelly/.

08.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Recent acquisition The Archives recently received a generous donation of material from Peter de Waal AM relating to his involvement with anti-sexist men's consciousness raising groups, in particular the Sydney-based Men Opposing Patriarchy collective. This material is a wonderful addition to previous men's group material from Bruce Belcher and Gary Schliemann. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

06.01.2022 NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Livestream: Man Into Woman: The Transsexual Experience Thursday 12 November 2020 6:00-8:00pm Free - Bookings essential... The NFSA presents a free online screening of the newly restored documentary, 'Man into woman: the transsexual experience' (1983), the first trans documentary in Australia, to be followed by a Q&A hosted by NFSA Curator and ALGA Committee Member Nick Henderson with the director John Ruane, and one of the stars of the documentary Chanelle St Laurent. The screening is being held as part of Canberra's pride festival SpringOut and Trans Awareness Week. In addition to Chanelle, the program features interviews with trans icons such as Carmen Rupe, Roberta Perkins, and Noelina Tame.

05.01.2022 Out of the Archives - World AIDS Day World AIDS Day is held on 1 December each year. It raises awareness across the world and in local communities about the issues surrounding HIV and AIDS. It is a day for people to show support for people who are living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. Grab a ribbon, get involved at a community forum or head to a memorial service - visit your local AIDS council online for information on local events:... Meridian - formerly AIDS Action Council ACON Thorne Harbour Health SAMESH WA AIDS Council Northern Territory AIDS & Hepatitis Council Red Thread Queensland Council for LGBTI Health - QC The Archives has a long involvement in documenting, preserving and sharing the stories about the experience of and response to HIV/AIDS. For more information on our collection holdings relating to HIV/AIDS see our website, or contact us on: [email protected]

05.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Recent acquisition One of the more unusual titles received by the Archives recently was a single issue of ‘Gay vegetarian gazette’, n.2 (Winter 1984), included in a file of material in the Papers of Keith Stodden. This occasional publication was produced in London by the Gay Vegetarians group, edited and designed by Alan Wakeman, with the cover featuring a ‘gaggle of gay veggies at a recent Gay Pride March in London photo by Nigel Stewart’. No copies of ‘Gay vegetarian gazette’ are recorded in WorldCat, but copies are held by the Bishopsgate Institute (London) and International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam).

04.01.2022 Recent acquisition - 'Palely loitering: Growing Up Gay in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and Beyond' The Archives recently received a donation of the 2nd edition of Hugh Patrick O'Keefe's autobiography from the author. Most well known as the piano player at the iconic Albury Hotel's cocktail lounge during Gay Sydney's heyday, O’Keefe has stories to tell about everyone from actors Vincent Price and Julian McMahon, singers June Bronhill and Peter Allen, drag star Danny La Rue, drummer Keit...h Moon, Monty Python’s Graham Chapman and more! Copies are available from your favourite queer bookstores, The Bookshop Darlinghurst and Hares Hyenas. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

03.01.2022 #OnthisDay 50 years ago (19 September 1970) an article appeared in the Saturday edition of The Australian newspaper. It was an interview with John Ware, Christabel Poll and John’s boyfriend, Michael. It was this article that helped launch a movement that has transformed this country. John and his friends had, some months before, formed what was intended to be a small group to combat anti-homosexual misinformation such as appeared so often in the press of the day. The group ad...opted the name Campaign Against Moral Persecution (with its playful acronym CAMP) and dutifully wrote to the papers to announce it existence. It was this letter that led The Australian to do its interview. John and Christabel broke with all traditions by openly discussing their homosexuality, using their full names and allowing their photo to be published the first time any such thing had ever happened in this country. If their thoughts and comments seem somewhat conventional, even conservative, to us today, they were powerful stuff at the time and the effect was electric. Years later many lesbians and gay men still recalled the impact of opening the paper that Saturday morning and seeing this interview. Many responded with enthusiasm, writing to the group, clamouring to join up. Within a year, CAMP which had begun with such modest expectations had 1500 members, was a national organisation with branches and clubrooms in all state capital cities and on most university campuses. Gay rights was on the agenda in Australia.

03.01.2022 Kamp as Australian queer life in the early twentieth century Join the Archives’ Graham Willett as he takes you on a journey through our queer past. In the second of a series of Zoom talks on Australia’s queer history, Graham turns his attention to the first decades of the twentieth century. Kamps, queans and inverts, sapphics and lesbians abound. Cops and doctors, actors and tradies. Love and lust and well sometimes things weren’t that clear cut. But this was a new world. ...How did flats and the telephone and the motor car shape our queer lives? Wed 30 Sep 2020 6:307:30pm AEST FREE Image: Private drag house party, Melbourne, c.1950s, Tommy McDermot Collection

03.01.2022 #OnThisDay in 1983 Northern Rivers Gaywaves was first broadcast on 2NCR FM (River FM 92.9 Lismore). The inaugural broadcast was hosted by Mike Bray and Vera Bourne, and included poetry, music, news and social events, as well as an interview with 'gays connected with the 10th anniversary of the Nimbin Aquarius Festival'. ALGA is honoured to hold Vera's papers, which document her pioneering activism and community work in the Northern Rivers. Unfortunately, while we hold an extensive collection of LGBTI radio programs, we don't hold any recordings of Northern Rivers Gaywaves, if anyone holds copies please get in touch. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21. Image: Northern Rivers Gaywaves, c.1984 [flyer], Papers of Vera Bourne, ALGA

02.01.2022 #Flashback Happy Halloween from the Archives!

02.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Recently catalogued Recently discovered buried in an ephemera file for the 1991 Lesbian Festival (Sydney), was this great poster designed by Kath for a concert at Childers St Theatre in Canberra in 1989. The women only concert featured Sorrell (feminist singer, songwriter and composer from women's land, NSW), George (anarchist singer/songwriter from Melbourne) and Betty Little (Koori country music performer from Sydney). The event was supported by 2XXfm..., with a donation from each ticket going to Lesbian Line. The Archives holds a strong collection documenting lesbian music and events, but we're always on the look out for more material, if you have material you would like to donate please get in touch: [email protected]. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

02.01.2022 #OnThisDay 41 years ago:

01.01.2022 Out of the Archives - Farrant Street House Books Curator Kelly Doley (UNSW Galleries) introduces 13 of the Archives' house books from 69 Farrant Street, Adelaide. "This all-female share house was active from 1987-1993 with strong connections to the Women’s Liberation Movement and lesbian community in South Australia. The books record the comings and goings of a lesbian household at a time when communal housing operated as a cooperative effort of social and political action." The Farrant Street Housebooks are currently on display in ‘Friendship as a Way of Life’ exhibition. See more at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEI3ZV3DXkl/. Support our vital work, become a member and donate: https://bit.ly/ALGA2020-21.

01.01.2022 #OnThisDay 48 years ago: