tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/gay-and-lesbian-history-9875/articlesGay and lesbian history – The Conversation2024-03-12T02:54:00Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246452024-03-12T02:54:00Z2024-03-12T02:54:00ZWe studied two decades of queer representation on Australian TV, and found some interesting trends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581139/original/file-20240312-18-9l4no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C12%2C1353%2C754&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Television is experiencing a boom of queer representation, and Australian series are no exception. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X241236990">new study reveals</a> how trends in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary (gender and sexually diverse) scripted stories have developed onscreen over the 2000s and 2010s.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and ‘80s, Australia was considered relatively radical in its representations of gender and sexually diverse people. We’re <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X19876330">credited with the first</a> positive portrayal of a gay man, Don Finlayson (Joe Hasham), in the soap opera Number 96 (1972–77). </p>
<p>We also portrayed the first lesbian kiss, between Vicki Stafford (Judy Nunn) and Felicity Baker (Helen Hemingway) in the pilot episode of The Box (1974–77), two weeks before the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jun/16/bbc-stream-1974-show-girl-alison-steadman-first-lesbian-kiss-uk-television-pride">UK’s first televised lesbian kiss</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Australian TV drama The Box (1974) became the first in the world to show a lesbian kiss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRcY9GV7MI0&rco=1&ab_channel=kurvapicsa">Youtube</a></span>
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<p>By the 1990s, queer character appearances shifted to predominantly once-off stories in medical and crime dramas. But things have changed substantially since then.</p>
<h2>Gay and bisexual men</h2>
<p>Between 2000 and 2019, Australian-scripted television represented gay men more regularly than bisexual men. Specifically, our research found 44 series featuring gay men and only three featuring bisexual men.</p>
<p>Similar to trends in US television <a href="http://applausebooks.com/books/9781557835574">throughout the 2000s</a>, many of these examples focused on characters “coming out” as gay – a popular storytelling device.</p>
<p>While bisexual coming-out narratives were rare, one notable exception was the character Sammy Lieberman (Thom Green) in Dance Academy (2010–13), who rejects labels others try to put on him.</p>
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<span class="caption">Sammy Lieberman in ABC’s Dance Academy came out as bisexual.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1551948/mediaindex?refine=nm2964015&ref_=tt_mv_close">IMDB</a></span>
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<p>Although we found a prominence of coming-out narratives, we also saw an increase in already out characters. Previously, gay and bisexual men were commonly written <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1329878X19876330">into one-off storylines</a> in which coming out seemed like the only available narrative. Now they’re often shown with complex lives and other sources of drama.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Men-Caregiving-and-the-Media-The-Dad-Dilemma/Hunter-Riggs/p/book/9781032083759">avoidance of gay intimacy onscreen</a> remains prominent; we noted a tendency to use camera movements and cuts to avoid showing gay sex scenes. But some series are pushing these boundaries. For instance, season three of Please Like Me included a meaningful and critically acclaimed sex scene between Josh (Josh Thomas) and Arnold (Keegan Joyce).</p>
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<h2>Lesbian and bisexual women</h2>
<p>While there is a significant number of lesbian and bisexual women in Australian scripted television, they appear in fewer series overall compared with gay and bisexual men. Of a total 38 series, we found 32 with lesbians and 15 with bisexual women. Nine of the series included both.</p>
<p>Trends for lesbian and bisexual women often focus on characters who are assured of their sexuality, or who engage in temporary exploration as a “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-55598-4">passing phase</a>”. Coming-out narratives are rare for these women. </p>
<p>For example, Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson) in Home and Away (1988–) temporarily explores attraction to out lesbian Joey Collins (Kate Bell). The relationship isn’t mentioned again after Joey is written out and Charlie returns to dating men.</p>
<p>Alongside this theme of temporary attraction is a troubling trend of unnamed bisexuality, wherein we identified bisexual women, but the bisexuality wasn’t clearly named. </p>
<p>That said, we do note instances where this is due to a resistance to labels. As Bridget (Libby Tanner) tells Bea (Danielle Cormack) in Wentworth (2013–21): “Fuck the labels.”</p>
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<span class="caption">Prison drama Wentworth had several lesbian and bisexual woman characters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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<p>There are also several examples of lesbian and bisexual women raising families. In 2003, a two-part episode of Blue Heelers (1994–2006) focuses on a custody dispute between a lesbian couple and their sperm donor. These stories often incorporate themes of same-sex IVF and adoption, reflecting legal changes in Australia throughout the decades.</p>
<p>However, in All Saints (1998–2009), Charlotte Beaumont (Tammy Macintosh) – who is originally <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315876917-3/screening-dykes-oz-lesbian-representation-australian-television-rebecca-beirne">written as a lesbian and later rewritten as bisexual</a> – becomes pregnant after sleeping with a man.</p>
<h2>Transgender and non-binary people</h2>
<p>Until recently, and with rare exceptions, out gender-diverse characters have been largely invisible in Australian scripted television. </p>
<p>We found eight series with transgender women, three with transgender men, and one with a non-binary person. Within our study, only one of these characters appeared before 2010.</p>
<p>Most transgender storylines included some focus on self-identity, with the character either coming out or asserting their identity with others. Some stories also included romantic attraction, although almost all were in a heterosexual framing. One exception was Chris (Harvey Zielinski) in Starting From… Now (2014–16) – a trans man who is pansexual.</p>
<p>From 2018 onwards, all gender-diverse characters were portrayed by out actors who aligned with their identity. Before this, only Robyn Ross (Carlotta) in Number 96 and Chris in Starting From… Now were played by out transgender actors.</p>
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<h2>The emergence of queer story worlds</h2>
<p>Australian scripted television has moved away from representing solitary gay or lesbian figures, and towards more inclusive representations that portray queer characters belonging to a shared community. We found increasing instances of these characters appearing in regular, recurring and one-off stories in the same series. </p>
<p>We also found an increase in series that are set in queer story worlds. Outland (2012) was the first Australian series to feature an entirely gay and lesbian ensemble of characters. </p>
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<p>Similarly, Starting From… Now is a web series that follows a group of lesbian women living in Sydney’s Newtown. The final two seasons were picked up by SBS in 2016 and, along with Wentworth, contribute significantly to the number of lesbian and bisexual women appearing onscreen. </p>
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<p>The queer story world has been featuring even more from 2020 onward, in particular through digital-first and pilot initiatives for talent from underrepresented communities. These initiatives are giving more opportunities to queer creatives, resulting in series such as Iggy & Ace 5eva (2021) and All My Friends Are Racist (2021).</p>
<p>The appearances of gender and sexually diverse stories in Australian television continue to change. We hope our research can provide a starting point for further analysis of these decades and those to come.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Dance Academy to Wentworth, Australian TV experienced a boom of queer representation over the 2000s and 2010s.Damien O'Meara, PhD Candidate, Media and Communications, Swinburne University of TechnologyWhitney Monaghan, Lecturer in Communications and Media Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1991812023-02-20T01:06:26Z2023-02-20T01:06:26ZIllegal Sydney warehouse parties, lives lost to AIDS, and gay liberation: photographer William Yang captured it all<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510797/original/file-20230217-24-ivzg3s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C2766&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men at Ken’s Karate Klub, Kensington in 1977.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Yang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: William Yang’s Sydneyphiles Reimagined, State Library of New South Wales.</em></p>
<p>We are all photographers now, since the advent of smartphones and the selfie. So it may seem strange to be writing a review of an exhibition of photographs when, in their digital form, they are both ubiquitous and at the same time largely redundant.</p>
<p>William Yang’s photographs in Sydneyphiles offer the complete opposite of the selfie. Instead of the throwaway image, he offers carefully framed and curated portraits. </p>
<p>In his famous slideshow performances, he narrates the events behind the pictures and names the subjects so they are not forgotten or discarded. In doing this, Yang also ensures he is still part of the picture, just as he is a part of the community of artists and gay radicals he has lived among and photographed. He brings the pictures back into the present moment.</p>
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<h2>Alternative Sydney up close</h2>
<p>William Yang (pronounced Young but he says he doesn’t care anymore) is 80 this year. He has seen the alternative cultures of Sydney up close, in a way few people alive have. </p>
<p>He never goes far without his cameras, shooting social events over the past 50 years for the social pages of newspapers and fashion magazines.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510793/original/file-20230217-16-kwzkku.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Linda Jackson, 1976.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Yang</span></span>
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<p>Yang has an extensive visual record of Sydney cultural life, beginning with his first ever exhibition of photographs, Sydneyphiles. Sydneyphiles was shown at the then ACP gallery in Oxford Street, Paddington in 1977, documenting the mainstream Sydney social scene and the then illegal gay party scene in the years since his arrival in Sydney in 1969.</p>
<p>It is a priceless resource, as the State Library of NSW has recognised having purchased the collection. It has now been remounted in its entirety as a part of Sydney World Pride 2023. Pride’s theme, Mana Nangamai Djuralli, means “Gather, Dream, Amplify” in Gadigal language. It is an especially apt theme for this exhibition.</p>
<h2>Portraits and private parties</h2>
<p>More than 200 images, mostly portraits, are on display: celebrities such as Brett Whiteley, Kate Fitzpatrick, Jackie Weaver, Penelope Seidler, Robyn Nevin among many others alongside candid shots with titles such as “Men Fucking” and “Gary Injecting Junk”. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men sleeping on mattresses after a house party" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511003/original/file-20230220-28-o55iic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sleeping men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Yang</span></span>
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<p>Others with captions such as “Untitled no 1 (men sleeping)” reveal two naked young men spooning in post-coital slumber in the basement of a house party. Another image “<a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/doris-fish-queen-queens">Doris Fish</a> with man in bondage gear” shows the eponymous drag queen Doris performing fellatio on the man – viewers get much more than the label suggests.</p>
<p>Many are shots taken at private parties such as those held by <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/manly-daily/madame-lash-was-a-character-i-created-but-when-i-dressed-as-her-everything-was-possible/news-story/957a3497b55cac9ec213386731c68394">Madame Lash</a> in her warehouse. These pictures feature guests tied to a rack surrounded by crowds of party-goers. It is a part of Sydney’s recent cultural history that few people still alive have witnessed. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510795/original/file-20230217-22-njl1qq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Madam Lash’s rack party, 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Yang</span></span>
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<p>Many of Yang’s subjects were lost to the AIDS epidemic, powerfully captured in his photographs and performances in unforgettably moving works such as Sadness and Friends of Dorothy. That’s what makes this an important exhibition for Sydney in this year of World Pride.</p>
<h2>Gay liberation</h2>
<p>Yang’s work also features in <a href="https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/party">The Party</a> currently at UNSW Galleries, another significant exhibition of Sydney gay visual culture for Sydney World Pride. </p>
<p>This covers the years beginning with the inaugural Mardi Gras in 1978, a protest march for gay rights that <a href="https://www.mardigras.org.au/history-of-sydney-mardi-gras/">became infamous for the brutality of the NSW police</a>, to now. </p>
<p>The changes could not be more stark. Mardi Gras is now and has been for some time (for those living under a rock) a celebration and affirmation of LGBTQI culture and identity with the NSW Police participating. </p>
<p>Yang refers to these as the years of “gay liberation” and is justly proud of his role in recording this extraordinary transition of gay life from illegality to recognition and celebration.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-hidden-in-plain-sight-australian-queer-men-and-women-before-gay-liberation-155964">Friday essay: hidden in plain sight — Australian queer men and women before gay liberation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Open hearts and minds</h2>
<p>It was a treat to see him present the photographs to a packed house at a one-off recital at the State Library on February 10.</p>
<p>He has performed his quiet storytelling alongside his pictures since 1989 and was recently awarded a Life Time Achievement Award by the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle. The power of these simple shows, as Helena Grehan and I <a href="https://unsw.press/books/william-yang/">wrote about them</a> some years ago, is that they open onto “vast as well as minute landscapes of grief, love, loss and friendship”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510792/original/file-20230217-2564-brcvgt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Stiletto Oscars’ party at Kingo’s (Peter Kingston), 1976.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">William Yang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In presenting Sydneyphiles, the slideshow, he evinced a new level of quiet defiance and a newly stated sense of purpose for his work. He expressed “no regrets or apologies” for the radical lifestyle he so eloquently captures and an assertiveness of the value of his work in making the gay and lesbian community of that time visible. </p>
<p>He offers a valuable reminder of a time when these gatherings had to be held in secret. His work stands as a contestation and a refusal of this – and a softly spoken demand that our societies, hearts and minds remain open.</p>
<p><em>Sydneyphiles is at State Library of NSW until June 4.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-10-photography-exhibitions-that-defined-australia-166755">Friday essay: 10 photography exhibitions that defined Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Scheer works for UNSW.</span></em></p>Sydneyphiles remounts Yang’s 1977 exhibition, documenting mainstream Sydney and the illegal gay party scene.Edward Scheer, Professor of Performance and Visual Culture, Head of School of Art and Design, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1496892020-11-25T14:36:33Z2020-11-25T14:36:33ZThe Kenyan film director taking on the world – with positive stories of black life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368548/original/file-20201110-15-1pzluqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Big World Cinema/Afrobubblegum</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a 2017 <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/wanuri_kahiu_fun_fierce_and_fantastical_african_art/up-next?language=en">TED Talk</a>, the Kenyan film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1393967/">director</a> <a href="https://time.com/collection/time-100-next-2019/5718796/wanuri-kahiu/">Wanuri Kahiu</a> shared her mission to make what she called “Afrobubblegum” art. The aim is to contribute to a world where African audiences see themselves reflected in ways that capture a full range of human experiences. To go beyond agenda-driven single stories of war, famine and HIV that have characterised much storytelling about Africa. </p>
<p>Put simply, to tell stories where Africans are “loving and thriving and living … beautiful, vibrant lives” with the aim of creating among audiences a feeling that African lives are “worthy of more happiness”.</p>
<p>In 2018, Kahiu took Afrobubblegum’s aim and queered it in the form of <a href="http://bigworldcinema.com/production/rafiki-2/"><em>Rafiki</em></a>, a vibrant film that tells the story of two young Kenyan women who fall in love. </p>
<p>Same-sex sexual expression is <a href="https://theconversation.com/homosexuality-remains-illegal-in-kenya-as-court-rejects-lgbt-petition-112149">prohibited</a> in Kenya. The legal framework continues to deny the possibility of queer existence. In addition, <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2015/08/why-obama-blundered-by-speaking-out-on-lgbtq-rights-in-kenya">government officials</a> as well as religious leaders uphold a discourse of anti-homonationalism – to exclude queer-identifying people from the imagination of the nation. <em>Rafiki</em> was accused of promoting homosexuality and swiftly <a href="https://kfcb.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CEO-STATEMENT-ON-RAFIKI-RESTRICTION-27-4-2018.pdf">banned</a> by the Kenyan Censor Board.</p>
<p>Much of the international media focus has been on <em>Rafiki’s</em> ban in terms of the law and <a href="https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/kahiu-v-mutua/">human rights</a>. What has received less attention is the fact that, in telling an upbeat story of two women in love, Kahiu successfully achieved in 83 minutes something the Kenyan government remains unwilling to do: include queer Kenyans in the national imagination.</p>
<p>There’s a <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/lgbt-african-movies-moonlight-black-gay-identity/">growing body</a> of African films that tell queer stories, but <em>Rafiki</em> is one of the first feature-length films that fully celebrates queer love while also offering a glimpse of a future through the film’s happy, hopeful ending. This, I <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2020.1816931">argue</a>, gives the film radical worldmaking potential. And as Kahiu’s star rises, she brings with her a more hopeful narrative for Black life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7M_-ucSaFpU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>Rafiki</em> is the first Kenyan film to screen in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Queer worldmaking in <em>Rafiki</em></h2>
<p>Queer worldmaking describes the many ways in which heterosexual social structures have been challenged with the aim of creating a more equitable world in which queer people might thrive.</p>
<p>For some years in Kenya, a number of artists, writers and scholars have been engaged in worldmaking processes. Artists such as <a href="https://www.irex.org/people/neo-musangi">Neo Musangi</a>, for example, whose performance art <a href="https://kauru.co.za/neo-musangi-kenya-close-featured-artist/">challenges</a> gender normativity. Writers like <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-02-17/kenyas-gay-community-comes-out-one-story-time">Kevin Mwachiro</a> and the late <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2014/01/i-am-a-homosexual-mum/">Binvavanga Wainaina</a> whose writings on their experiences of being gay have effectively, in the words of <a href="https://time.com/70795/">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>demystified and humanised homosexuality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Like Kahiu with <em>Rafiki</em>, they have created a visual affirmation of queer existence that is often considered an important step in the worldmaking process.</p>
<p>There are several scenes in the film that are particularly significant for the way that Kahiu brings together hope and horizon in the plot and narrative. </p>
<p>In one, the lovers Kena and Ziki are alone on a rooftop discussing their plans for the future. Kahiu weaves together dreamy visuals with lingering glances as the young women gaze both at each other and at the horizon in ways that signal to queer-identifying audiences that there is hope for the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An urban street scene where two men on a stationary motorbike chat to a young woman standing in front of them and another young woman with pink hair extensions comes down some stairs towards them in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368544/original/file-20201110-21-1gusxl9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kena chats to friends as Zika approaches - their paths cross when their fathers become political rivals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Big World Cinema/Afrobubblegum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In another scene I analyse, the lovers are in a park, having fun in a paddleboat on a lake – showing queer-identifying people occupying public spaces around the neighbourhood. The Kenyan state’s official stance around homosexuality – that it is <a href="http://www.rci.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/429/feminist_africa_journals/archive/02/standpoints_-_unnatural_and_un-african-_contesting_queer-phobia_by_africagcos_political_leadership.pdf">“unnatural” and “unAfrican”</a> – together with the continuing criminalisation of queer bodies, makes this scene an important tool for queer visibility. It’s followed by the lover’s first date, in a nightclub. Here queer love and desire take centre stage in terms of visibility as they share their first kiss.</p>
<p>In the film’s final scene we see Kena standing on a hilltop. She’s just received news that Ziki has returned after being sent overseas by her parents as punishment for her lesbianism. In the closing scene, therefore, when we see a hand on Kena’s shoulder, we deduce from the smile on her face that this hand belongs to Ziki. In this way, <em>Rafiki’s</em> viewers are left with a glimpse of a happy ending that, to date, remains rare in the global queer film canon. </p>
<p>This, I argue, is truly Afrobubblegum in action.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-queer-literature-offers-a-new-way-of-looking-at-blackness-133649">Nigeria's queer literature offers a new way of looking at blackness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My analysis is not confined to scenes from the film. The <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/rafiki-kenya-banned-her-film-for-its-corrupt-lesbian-romance-so-she-showed-it-off-to-the-world">banning</a> and later unbanning of <em>Rafiki</em> by the Kenyan courts also created a situation where the Afrobubblegum effect could be observed in action.</p>
<h2>Beyond the cinema screen</h2>
<p>Kahiu <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/12/kenyan-director-wanuri-kahiu-rafiki-lesbianism-african-art">sued</a> the Kenyan authorities and won the right to screen <em>Rafiki</em> for a period of seven days. This is a prerequisite for eligibility for entry into the best international film category at the Academy Awards. Following the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45605758">lifting</a> of the ban, <em>Rafiki</em> was shown to <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2018-10-03-banned-kenyan-film-rafiki-film-tops-kenyas-box-office-in-limited-screening-run/">packed</a> cinemas in the Kenyan cities Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.</p>
<p>I gathered data from media coverage of the screenings. A good deal of this was from interviews with queer cinema-goers who had gone to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/09/28/652302785/rafiki-the-lesbian-love-story-that-kenya-banned-and-then-unbanned">watch</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a_avBsX60-s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Director Wanuri Kahiu’s talk introducing Afrobubblegum as a creative vision.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A pattern emerged of queer viewers describing their excitement at seeing themselves reflected on the screen positively. But beyond this, they described how, by the very act of attending the screenings, they felt a sense of community, friendship and belonging in a state where they are commonly excluded from the national conversation. </p>
<p>Nor does the worldmaking potential of <em>Rafiki</em> and its director end there. The <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/rafiki-interview-wanuri-kahiu-afrobubblegum-1202127697/">success</a> of <em>Rafiki</em> has helped Kahiu <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-tackling-adaptation-broadway-musical-once-island-1305121">land</a> <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/10/on-the-come-up-wanuri-kahiu-set-to-direct-feature-based-on-the-hate-u-give-author-angie-thomas-book-1234599674/">projects</a> in the US, where she is set to <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/01/the-black-kids-movie-wanuri-kahiu-director-gotham-group-1202843336/">direct</a> an adaptation of Christina Hammond Reed’s novel <em><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Black-Kids/Christina-Hammonds-Reed/9781534462724">The Black Kids</a></em>. She is also <a href="https://shadowandact.com/wild-seed-viola-davis-developing-adaptation-of-octavia-butler-novel-at-amazon-scripted-by-nnedi-okorafor-and-wanuri-kahiu">adapting</a> Octavia Butler’s book <em>Wild</em> <em>Seed</em> into a film. </p>
<p>In this way, her aim to tell positive stories about African and Black lives continues to inspire hope in audiences. Her work is particularly inspirational to African, African American and Black women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lyn Johnstone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It wasn’t just the film Rafiki - a joyful lesbian love story - but also the experience of going to watch it after it was unbanned that created a new kind of freedom.Lyn Johnstone, Research fellow, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1317812020-02-13T17:08:02Z2020-02-13T17:08:02ZHow my research into 19th-century military music revealed progressive attitudes towards homosexuality in a farmer’s diary<p>Recently, quite by accident while looking for something completely different – information on British military music in the Napoleonic era, to be precise – I discovered a remarkable discussion of homosexuality in the diary of an early 19th-century Yorkshire farmer.</p>
<p>Reflecting on reports of the recent execution of a naval surgeon for sodomy, Matthew Tomlinson wrote on January 14 1810:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It appears a paradox to me, how men, who are men, shou’d possess such a passion; and more particularly so, if it is their nature from childhood (as I am informed it is) – If they feel such an inclination, and propensity, at that certain time of life when youth genders [develops] into manhood; it must then be considered as <em>natural</em> otherwise, as a <em>defect</em> in nature […] it seems cruel to punish that defect with death. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This inference sparked solemn religious introspection, as Tomlinson struggled to understand how a just creator could countenance such severe penalties for a God-given trait: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It must seem strange indeed that God Almighty shou’d make a being, with such a nature; or such a defect in nature; and at the same time make a decree that if that being whome <em>he had</em> formed, shou’d at any time follow the dictates of that Nature with which he was formed he shou’d be punished with death.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As part of my doctoral research I’ve investigated many cases that reflect attitudes to sexuality in the armed forces of the period. There were many accusations of drummers working as prostitutes or rumours of their sexual involvement with officers. But this was something quite different.</p>
<p>A 45-year-old tenant farmer, Tomlinson resided at Dog House Farm on the Lupset Hall estate, a mile south-west of Wakefield in Yorkshire. His voluminous diaries chronicle local Luddite disturbances, agricultural life, and his attempts to find a second soulmate after the demise of his first wife. </p>
<p>A former Methodist, Tomlinson was an observant but ecumenical Christian – he wrote extensively on faith, love, death, and the political and economic affairs of his day. Although a few historians, including Katrina Navickas, have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/174587011X12928631621276">quoted from Tomlinson’s diaries in the past</a>, his meditations on homosexuality have never previously been brought to light.</p>
<h2>A chance discovery</h2>
<p>I identified the passage quite by chance. Returning by train from a 2018 conference on military history in Leeds, I decided to stop in Wakefield on a whim to view Tomlinson’s diaries in the local museum, having noticed colourful quotations from them in a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1750-0206.12249">book by Ellen Gibson Wilson</a> on the Yorkshire election of 1807.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the diaries had little to say about military music – Tomlinson was disdainful of patriotic pageantry – but his reflections on homosexuality, which I spotted while paging through the journals, stood out to me as striking and unusual for the time. I later decided to reach out to specialists on 18th and 19th-century sexuality to discern if my instincts were correct. UK-based American researcher <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/">Rictor Norton</a> and <a href="https://history.princeton.edu/people/fara-dabhoiwala">Fara Dabhoiwala</a> of Princeton University both generously shared their expertise, confirming the rarity and significance of my discovery.</p>
<p>The argument that same-sex relations were natural and innocuous was occasionally advanced in 18th-century England (in a <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/eighteenth-century-life/article-abstract/31/1/22/622/In-Search-of-Lost-Texts-Thomas-Cannon-s-Ancient">1749 tract by Thomas Cannon</a> for instance), while Enlightenment thinking on individual liberties and legal reform spurred calls for Britain to emulate its continental counterparts by abolishing the death penalty for homosexual acts. </p>
<p>Some men and women of the time who engaged in same-sex relationships viewed their sexual orientation as innate: Halifax landowner <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/37678">Anne Lister</a> justified her lesbian feelings as “natural” and “instinctive” <a href="https://theconversation.com/gentleman-jack-a-gripping-19th-century-tale-of-one-womans-bravery-in-sex-and-politics-116868">in her diary</a> in 1823. Utilitarian philosopher and social reformer <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/bentham/">Jeremy Bentham even expressed support</a> for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in various writings from the 1770s to the 1820s, contending that sodomy statutes stemmed from “no other foundation than prejudice”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gentleman-jack-a-gripping-19th-century-tale-of-one-womans-bravery-in-sex-and-politics-116868">Gentleman Jack: a gripping 19th-century tale of one woman's bravery in sex and politics</a>
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<p>But he did not dare publish such radical views. After all, this was an era when spreading false allegations of same-sex proclivities was considered by some commentators as akin to committing murder, such was the reputational ruin faced by the accused.</p>
<h2>‘Crime’ and punishment</h2>
<p>In an <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/twicken.htm">age of rampant persecution</a>, homosexual men in Georgian Britain were regularly executed or publicly disgraced, brutalised by hostile crowds in public pillories and forced into exile overseas. Tomlinson’s own meditations appear in his private diary, an intimate record of his thoughts not intended for a wider audience.</p>
<p>While Tomlinson’s writings reflect the opinions of only one man, the phrasing implies that his comments were informed by the views of others. This exciting new evidence perhaps complicates and enriches our understanding of historical attitudes towards sexuality, suggesting that the revolutionary conception of same-sex attraction as a natural human tendency, discernible from adolescence and deserving of acceptance, was mooted within the social circles of a Yorkshire farmer during the reign of George III.</p>
<p>Tomlinson’s reflections were prompted by reports of the court-martial and execution of naval surgeon James Nehemiah Taylor, who was hanged from the yard-arm of HMS Jamaica on December 26 1809 for committing sodomy with his young servant. Newspapers across Britain and Ireland <a href="http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1810tayl.htm">published accounts of the case</a>, reminding their burgeoning readerships of the draconian state penalties for homosexual behaviour. </p>
<p>Contemporary media reporting on sodomy cases, often couched in the language of moral panic, both reflected and reinforced social stigma against same-sex intimacy. But Tomlinson’s writings suggests that not all readers uncritically accepted the homophobic assumptions they encountered in the press. Disheartened by the ignominious demise of an accomplished medical man, the diarist questioned the justice of Taylor’s punishment and debated whether so-called “unnatural” acts were truly deserving of such an appellation.</p>
<p>But Tomlinson’s musings are still very much the product of his time. Although the diarist seriously considered the proposition that sexual orientation was innate, he did not unequivocally endorse it. Erroneously believing homosexual behaviour was unknown among animals, Tomlinson still allowed for the possibility that homosexuality might be a choice and therefore (in his view) deserving of punishment, suggesting that capital sentences for sodomy be replaced by the still gruesome alternative of castration.</p>
<h2>Wider implications</h2>
<p>Tomlinson’s meditations thus prove ultimately inconclusive, but nonetheless provide rare and historically valuable insight into the efforts of an ordinary person of faith to grapple with questions of sexual ethics more than two centuries ago. His comments anticipate many of the arguments deployed successfully by the LGBT+ and marriage equality movements in recent decades to promote acceptance of sexual diversity. </p>
<p>Tomlinson’s remarkable reflections suggest that recognisably modern conceptions of human sexuality were circulating in British society more widely – and at an earlier date – than commonly assumed.</p>
<p>I am thrilled to be able to share this exciting and historically significant new evidence with a wider audience, particularly during LGBT+ History Month. I hope the find will inspire other historians and students to engage more fully with the rich collections available in local and regional archives, while serving as a reminder of the serendipity inherent in historical research. </p>
<p>Sometimes the most interesting and important discoveries are the ones you weren’t even looking for.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited version of an article published by the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/arts-blog/how-i-made-remarkable-discovery-lgbt-history-mistake-0">University of Oxford’s arts blog</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eamonn O'Keeffe receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for his DPhil at the University of Oxford. </span></em></p>Matthew Tomlinson deplored the execution of a naval surgeon for sodomy, writing that the death penalty was cruel and unfair.Eamonn O'Keeffe, PhD Researcher in History, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1165682019-05-17T10:44:32Z2019-05-17T10:44:32ZSame-sex couples have been in American politics way longer than the Buttigiegs have been married<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272580/original/file-20190503-103075-6tfwz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sophonisba Breckinridge and Edith Abbott</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-00008.xml">University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00008, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library/Bernard Hoffman, photographer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since openly gay South Bend, Indiana, Mayor <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/us/politics/pete-buttigieg-announcement.html">Pete Buttigieg announced his bid for the presidency</a>, news outlets have been full of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/06/politics/chasten-buttigieg-on-the-trail/index.html">stories about Buttigieg and his husband</a>. </p>
<p>By highlighting the novelty of an out presidential candidate, such stories obscure the long participation of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/style/lgbtq-gender-language.html">LGBTQ</a> people in American politics. </p>
<p>U.S. history is full of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Partner-Molly-Dewson-Feminism-Politics/dp/0300046219">examples</a> of politically active people in same-sex relationships. As I discuss in <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/82kcs3yk9780252042676.html">my forthcoming book</a>, Edith Abbott and Sophonisba Breckinridge were one such couple. </p>
<h2>‘A life partnership’</h2>
<p>Breckinridge and Abbott met in 1903 at the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/78/1/357/758012?redirectedFrom=fulltext">University of Chicago</a>, one of the first U.S. universities to admit women to graduate programs. </p>
<p>Breckinridge earned her doctorate in political science in 1901 and a law degree in 1904; Abbott completed her doctorate in political economy in 1905. </p>
<p>In 1908, the two women joined forces at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, where they became <a href="https://www.academia.edu/27628670/Gender_and_Professionalization_in_the_Origins_of_the_U.S._Welfare_State_The_Careers_of_Sophonisba_Breckinridge_and_Edith_Abbott_1890_1935">pioneers in the new profession of social work</a>. At the same time, they formed a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886109912437496?journalCode=affa&">close, personal relationship</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274992/original/file-20190516-69169-rns7yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1046&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sophonisba Breckinridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2014686759/">George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking back on that pivotal period in their lives and careers, <a href="https://swk305.community.uaf.edu/files/2013/06/3againsttime.pdf">a former student mused</a>: “I wonder if they foresaw that they were starting a life partnership that would enrich their personal lives and make their professional careers so intertwined that they would always be thought of together.” </p>
<h2>Advocates for public welfare</h2>
<p>For 40 years, Abbott and Breckinridge conducted social science research and promoted social welfare policy at both the state and the national level. </p>
<p>In Illinois, they used <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012285645">research on Chicago’s Juvenile Court</a> to promote the nation’s first <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gender-Politics-Welfare-Reform-1997-06-21/dp/B01F9GAAD6">“mothers’ pension”</a> program. Established in 1910, the program provided financial support for single mothers and their children. </p>
<p>In 1920, they co-founded the <a href="https://ssa.uchicago.edu/history">University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration</a>, the nation’s first social work program affiliated with a research university. </p>
<p>Working closely with the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Right-Childhood-Childrens-Welfare-1912-46/dp/0252065778/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+right+to+childhood&qid=1557272721&s=gateway&sr=8-1">U.S. Children’s Bureau</a>, a federal child welfare agency established in 1912, they made the school a platform to promote public welfare policy at the national level. </p>
<p>Breckinridge and Abbott conducted <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102366088">studies of state welfare programs</a> for the Children’s Bureau. They also promoted its innovative programs, including the <a href="https://images.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/items/show/102">Sheppard-Towner Act</a>, which provided federal funding for health care for poor women and their children between 1921 and 1929.</p>
<p>Staffed and led by women – including Abbott’s sister, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Abbott-Reader-ebook/dp/B0170ZQCKY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=grace+abbott&qid=1557852986&s=gateway&sr=8-1">Grace Abbott</a> – the agency functioned as a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Female-Dominion-American-1890-1935-ebook/dp/B000SBKYVQ">“female dominion”</a> in American government. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274999/original/file-20190516-69169-1fcoo0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edith Abbott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edith_Abbott.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Responding to the Great Depression</h2>
<p>When the nation plunged into the <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/american-social-policy-in-the-great-depression-and-wwii/">Great Depression</a>, Abbott and Breckinridge focused their attention on national policies.</p>
<p>Breckinridge agonized over the plight of poor Americans. Years later, in a letter to Abbott, one of their former students vividly recalled a remark Breckinridge made about “being so troubled sleeping in her good warm bed. She seriously thought that she really ought to give it to someone who needed it, when the need was so dire and so widespread.”</p>
<p>In their journal, the Social Service Review, Abbott and Breckinridge called attention to “the inadequacy of private relief” and asserted that “federal aid” was “clearly necessary in this emergency.” They demanded <a href="https://www-jstor-org.weblib.lib.umt.edu:2443/stable/30009774?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“national funds for a national crisis.”</a></p>
<p>In 1931, they launched a study of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30010392?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Chicago Renters’ Court</a>, which heard cases in which tenants were subject to eviction for nonpayment of rent. They used evidence from this study to advocate for federal relief for impoverished Americans. </p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Memories-Abbott-Writings-Sister-ebook/dp/B013LO4EIU">memoirs</a>, Abbott maintained that Colorado Sen. Edward Costigan’s inspiration for the nation’s <a href="https://heinonline-org.weblib.lib.umt.edu:2443/HOL/Page?men_tab=srchresults&handle=hein.journals/guild5&id=144&size=2&collection=journals&terms=1931%7CCostigan%20Bill%7CLaFollette&termtype=phrase&set_as_cursor=3">first federal relief bill</a> was a conversation he had about homelessness in Chicago with her and her sister in the summer of 1931. </p>
<p>“Our schools are full of hungry children, our streets are full of tired and resentful men,” Abbott told Costigan. “The Renter’s Court,” she continued, “was a nightmare —- women crying, children crying, everyone in despair.” </p>
<p>Breckinridge gave Costigan evidence that he presented in <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001339337">Senate hearings</a> on proposed relief legislation to fund public work projects and provide direct assistance to destitute citizens. </p>
<p>Abbott also <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015004725282;view=1up;seq=5">testified</a> on behalf of Costigan’s proposed legislation. Calling attention to the shortcomings of state programs, she asserted that “the science of social welfare” demonstrated the need for “a national system” in order “to take care of all the people who must have care.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/federal-emergency-relief-act-of-1933/">Federal Emergency Relief Act</a> was passed in 1933. It provided federal funding for both work-relief programs and direct financial assistance for needy Americans. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/federal-emergency-relief-administration/">new agency created by the act</a> then hired Breckinridge to supervise a <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/n/ncosw/ACH8650.1935.001/267?rgn=full+text;view=image;q1=what+we+have+learned">national program</a> to train the first generation of federal public welfare workers. </p>
<h2>Promoting the Social Security Act</h2>
<p>Abbott and Breckinridge were long-standing advocates of what Breckinridge called a <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100478723">“national minimum”</a> standard of living guaranteed by the federal government. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1932">Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election in 1932</a>, Breckinridge and Abbott joined a powerful <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Suffrage-Women-New-Deal/dp/0674069218">“women’s network”</a> of female New Dealers that included first lady <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eleanor-Roosevelt-Defining-Years-1933-1938-ebook/dp/B00AFYO5ES/ref=sr_1_8?crid=WCGF0B5BYXB9&keywords=eleanor+roosevelt+biography&qid=1557853110">Eleanor Roosevelt</a>, Secretary of Labor <a href="http://francesperkinscenter.org/life-new/">Frances Perkins</a> and Democratic Party insider <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Partner-Molly-Dewson-Feminism-Politics/dp/0300046219">Mary W. Dewson</a>. The two used their connections with this group and with the Children’s Bureau to advance their aim of creating a comprehensive welfare state. </p>
<p>As Abbott explained in an article published in <a href="https://www.ebsco.com/products/magazine-archives/the-nation-magazine-archive">The Nation</a> in 1934, a “comprehensive plan” for social welfare should provide “adequate dignified relief for all in need.”</p>
<p>Abbott and Breckinridge worked with members of Roosevelt’s <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/ces/cesbasic.html">Committee on Economic Security</a>, created in 1934 to design what would become the <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/35actinx.html">Social Security Act</a>, which laid the groundwork for the modern welfare state, including <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/35actiii.html">unemployment insurance</a> and <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/35actii.html">old age insurance</a> – now commonly referred to as “Social Security.” </p>
<p>Breckinridge and Abbott helped draft the child welfare portions of the bill. They promoted a new federal program, modeled on “mothers’ pensions,” which became <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/35activ.html">Aid to Dependent Children</a> (later Aid to Families with Dependent Children). They also supported new federally funded programs to provide <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/35actv.html">health care and financial support for poor and disabled children</a>.</p>
<p>Breckinridge dubbed the day that Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935, “the great date of the decade.” Breckinridge was immediately invited to join an <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4jU3BKQlyRQC&pg=RA13-PA156#v">advisory committee</a> to oversee the act’s child welfare programs. </p>
<p>When Breckinridge was asked if she would be willing to attend the inaugural meeting of the committee at her own expense, she responded: “I think that I would crawl on hands and knees if it were necessary to try to be of service in connection with the Security Program!”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275001/original/file-20190516-69209-10wdhtb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food bank interior, King County, Washington, ca. 1934.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/fera/id/132">Federal Emergency Relief Administration Photographs, University of Washington Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘What a pair!’</h2>
<p>Abbott and Breckinridge never held political office. Nonetheless, they made their mark on public policy. <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/fbane.html">Frank Bane</a>, the first executive director of the Social Security Board (1935-1938), paid tribute to their partnership. </p>
<p>“In setting up the various relief administrations and Social Security, it was Edith Abbott with Sophonisba and a few others who gave us the greatest help,” he reflected. “Edith and Sophonisba – as the University of Chicago called them, A and B. – what a pair!”</p>
<p>Abbott and Breckinridge were not “out” as we now understand it, but neither were they “in the closet.” Rather, as was <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZUY0Y4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1">common</a> during their lifetimes, their contemporaries acknowledged their relationship without labeling them lesbians. </p>
<p>After Breckinridge’s death in 1948, Abbott received a flood of condolence letters praising the women’s partnership. Many pointed out that the couple’s personal relationship enhanced their political efficacy. As <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rWwbAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=zimmerman">Edna Zimmerman</a>, the state superintendent for child welfare in Illinois, put it: “You and she have shared a common lot these many years and your labors in behalf of human welfare have borne rich fruit.” </p>
<h2>Suffrage to civil rights</h2>
<p>The Buttigiegs belong to a long tradition of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Right-Side-History-Years-Activism-ebook/dp/B07H469G98/">LGBTQ political engagement</a>. </p>
<p>Lesbians played a key role in both the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Believe-Women-Lesbians-America-History-ebook/dp/B003ZUY0Y4/">suffrage movement</a> and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Partner-Molly-Dewson-Feminism-Politics/dp/0300046219">New Deal</a>. Gay men led the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VNKwvIWU5T8C&pg">1934 Longshoremen’s Strike</a> in California; <a href="https://qspirit.net/bayard-rustin-gay-saint/">Bayard Rustin</a>, who later became a gay rights activist, was Dr. Martin Luther King’s chief strategist in the movement for African American civil rights.</p>
<p>Abbott and Breckinridge’s personal and political partnership offers just one example of the longstanding contributions of LGBTQ people to American politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anya Jabour receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.</span></em></p>Long before Chasten Buttigieg became a ‘not-so-secret weapon’ in his husband Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, another same-sex couple profoundly reshaped American social policy.Anya Jabour, Regents Professor of History, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/919052018-02-22T06:39:18Z2018-02-22T06:39:18ZEssays On Air: On the Sydney Mardi Gras march of 1978<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206486/original/file-20180215-124899-1db4bz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marchers at the 1978 Mardi Gras parade. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sally Colechin/The Pride History Group</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a cold Saturday night in Sydney on June 24, 1978, a number of gay men, lesbians and transgender people marched into the pages of Australian social history. I was one of them.</p>
<p>On today’s episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/essays-on-air-48405">Essays On Air</a>, the audio version of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/friday-essay-22955">Friday essay</a> series, Conversation editor Lucinda Beaman is reading <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-on-the-sydney-mardi-gras-march-of-1978-54337">my essay on the Sydney Mardi Gras march of 1978.</a></p>
<p>On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, it’s worth revisiting the events of that night and reflecting on the remarkable lesson that, for oppressed minorities, there comes a time when enough is enough. </p>
<p>Much has been achieved, but it would be a major mistake to relax and assume that history is progressively improving.</p>
<p>Join us as we read to you here at Essays On Air, a podcast from The Conversation.</p>
<p>Find us and subscribe in <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/essays-on-air/id1333743838?mt=2">Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you get your podcasts.</p>
<p><em>Today’s episode was edited by Sybilla Gross.</em></p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Snow by <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/Cinematic/Snow">David Szesztay</a></p>
<p>Tom Robinson, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaSGdVUdV4">Glad to be gay</a>.</p>
<p>Mavis Staples, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcDpmzQh3YU">We shall not be moved</a></p>
<p>Podington Bear, Memory Wind, from <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Fathomless_-_Ambient/Memory_Wind">Free Music Archive</a></p>
<p>David Szesztay, Flash, from <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/">Free Music Archive</a></p>
<p>David Szesztay, Looking Back, from <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/20170730112627760/Looking_Back">Free Music Archive</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Gillespie is affiliated with The '78ers</span></em></p>On a cold Saturday night in Sydney on June 24, 1978, a number of gay men, lesbians and transgender people marched into the pages of Australian social history. I was one of them.Mark Gillespie, English for Academic Purposes Specialist, Anthropologist, Centre for English Teaching, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/874462017-11-15T05:08:13Z2017-11-15T05:08:13ZThe road to same-sex marriage support has been long – and the fight isn’t over yet<p>Today’s same-sex marriage survey results represent a moment of extraordinary change. It is well within living memory that homosexuality in Australia was considered a crime, a sickness and a threat to the nation itself. The final Australian state to decriminalise male homosexuality was Tasmania, as recently as 1997. Plenty of gay men still remember the fear of prison terms that shadowed their lives. </p>
<p>Plenty of lesbians still remember that, although their sex lives were never criminalised, the police and the courts found ways to oppress and harass them nonetheless. Many LGBTIQ people still carry the emotional and physical scars of brutal medical interventions designed to fix something that was never broken.</p>
<p>And yet, from the birth of the Australian lesbian and gay rights movement at the end of the 1960s, through the growing inclusivity of LGBTIQ activist politics in the decades since, we have somehow reached a point in November 2017 where millions of heterosexual Australians have chosen to tick a box saying “yes”.</p>
<p>In the process, they have helped a once demonised, pathologised and criminalised minority take a major step towards equality.</p>
<h2>Fighting for recognition</h2>
<p>There is a long history of Australian same-sex couples understanding their <a href="http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/marriage-between-women/">relationships</a> as marriages and <a href="http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/marriage-histories/">fighting</a> for legal recognition. But for many of the lesbian and gay activists who built the early rights and liberation movements, marriage wasn’t part of their agenda.</p>
<p>Feminist <a href="http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/not-the-marrying-kind/">critiques</a> of marriage as a mechanism of patriarchal oppression inspired many activists to condemn the very idea of wedlock. But I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to argue that the outcome of this survey began, at least in part, in the <a href="https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/a-diverse-state/out-of-the-closets-into-the-streets/consciousness-raising-groups/">consciousness-raising</a> groups, protests and parties of the 1970s movement.</p>
<p>Perhaps the greatest success of early activists was convincing queer people that they deserved better; to stop listening to the harmful lies that told them they were sick, their desires were shameful and they were destined for sad and lonely lives. Instead, queer people were told to come out, be proud and change the world.</p>
<p>This created happier lives for many LGBTIQ people, of course. But it also dramatically shifted how the straight world understood this evil “other”. It is much harder to fear homosexuals once you’ve discovered that the lovely women who live next door are more than just roommates. That the blokes who run the local newsagency are more than simply business partners. A generation of kids has grown up with gay uncles and trans cousins in a world where the idea of “queer” represents an expansion of possibilities rather than a terrifying threat.</p>
<p>This change didn’t come from nowhere. It is a direct consequence of people who burst out of the closet in the 1970s, then turned around and smashed the damn thing to pieces.</p>
<p>The other consequence of the early movement was a tradition of organising and campaigning that has stood the community in good stead throughout this survey.</p>
<p>I don’t want to romanticise this activist history. The LGBTIQ community has never been a neatly united entity, harmoniously reaching for common goals. Some <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/nn94xd/some-on-the-radical-queer-left-still-think-gay-marriage-is-bad-for-the-lgbtq-community">queer activists</a> still argue that marriage is a force of oppression and see this campaign as a capitulation rather than a victory.</p>
<p>But for me, a great joy in the last few months has been watching the campaign run alongside grassroots actions ranging from street marches to flying rainbow flags off balconies. All of these acts are part of a powerful tradition and elements of one of the great social movements of Australian history.</p>
<h2>Bigotry continues</h2>
<p>There are, of course, many good people who voted “no”, and who will be saddened by the outcome of this survey. For many older Australians, for example, I can imagine that any change to marriage feels like a loss. I hope they will come to understand that this change will not impact them at all.</p>
<p>Sadly, the “no” campaign was dominated by arguments soaked in bigotry. Although attitudes to lesbian and gay couples have seen extraordinary change in recent decades, trans people still seem to comprise a scary “other” that is all too easily demonised. As a result, same-sex marriages were barely mentioned by the “no” campaign except as some kind of slippery slope that would <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lanesainty/battle-of-the-mums">supposedly lead</a> to more freedoms for trans individuals.</p>
<p>Also all too often, an element of the “no” campaign was the idea that LGBTIQ people are a threat to children. This deeply harmful rhetoric has a <a href="http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/child-in-anti-lgbt-campaigns/">long history</a> in Australian life. “No” campaigners have demonised LGBTIQ parents and placed at risk the safety of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-10-23/marriage-debate-puts-kids-at-risk/9075384">children</a> in rainbow families. And they have risked exacerbating the vulnerability of young LGBTIQ people in schools.</p>
<p>Our celebrations are bitter-sweet. The majority of Australians have rejected these hurtful arguments, and yet the campaign has revealed how much work there is left to be done. </p>
<p>Trans and gender non-conforming people, in particular, deserve a greater voice and the support of the rest of their community, as do LGBTIQ school students. Also needing our continued activism are the gay refugees now trapped on <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/338468/gay-detainees-on-manus-fear-for-their-future">Manus Island</a>. These men were forced to flee Iran to find safety. They have been placed by the Australian government in a country in which homosexuality remains illegal.</p>
<h2>The personal is political</h2>
<p>Feminist and gay liberation activists in the 1970s embraced the slogan “the personal is political”, so permit me a personal reflection on this political moment. I’ve been surprised by how much this campaign has affected me. I’m a middle-aged gay man with an amazing partner and incredibly supportive family, friends and colleagues. I imagined that the “no” campaign would simply wash over me.</p>
<p>But I’ve been deeply hurt by so much of what has been said about people I love. I worry for the impact I’ve seen this campaign have on families. I’m angry that the validity of my relationship was considered an open question. I’m furious that every homophobe who has ever spat offensive words at me and threatened me with violence has been given an opportunity to place further judgement.</p>
<p>But I’m also incredibly proud. My community has fought a campaign that was overwhelmingly positive. Our straight and cisgender (those whose gender and biological sex align) allies have stood alongside us, offering their support in ways that I’ve found truly moving. And the majority of Australians has cared enough about this issue to find a letterbox and send in their “yes” vote. There is much to feel good about in that.</p>
<p>And so this goes back to the parliament, where it should have been resolved in the first place, and the next battle for LGBTIQ activists begins. It is only since 2013 that LGBTIQ people have been protected under federal anti-discrimination laws. It is now up to the prime minister to reject any marriage bill that diminishes these protections. Right now, it is the least he can do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott McKinnon was a volunteer participant in an advertisement for Australian Marriage Equality.</span></em></p>Given that only 20 years ago Tasmania decriminalised male homosexuality, the same-sex marriage survey result represents an extraordinary change. But there is still work to be done.Scott McKinnon, Vice-Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/797472017-07-17T20:05:13Z2017-07-17T20:05:13ZStrapped, packed and taking the stage: Australia’s new drag kings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176501/original/file-20170702-8514-1b657h4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some drag kings draw on facial hair to perform masculinity. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Sneakers</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Those with only a passing interest in gay culture will no doubt have heard of drag queens, aided by the meteoric rise of US reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race, which recently finished its ninth season. But perhaps fewer have heard of their corollary, drag kings. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1222&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177803/original/file-20170712-13828-1sf5vjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1222&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drag kings often get political.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fancy Piece</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A “drag queen” refers to a man, usually gay, dressed as a woman for the purposes of entertainment. Likewise a “drag king” can be loosely described as an individual (usually a woman, but also people who identify as other genders) who consciously performs masculinity.</p>
<p>Drag kings became a significant part of lesbian and queer women’s lives globally from the late 1980s. Events featuring drag king performances were an important part of queer culture: the performances often were seen as ways to explore gender and sexuality, and they commonly took place in gay- and lesbian-friendly venues. This meant that drag king events were often associated with “safe spaces” and formed the basis of thriving social scenes. </p>
<p>In recent years drag king performances globally have declined in popularity and were in danger of fading from our cultural view. The reasons behind this are many, including the fact that the debate around gender is evolving, and drag is seen by some as increasingly problematic. But recently, there’s been a resurgence of more inclusive forms of drag culture in Australia, and new kings are taking the stage. </p>
<h2>Games of thrones</h2>
<p>While both performance styles come under the umbrella term of “drag”, kings and queens have different origins and have evolved in different ways. The word “drag” most like comes from 19th century theatrical cross-dressing, and is now commonly associated with gay or camp comedy.</p>
<p>Traditionally, drag queens are seen as parodying the characteristics associated with women. We immediately think of drag queens with big hair and overdone make-up, and body language that conforms to stereotypical “female” behaviour (though not all drag queens do perform this type of exaggerated femininity). This in effect draws attention to what the 18th century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau referred to as the “artifice of femininity”, or the excessive ornamentation and self-display of women. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177799/original/file-20170712-14421-1ttvgpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fancy Piece ‘packs’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leo deLush</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Performing masculinity, as drag kings do, is arguably more difficult. Masculinity is perceived as more natural or ingrained than femininity, so drag kings can’t simply dress up but have to rely on other performance techniques.</p>
<p>Some drag kings “strap and pack” (binding their breasts to give the appearance of a flat chest and wearing a dildo or other similarly shaped object to give the impression of male genitalia). Others draw on or glue hair to indicate facial growth, manly eyebrows or chest hair.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177801/original/file-20170712-14488-xo3o8r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Performer Leo DeLush.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Debbie Draper</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some drag kings are known for their sexy, smooth dancing style, some for their realistic impressions of masculine walk, posture and gesture, and yet others for their comic renditions. Some drag kings provide for more politically-motivated critique in their performance, while others just want to get up on stage and have a good time. </p>
<p>Just as drag queens are associated with gay culture, drag kings are associated with lesbians, but not all performers are gay or lesbian. Likewise, king performers see themselves as distinct from other male impersonators, such as British music hall star, <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/vesta-tilley/">Vesta Tilley</a>, lesbians who dress or act in “butch” manner, and other reasons women might try to pass as men. Though, in practice these distinctions are more difficult to make.</p>
<p>Drag queens have achieved a ubiquitous presence at pride festivals and as a form of entertainment in theatre, music and movie industries for both gay and straight audiences - consider the ongoing appeal of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/stage/melbourne-stage/priscilla-queen-of-the-desert-musical-to-return-to-australian-stages-a-decade-after-premiere-20170626-gwylcb.html">Priscilla, Queen of the Desert</a>. Drag kings haven’t yet made it into the mainstream, and remain somewhat of a subcultural phenomenon.</p>
<h2>Golden age</h2>
<p>Globally, drag king culture took root almost simultaneously from the 1990s onwards in lesbian nights, bars and clubs in major cities. Many attribute the origins of a distinctive drag king scene in Australia to performer D-Vinyl’s earlier ground-breaking shows from 1999 and the drag king competition, DKSY, held between 1999 and 2000 where experimental drag artists, <a href="http://scanlines.net/person/kingpins">The Kingpins</a>, performed. </p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/28850610" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In 2002, drag king legend <a href="http://www.sexygalexy.com">Sexy Galexy</a> created a weekly event called Kingki Kingdom (renamed Queer Central in 2005) that quickly became an institution within Sydney’s lesbian social circuit. For over a decade, many of Australia’s drag king royalty mounted the stage at such events, including Melbourne-based <a href="https://www.facebook.com/roccodamore.dragking/">Rocco D'Amore</a>, burlesque performer Lillian Starr as drag king <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lillian.starr">John Dark</a>, queer performance duo <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fancypieceproductions">Fancy Piece</a>, and debonair gender illusionist <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Jayvante-Swing-119938238140466">Jayvante Swing</a>. Local drag king scenes developed in other capital cities within Australia owing to the passion and commitment of a large and rotating cast of amateur and professional performers, producers and promoters.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177800/original/file-20170712-3087-9uek2q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Sparrow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ann-Marie Calilhanna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the drag king has faded from the thriving scenes he supported in Australia in the <a href="https://clockinoff.com/2017/06/11/fading-out-sydneys-drag-kings/">first decade of the 2000s</a>. It’s difficult to pinpoint a single explanation or common source behind the scene’s demise, though it is clear that a number of factors are at work. </p>
<p><a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/death-of-the-gayborhood-queer-aging-in-the-time-of-gentrification">Gentrification</a>, and the economic instability of <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/20/why_do_lesbian_spaces_have_such_a_hard_time_staying_in_business.html">commercial ventures for women</a>, has seen a number of formerly iconic <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/opinion/sunday/i-want-my-lesbian-bars-back.html">lesbian clubs and bars close worldwide</a> or be co-opted into <a href="http://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/the-death-of-australias-lesbian-party-culture?utm_source=vicefbanz">mainstream party scenes</a>. </p>
<p>There are also important questions about <a href="http://www.wweek.com/culture/2016/11/30/who-crushed-the-lesbian-bars-a-new-minefield-of-sexual-politics/">language and identity</a>. For example, the word “queer” is increasingly replacing the word “lesbian, as it is seen as <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/20/why_curve_lesbian_magazine_will_not_drop_the_l_word_from_its_tagline.html">more inclusive</a> to other forms of female desire. Drag also sits uneasily with the emerging presence of <a href="http://heapsgay.com/the-complex-conflict-between-drag-culture-and-trans-women/">trans and gender-diverse people</a>, which may conflict with the performance of gender for comedy. </p>
<p>It may also simply be that those who attended drag king performances a decade ago are now of an age where going out mid-week to late night events has lost its appeal. </p>
<h2>New kings</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177807/original/file-20170712-14428-dreyvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sexy Galexy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer Belinda Roland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But there’s recently been a resurgence in drag king culture. New events have started in <a href="http://heapsgay.com/">Sydney</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ladydragmelbourne/">Melbourne</a>. Sydney Heaps Gay organiser Kat Dopper feels there was a demand from younger queer women for a specific platform to try out drag. In Melbourne, well-known drag performer <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sexygalexydragking/">Lexi Leigh</a> bills <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ladydragmelbourne/">Lady Drag</a> as "drag disco” that celebrates a diversifying drag community. </p>
<p>Combining drag queens and kings, Leigh has been a vocal advocate for evolving drag performance art. Even <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-05/darwin-bio-queen-prawn-cracker-spice-emerges/7901406?WT.ac=statenews_nt">Darwin</a> has seen an emerging bio-queen scene —where people who identify as female and “biological women” perform as drag queens — in its established drag culture.</p>
<p>Drag culture more generally seems to be becoming more experimental and inclusive. It’s not just <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_au/article/meet-5-drag-kings-challenging-gender-expectations">drag kings who must change with the times</a>. Drag queen culture is experimenting with <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/drag-queen-series-rupaul-drag-race-20-photos-style-clothes-fashion-fernando-cysneiros-experiment-a7584316.html">new forms</a> that don’t rely on <a href="https://theestablishment.co/why-faux-queens-deserve-a-place-in-drag-culture-ab0d6204734c">rigid gender identification and expression</a>. Even drag’s more mainstream counterparts are responding to this call: RuPaul’s Drag Race’s ninth season marked the first time an openly trans woman performed as a drag queen contestant.</p>
<p>The success of these new events in Australia perhaps heralds a more permanent king fixture on the party scene. In becoming more inclusive, Australia may soon see a return of the king.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerryn Drysdale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Drags kings have recently been declining in popularity, partly due to the evolving debate around gender and identity. But now a new and more inclusive drag culture is taking the stage.Kerryn Drysdale, Research associate, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511482015-11-30T12:14:42Z2015-11-30T12:14:42ZCarol review: stunning 1950s tale of two women in love<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103436/original/image-20151127-11640-14f5yz1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Carol and Therese in the store at Christmas time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">STUDIOCANAL</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An insistent clamour of bells and horns recurs throughout Carol, evoking the stifling, heavy atmosphere of conformity that overlay early 1950s America. An older woman, the wealthy, strikingly beautiful Carol (Cate Blanchett), starts an affair with young salesgirl and aspiring photographer, Therese (Rooney Mara). Carol is going through a divorce from her heavy-set, WASP-y husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler) – and at first it’s far from clear what either woman wants from the relationship. </p>
<p>The two meet in the toy department of a large store, where Carol is looking for a particular doll for her daughter, Rindy’s, Christmas present. In the event, the doll has sold out and Therese persuades Carol to buy her daughter a train set instead. But Carol leaves her gloves on the counter and, when Therese mails them back to her, Carol – for reasons that are delicately opaque – phones the department store to ask Therese if she can take her to lunch as a thank you. For Carol, though, the affair will turn out to be dangerous: her husband sets out to use evidence of her “moral failing” to claim sole custody of Rindy. </p>
<p>Carol is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-national-book-review/essay-patricia-highsmiths_b_8643554.html">The Price of Salt</a>, which incorporated semi-autobiographical elements. The novel was originally published under the pseudonym Claire Morgan: 1950s America was not a time for an aspiring author to publish such a novel under her own name. Though it is not explicitly mentioned in the film, the 1950s saw the frenzy of McCarthyism sweep America – and homosexuality was almost as bad as communism in the eyes of McCarthy’s witch-hunters.</p>
<p>This was a period when different understandings of homosexuality could come into conflict. It could be seen as a “moral” (or immoral) choice. It could also be seen as a mental deficiency or illness – and by that definition, it could perhaps be “cured”. In one of the most moving scenes of the film, Carol’s lawyer seeks to suggest that through psychotherapy, she has in fact been “cured”, and is once more fit to have custody of Rindy. Much hinges in the emotional economy of the film on whether Carol will tell this lie about herself. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103455/original/image-20151127-11600-8lrof3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cate Blanchett is superb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STUDIOCANAL</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lurid novels</h2>
<p>Though Highsmith published in 1952 under a pseudonym, novels about lesbianism were not as uncommon as we might expect in 1950s America. In fact, there were many lurid “pulp” fiction examples, the (ostensible) purpose of which was to warn women that lesbianism was perverted, degenerate, or evil; that lesbians ended up lost, lonely, and suicidal; that they were wracked by self-loathing. Typical were lines such as this from Edwin West’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZVbtBgAAQBAJ">Young and Innocent</a>, published in 1960: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A sword of self-revulsion, carefully shielded, slipped its scabbard now for one second to stab deeply to the exposed core of her lesbianism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea of lesbian love as a doomed affair appears earlier, too. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/02/books.gayrights">The Well of Loneliness</a>, a 1928 novel by British author Radclyffe Hall, presented lesbianism (or “inversion” as Hall thought of it) as natural, and not deserving of persecution. Yet Hall seemed to call on her audience to pity the unfortunate invert, who has only loneliness to look forward to.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-national-book-review/essay-patricia-highsmiths_b_8643554.html">The Price of Salt</a> – and, in the same way, Carol – avoids the faded trope of doomed lesbian love. This was what made The Price of Salt different from the “pulp” lesbian fiction of the 1950s. Exquisitely paced, the film does not attempt to offer a complete resolution; we dwell with the characters as their love affair unfolds, and witness in its full horror the consequences which follow for both. And without revealing too much, we’re left with a glimmer of the potential for future happiness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103456/original/image-20151127-11637-1c2hdvs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rooney Mara.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STUDIOCANAL</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spurning stereotypes</h2>
<p>But Carol isn’t just a film about lesbian love in the 1950s – it powerfully evokes the restrictions placed on all women in the America of that time. Gender shapes every aspect of Carol and Therese’s lives.</p>
<p>When the two women meet in the toy department, Carol is looking for a particular doll for Rindy, and Therese informs her of the doll’s attractive features: among them, the fact that it wees itself. Thus are little girls prepared for their role in life. </p>
<p>Later, Therese visits Carol at her home in New Jersey. There are lingering shots of the imposing house in the snow, the elegant drawing room with its tasteful Christmas tree, Carol wrapping Rindy’s train set by the fire, all serving to show us how little sense these scenes make when peopled by two women. These are the idealised images of an American family Christmas. They only work with a man in the picture, or about to arrive home, jovial and commanding, from a long day at work in the city. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103454/original/image-20151127-11618-lz0a81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Familiar scene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STUDIOCANAL</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It would have been easy to portray this missing man, Carol’s husband Harge, as nothing more than the stereotypically domineering, brutish husband. But this doesn’t happen. Even as he bullies and commands and demands and coerces, we get glimpses of his suffering, too. He appears to us as a man cut off from his emotions, and now suddenly, painfully deprived of one of the most important coordinates of his masculinity: his beautiful wife.</p>
<p>The film also does well not to present Carol and Therese as existing in a world with no lesbian subcultures. 1950s America was, despite (or perhaps because of) its frenzies of homophobia, the backdrop for the development of more clearly defined and self-conscious subcultures than had ever existed before. When Therese is checked out by two fashionably dressed young women, we get a glimpse into a hidden world where lesbians met each other relatively openly – playing on softball teams or frequenting gay bars.</p>
<p>In the end, though, this is really a film about Carol and Therese and the slow, cautious, confused, confusing unfolding of their love for each other. It is also about how they constitute themselves as individuals in a culture which attempts to profoundly restrict their ability as women to do that. </p>
<p>In not falling into any of the stereotypes or traps to be expected from it, Carol is highly, highly commended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Carol doesn’t fall into any of the stereotypes we’ve come to expect from portrayals of lesbians on screen. Watch it.Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, Lecturer in History, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/382852015-03-04T19:25:58Z2015-03-04T19:25:58ZDykes on Bikes and the long road to Mardi Gras<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73767/original/image-20150304-7328-k21tq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dykes on Bikes have been opening the Sydney Mardi Gras since 1988.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Choi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.mardigras.org.au/">Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras </a> festival is here again. </p>
<p>The festival’s pinnacle and most attended event, the Parade, will see hundreds of thousands flocking to Sydney’s Oxford Street this Saturday for a mix of politics, revealing costumes, buffed bodies, flamboyance and celebration. </p>
<p>As is tradition, the sounds of more than 100 Dykes on Bikes revving their engines and blasting their horns will mark the beginning of the party.</p>
<p>For the Queensland Dykes on Bikes, however, Mardi Gras is about more than leading the parade and attending parties.</p>
<p>Much interest in Mardi Gras is given to its historical legacy, to commodification and to questions of political identity. Seeking to build on these conversations, for the past three years I have been documenting the personal stories of those who travel vast distances each year to attend this event. </p>
<p>As part of this research, in a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00049182.2014.986787#abstract">new article</a>, published in Australian Geographer, I sought to examine the complex relations between the Queensland Dykes on Bikes and the Mardi Gras Parade.</p>
<h2>Dykes on Bikes – a brief history</h2>
<p>Who are the Dykes on Bikes? And what is their connection to Mardi Gras?</p>
<p>The Dykes on Bikes is an international group for women who ride. </p>
<p>In a subculture dominated by masculine working-class identities, the Dykes on Bikes play with femininities and masculinities through motorcycle skills, dress and riding styles. These performances challenge dominant sexual and cultural expectations of what a woman is and what a woman can do. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73559/original/image-20150303-15987-1majvxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dykes on Bikes will start the Sydney Mardi Gras parade this weekend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Choi/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to dominant conceptualisations of motorbike riding as synonymous with freedom, escape and individuality, the Dykes on Bikes celebrate and value notions of a collective identity and a sense of belonging. These are forged through the enforced rules and codes of the Chapter, and ideas of sticking and riding together.</p>
<p>The Dykes on Bike identity is not felt through following codes of membership alone; becoming, and remaining, a Dyke on Bike also occurs through riding together and leading pride parades.</p>
<p>The Dykes on Bikes and pride parades are historically entangled. </p>
<p>The group first formed at the 1976 San Francisco Pride Parade when a small group of women motorbike riders informally came together to ride as part of the parade. One of these first riders is said to have coined the phrase “Dykes on Bikes”. Receiving traction in the media the group rode with the name. Growing in numbers the group became formally structured in the mid-1980s. </p>
<p>Today there are 22 chapters internationally, three of which are located in Australia (Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne); all of which are governed by the San Francisco Chapter. In 2003, the group changed its official name to the Women’s Motorcycle Contingent/ Dykes on Bikes. This move aimed to overcome simplistic understandings that all women who ride motorbikes are “dykes”.</p>
<p>Inspired by the original Dykes on Bikes leading of the 1987 San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Day Parade, the 1988 Mardi Gras Parade saw the arrival of the first Australian Dykes on Bikes.</p>
<h2>The road to Mardi Gras</h2>
<p>Today, around 20 Queensland Dykes on Bikes members ride annually from Brisbane to Sydney for Mardi Gras. The return journey is 1,800 kilometres. It takes four days – two each way. It entails more than 20 hours on the bike. </p>
<p>Riding a motorbike, in a group of 20, is not like driving a car. The body has to remain in the same position. The group has to remain in a choreographed formation. Each rider has to ride with their entire luggage. There are often heavy rains at this time of year; and lots of traffic. It’s challenging, tiring, yet characterised as incredibly enjoyable and rewarding by the group’s members.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73563/original/image-20150303-15960-1vwx90j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Choi/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For some members of the Queensland Dykes on Bikes, riding to Mardi Gras is conceived as more pleasurable than the event itself. It provides a unique opportunity to learn the rules and codes of the Chapter, pick up riding skills from other members and collectively practice riding in a group formation – opportunities not available through the shorter, Sunday rides normally organised for once a month. </p>
<p>Riding to Mardi Gras is therefore crucial in sustaining a sense of collective belonging among group members and performing a shared Dyke on Bike identity.</p>
<p>The parade, conversely, was surprisingly a source of anxiety for some members. The combination of waiting, managing the bike and voyeuristic screaming crowds led some riders to don gas and surgical masks to enable anonymity and create boundaries – practises that inhibited feelings of connection and belonging.</p>
<p>While travel to Mardi Gras is crucial to the Dykes on Bikes it is not the parade itself, but rather the immense journey, that serves as a fundamental dimension in sustaining a collective sense of belonging among group members.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38285/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna de Jong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dykes on Bikes have been starting Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade since 1988 – and many for many participants, the yearly ride to Sydney is as important as the parade itself.Anna de Jong, Human Geography PhD Student, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/361892015-02-02T07:01:09Z2015-02-02T07:01:09ZIt turns out male sexuality is just as fluid as female sexuality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70498/original/image-20150129-22308-oq5ttb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why is it that women can retain their heterosexuality if they kiss, but if men do the same they're labeled gay?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Jacob_Riis_Beach_New_York_City_2013_Shankbone.JPG">David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If women can kiss women and still be straight, what about men?</p>
<p>Some <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674032262">scholars</a> have argued that female sexual desires tend to be fluid and receptive, while men’s desires – regardless of whether men are gay or straight – tend to be inflexible and unchanging. Support for this notion permeates popular culture. There are countless examples of straight-identified female actresses and pop stars kissing or caressing other women – from Madonna and Britney to Iggy and J-Lo – with little concern about being perceived as lesbians. When the Christian pop star Katy Perry sang in 2008 that she kissed a girl and liked it, nobody seriously doubted her heterosexuality.</p>
<p>The story is different for men. The sexuality of straight men has long been understood by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Caveman-Mystique-Pop-Darwinism-Violence/dp/0415934753">evolutionary biologists</a>, and, subsequently, the general public, as subject to a visceral, nearly unstoppable impulse to reproduce with female partners. Consequently, when straight men do engage in same sex contact, these encounters are viewed as incompatible with the bio-evolutionary coding. It’s believed to signal an innate homosexual (or at least bisexual) orientation, and even just one known same-sex act can cast considerable doubt upon a man’s claim to heterosexuality. </p>
<p>For instance, in 2007, Republican Senators Larry Craig and Bob Allen were both separately arrested on charges related to sex with men in public bathrooms. While both men remained married to their wives and tirelessly avowed their heterosexuality, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-republican-hypocrites-hall-of-fame/Content?oid=4320885">the press skewered them</a> as closeted hypocrites.</p>
<p>Despite the common belief in the rigidity of male heterosexuality, historians and sociologists have created a substantial body of well-documented evidence showing straight men – not “closeted” gay men – engaging in sexual contact with other men. In many parts of the United States prior to the 1950s, the gay/straight binary distinguished effeminate men (or “fairies”) and masculine men (“normal” men) – not whether or not a man engaged in homosexual sex. </p>
<p>Historian George Chauncey’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gay-New-York-Culture-1890-1940/dp/0465026214">study</a> of gay life in New York City from 1890-1940 revealed that through much of the first half of the 20th century, normal (i.e., “straight”) working class men mixed with fairies in the saloons and tenements that were central to the lives of working men.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70501/original/image-20150129-22322-5oatuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Close quarters: sexual encounters between men and ‘fairies’ were commonplace in the dense neighborhoods of working class Manhattan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Riis_-_Bandits'_Roost.jpg">Jacob Riis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With sex-segregation the general rule for single men and women in the early 1900s, the private back rooms of saloons were often sites of sexual activity between normal men and fairies, with the latter perceived as a kind of intermediate sex – a reasonable alternative to female prostitutes. Public parks and restrooms were also common sites for sexual interaction between straight men and fairies. In such encounters, the fairy acted as the sole embodiment of queerness, the figures with whom normal (straight) men could have sex – just as they might with female sex workers. Fairies affirmed, rather than threatened, the heteromasculinity of straight men by embodying its opposite. </p>
<p>The notion that homosexual activity was not “gay” when undertaken by “real” (i.e. straight) men continued into the 1950s and 60s. During this period, the homosexual contact of straight men began to undergo a transformation from relatively mundane behavior to the bold behavior of male rebels. The American biker gang The Hells Angels, which formed in 1948, serves as a rich example. There are few figures more “macho” than a heavily tattooed, leather-clad biker, whose heterosexuality was as much on display as his masculinity. Brawling over women, exhibiting women on the back of bikes, and brandishing tattoos and patches of women were all central to the subculture of the gang. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70503/original/image-20150129-22325-rquu2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deep kissing was an expression of brotherhood among Hells Angels gang members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.thisisthewhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/1660_680.jpg">thisisthewhat</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet as the journalist Hunter S. Thompson documented in his 1966 book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hells-Angels-Strange-Terrible-Saga/dp/0345410084">Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga</a>, gang members also had sexual encounters with one another. One of their favorite “stunts” was to deeply French kiss one another – with tongues extended out of their mouths in a type of tongue-licking kiss often reserved for girl-on-girl porn. Members of the Hells Angels explained that the kissing was a defiant stunt that produced among onlookers the desired degree of shock. To them, it was also an expression of “brotherhood.”</p>
<p>Today, sexual encounters between straight-identified men take new but similarly “manly” forms. For instance, when men undergo hazing in college fraternities and in the military, there’s often a degree of sexual contact. It’s often dismissed as a joke, game, or ritual that has no bearing on the heterosexual constitution of the participants. As I document in my <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9781479860685/">forthcoming book</a>, fraternity hazing has included practices such as the “elephant walk,” in which pledges are required to strip naked and stand in a circle, with one thumb in their mouth and the other in the anus of the pledge in front of them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70509/original/image-20150129-22311-1dz5ded.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fraternities often engage in hazing rituals that involve same sex contact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Hearts.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Similarly, according to <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/djglp9&div=18&id=&page=">anthropological accounts</a> of the Navy’s longstanding “Crossing the Line” initiation ceremony, new sailors crossing the equator for the first time have garbage and rotten food shoved into their anuses by older sailors. They’re also required to retrieve objects from one another’s anuses.</p>
<p>One relatively recent example of the pervasiveness of these kinds of encounters between straight men was revealed in a report by the US-based watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight. In 2009, the group <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/embassy-guards-gone-wild-pictures-nsfw">released photos</a> of American security guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul engaging in “deviant” after-hours pool parties. The photos show the men drunkenly urinating on each other, licking each other’s nipples, and taking vodka shots and eating potato chips out of each other’s butts.</p>
<p>Individuals often react to these examples in one of two ways. Either they jump to the conclusion that any straight-identified man who engages in sexual contact with another man must actually be gay or bisexual, or they dismiss the behavior as not actually sexual. Rather, they interpret it as an expression of dominance, a desire to humiliate, or some other ostensibly “non sexual” male impulse. </p>
<p>But these responses merely reveal our culture’s preconceived notions about men’s sexuality. Look at it from the other side of the coin: if straight young women, such as sorority pledges, were touching each other’s vaginas during an initiation ritual or taking shots from each other’s butts, commentators would almost certainly imagine these acts as sexual in some way (and not exclusively about women’s need to dominate, for instance). Straight women are also given considerable leeway to have occasional sexual contact with women without the presumption that they are actually lesbians. In other words, same-sex contact among straight men and women is interpreted through the lens of some well-worn gender stereotypes. But these stereotypes don’t hold up when we examine the range of straight men’s sexual encounters with other men.</p>
<p>It’s clear that straight men and women come into intimate contact with one another in a range of different ways. But this is less about hard-wired gender differences and more about broader cultural norms dictating how men and women are allowed to behave with people of the same sex. Instead of clinging to the notion that men’s sexuality is fundamentally inflexible, we should view male heterosexuality for what it is – a fluid set of desires that are constrained less by biology than by prevailing gender norms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If women can kiss women and still be straight, what about men? Some scholars have argued that female sexual desires tend to be fluid and receptive, while men’s desires – regardless of whether men are gay…Jane Ward, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, RiversideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/345272014-12-16T19:47:33Z2014-12-16T19:47:33ZFamilies we choose: an Australian gay and lesbian Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66303/original/image-20141204-7265-m1xubu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Much has changed over the past 60 years – including how gay and lesbian Australia celebrates Christmas. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hotlanta Voyeur</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I used to live in Brisbane, where, year after year on the afternoon of Christmas Day, a group of older gay men I knew would meet up in a pub. </p>
<p>Spending some of the holiday season catching up with friends over a few drinks is an experience familiar to most. At the time, I didn’t think too deeply about the annual ritual these men were undertaking. It is clear to me now, though, they were very deliberately seeking out and spending time with their chosen families on the one day of the year when escape from images of domesticity and family appeared all but impossible. </p>
<p>When Christmas rituals match with an individual’s belief system, they can induce immense comfort. There are certainly many lesbian and gay Australians who enjoy exchanging gifts, eating a festive meal and undertaking the more traditional cultural rites associated with this time of year. It is also difficult for some to avoid the conspicuous seasonal consumerism that marks the season. </p>
<p>If one looks deeper though, it is evident that the Christmas season can place a number of complex stresses at the forefront for some members of the lesbian and gay population. For some lesbian and gay Australians, spending the season with family may not be an option if families refuse to accept their sexuality or include their partner in celebrations. </p>
<p>For others, going home for the holidays can mean returning to places where memories of childhood and adolescent experiences of homophobia resurface. There are also those lesbian and gay Australians who do not have a home to which they can return. Rates of homelessness are much more pronounced among this population than the broader Australian population. </p>
<p>Even an activity as innocuous as watching carolling in a local shopping centre can be fraught for lesbian and gay Australians. Those prolific performers, the Salvation Army, have a <a href="http://www.vglrl.org.au/info/item/hard-facts-about-the-salvos">depressing record</a> on lesbian and gay issues, even going so far as to send a submission against marriage equality to the House of Representatives Inquiry into the topic in 2012. </p>
<p>Although lesbian and gay Australians have sometimes been on the outside of traditional Christmas rituals, this time of year highlights the ways in which lesbian and gay Australians have created their own rites and communities of support. </p>
<p>These are important not just during the festive season but throughout the year. The group of Brisbane men mentioned earlier provides one such example but the <a href="http://www.australianlesbianandgaylifestories.org.au/index.php/shareyourstory">Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories</a> oral history project provides others.</p>
<p>I’m a researcher on this project and part of it involves interviews with five different generations of gay men and lesbians across Australia. Over the past 60 years – a time period some of our participants lived through in its entirety – social attitudes towards gay and lesbian Australians have shifted remarkably. </p>
<p>A majority of our male participants are able to recall a time when sex with another man was illegal. Many of our lesbian participants stress the isolation and invisibility that marred substantial parts of their lives. </p>
<p>Although our interviews have captured accounts of prejudice, discrimination and loneliness, it is also clear that many lesbian and gay Australians responded to this by fashioning lives for themselves in ways that were both imaginative and inspired. Many lesbian women who were told that children would never be part of their future did indeed raise children, most frequently with partners, sometimes independently and occasionally with the involvement of gay male donors. </p>
<p>Some of our male respondents recall being told to expect a life of loneliness and unhappiness upon revealing their sexuality to their families. But perhaps some of the most moving accounts of friendship and support to have ever been documented in Australia’s past are from gay men who stood shoulder to shoulder with each other during the dark years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when so many lives were lost. </p>
<p>There are members of Australia’s gay and lesbian population who question the notion of a united community and who opt to not engage with it. There are also those who fully embrace it. </p>
<p>The Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories project includes accounts from younger people who are able to have their same-sex partner included in family rituals and celebrations and who – not unreasonably – expect to marry their partners in celebrations with relatives and friends. </p>
<p>One lesbian couple integrates both traditional and community experiences, taking their children to both a Rainbow family barbecue and a traditional lunch with grandparents over the holiday season.</p>
<p>I had a chat with a retired gay male friend of mine a week ago though. His family is important to him but he told me that he was particularly looking forward to catching up with his gay male friends over Christmas. His parents were dead and, although he enjoyed the time he spent with siblings, nieces and nephews, it was limited.</p>
<p>He looked to peers for support and during a recent health crisis: it had been these men who had provided it, on both an emotional and practical level. </p>
<p>For many lesbian and gay Australians, it has not always been possible to revel in the type of domestic Christmas portrayed in the media. This is increasingly becoming an issue for heterosexual Australians. Growing numbers of individuals live in single-person households. </p>
<p>Others experience seasonal unemployment or financial difficulties. Sometimes fractured family relationships mean people are isolated over the holidays. Charities such as Lifeline <a href="https://www.mycause.com.au/events/alifelineforchristmas">point out</a> that the festive season can be a deeply unhappy time for many Australians. </p>
<p>The historic marginalisation of Australia’s lesbian and gay population has seen many rely on other members of this group for support or subvert mainstream rituals in a way that makes them meaningful. There is much talk of “chosen families” in our oral history project and its evident that time with support networks provides a much needed antidote to marginalisation and exclusion. </p>
<p>It is also evident that lesbian and gay support rituals (and those from the broader LGBT community) provide a useful model for other potentially isolated individuals in modern society.</p>
<p><br>
<em>This article is part of The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/end-of-year-series">End of Year series</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirleene Robinson receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>I used to live in Brisbane, where, year after year on the afternoon of Christmas Day, a group of older gay men I knew would meet up in a pub. Spending some of the holiday season catching up with friends…Shirleene Robinson, Vice Chancellor's Innovation Fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/291492014-07-14T03:26:15Z2014-07-14T03:26:15ZDo openly gay public figures like Ian Thorpe matter? They sure do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53710/original/6v96s7ym-1405306926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows that high-profile gay and lesbian people have made a real difference to the lives of others.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his unassuming way, Ian Thorpe is probably quite accustomed to making history. His swag of Olympic medals and world records makes him Australia’s most successful swimmer. Last night, when <a href="http://tenplay.com.au/sport/2014/7/13/ian-thorpe-the-parkinson-interview-part-1">he told interviewer Michael Parkinson</a> he is a gay man, he made another kind of history – by becoming the most high-profile gay sporting figure in Australia. </p>
<p>As a 31-year old man, Thorpe would have seen significant changes in attitudes towards homosexuality over the course of his life. During his interview with Parkinson, he spoke of the casual homophobia that existed at his all-male high school and the impact that this had on him as a young man. He also spoke of being the target of homophobic verbal abuse – well before he identified as gay. </p>
<p>Thorpe’s public announcement last night that he is a gay man suggests he believes that Australian society has evolved considerably in recent years.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Twitter comment by conservative politician Reverend Fred Nile, famous for praying for the Sydney Mardi Gras to be rained out in the 1980s, <a href="https://twitter.com/frednile/status/487938729625939968">stating simply</a>, “You are champion, that is all that matters,” indicates he is correct.</p>
<h2>Do openly homosexual public figures matter?</h2>
<p>Along with a team of other academic researchers and the National Library of Australia, I am involved with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-the-lives-of-gay-and-lesbian-australians-25270">Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories</a> oral history project. We are interviewing 60 gay men and lesbian women across Australia in order to investigate what it has been like to live a gay or lesbian life at a time when social attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted significantly.</p>
<p>As the interviews progress, we have come to realise just how important openly homosexual public figures have been for many of the gay men and lesbian women we have spoken to.</p>
<p>Many older Australians, particularly those born before the 1940s, have described growing up feeling isolated, with homosexuality being largely hidden from public view. When asked about the biggest changes that they have witnessed in their life with regard to homosexuality, almost all of these interviewees mention the growing number of public figures who are prepared to identify as gay or lesbian and the growing inclusion of homosexuality across popular culture.</p>
<h2>Generational change</h2>
<p>Those participants born after the 1960s have come of age at a time when there has been a dramatic growth in the visibility of lesbian and gay people in popular culture. </p>
<p>A significant number of lesbian interviewees, including those in rural towns, made reference to the public coming-out of <a href="http://www.ellentv.com/">Ellen DeGeneres</a> in 1997 and her continued popularity among mainstream television audiences as being important in increasing social acceptance of homosexuality. </p>
<p>The younger participants we have interviewed, particularly those born in the 1990s, have brought a very different understanding to the project. </p>
<p>While it is important to note that homophobia is still a force in Australian society, Australians born after 1984 have come of age at a time when there are considerable numbers of publicly open gay and lesbian public figures. Furthermore, the internet has allowed for easy connection to a global gay and lesbian culture. </p>
<p>Indeed, many of our younger participants tell us that they were aware of gay and lesbian celebrities before they ever met a gay or lesbian in their daily life.</p>
<p>What has been particularly interesting to hear from many younger participants has been the way that being aware of gay and lesbian public figures has made their life course easier. The sense of isolation that marked the adolescence of many gay or lesbian people growing up in the 1950s has been supplanted to an extent with the understanding that it is possible to live an open and happy gay or lesbian life.</p>
<p>While the interviews we have conducted appear to suggest that Australian attitudes towards homosexuality have evolved rapidly and positively over the past 30 years, it is evident that the journey has not always been easy for many lesbian and gay individuals and that homophobia is still a problem for many.</p>
<h2>Thorpe’s world</h2>
<p>As a man born in New South Wales in 1982, Ian Thorpe started life at a time when sexual intercourse between men was still criminalised. </p>
<p>Before he started training with his first swimming squad, the HIV/AIDS epidemic increased homophobia among some segments of Australian society. As his profile increased as a teenager, and before he was even aware of his own sexuality, he faced continued invasive and inappropriate homophobic questioning.</p>
<p>Thorpe’s decision to come out last night will do at least two things. </p>
<p>First, young Australians now growing up will see the further dismantling of homophobic stereotypes surrounding gay and lesbian people. Ian Thorpe, long considered one of Australia’s most popular and iconic heroes, is probably the most famous Australian to identify as a gay man. </p>
<p>Secondly, his visibility will challenge homophobia in the sporting arena, which long has had a reputation for problematic attitudes towards gay and lesbian people. </p>
<p>Although Ian Thorpe’s decision to come out publicly was clearly not an easy one for him to make, his decision marks a milestone, not only for him on a personal level but also for Australia. His announcement reveals a personal comfort with his sexuality. Let’s hope that this comfort is also reflected across the nation and that together we can recognise the rich contribution of gay and lesbian citizens to our public life.</p>
<p><br>
<br>
<strong>See also:</strong><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/homophobia-is-a-health-hazard-not-just-for-ian-thorpe-29148">Homophobia is a health hazard, not just for Ian Thorpe</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirleene Robinson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Linkage Grant on "Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories".</span></em></p>In his unassuming way, Ian Thorpe is probably quite accustomed to making history. His swag of Olympic medals and world records makes him Australia’s most successful swimmer. Last night, when he told interviewer…Shirleene Robinson, Vice Chancellor's Innovation Fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/252702014-04-13T20:30:49Z2014-04-13T20:30:49ZLearning from the lives of gay and lesbian Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46190/original/dhqjgrtb-1397190196.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new oral history project is collecting the life stories of several generations of gay and lesbian Australians.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zürich Tourismus</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s legal system may not yet reflect this but in 2014, according to a range of polls, <a href="http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/who-supports-equality/a-majority-of-australians-support-marriage-equality/">a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage</a>. Two decades ago, such support would have been beyond the imaginings of all but the most wildly optimistic gay or lesbian person. After all, it was not until 1997 that Tasmania decriminalised male-to-male sexual intercourse. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46189/original/gqcbwgqy-1397189564.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">acon online</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Today, homophobia still exists but it is no longer as institutionalised or as entrenched as it once was. The pace at which social attitudes towards gay and lesbian Australians have evolved over the past two decades has been dizzying. It is perhaps the most rapid transformation of social attitudes that has occurred in Australian history. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.australianlesbianandgaylifestories.org.au/">Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories</a>, a national oral history project currently underway, seeks to explore this transformation further. The project is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia, Macquarie University and two other Australian universities, supported by funding from the Australian Research Council. </p>
<p>Different generations of gay and lesbian individuals will provide insight into what it has been like to live a gay or lesbian life in Australia from the 1940s to the present, when attitudes have shifted so remarkably.</p>
<h2>Telling the stories of ordinary Australians</h2>
<p>The project will interview five different generations of “ordinary” gay men and lesbians providing deep insight into how individuals negotiate social change in their intimate lives. This project is the first comprehensive nationwide oral history project undertaken with a diverse range of members of Australia’s lesbian and gay population. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46157/original/bw35q574-1397177429.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">earthworm</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interviewers are travelling across Australia, from locations ranging from cattle stations to inner-city apartments, to conduct interviews. The results will then be deposited with the National Library of Australia, home of Australia’s largest collection of oral histories. </p>
<p>The National Library has pioneered public engagement with oral history in this country, taking advantage of significant advantages in the field of digital technologies and participatory online media. Interviewees control access conditions but some have agreed to make their interviews publicly available through the National Library’s website. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46191/original/8vynyz34-1397191304.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">philippe leroyer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The central aims of this project are twofold. </p>
<p>First, it will bolster and diversify the National Library of Australia’s digital collection by providing up to 300 hours of lesbian and gay oral histories. </p>
<p>Second, it will obtain primary information from a still marginalised community, allowing for the incorporation of this material into the national narrative. </p>
<p>More broadly, the project will investigate how lesbian and gay individuals have navigated a period of extraordinary social change, and the impact of this transformation on lesbian and gay lives and cultural narratives. </p>
<p>Researchers on this project acknowledge the important gay and lesbian oral histories that have previously been conducted by other researchers, including the ongoing efforts of the <a href="http://alga.org.au/">Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives</a> in Melbourne. But there are some limitations with existing interviews that point to the need for a project such as this one. Some existing interviews are not broadly accessible, remaining in the possession of individual researchers or local repositories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/46185/original/h85ygvg8-1397189140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">AFP gay and lesbian liason officers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Will Choi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Community repositories generally do not possess the substantial funding required to support large-scale projects and their preservation. A large proportion of existing oral history interviews have been recorded on tape. Many have poor sound quality, have degraded over time and do not meet national or international technological standards for oral history.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the bulk of existing oral histories have focused on activists within the gay and lesbian community, rather than “ordinary” Australians.</p>
<h2>Whose stories will be told?</h2>
<p>Interviews for the Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories project are being conducted with participants born between 1930 and 1994 who self-identify as same-sex attracted. Participants are being divided into five generational cohorts, a method that has proven to be highly successful in the <a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/research-showcase/australian-generations/">Australian Generations: Life Histories, Generational Change and Australian Memory</a> collaboration being led by Professor Alistair Thomson from Monash University. </p>
<p>Cohorts on the Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories project include:<br> </p>
<ul>
<li>respondents born before 1940, who reached sexual maturity at a time when male-to-male homosexuality was illegal and was aggressively policed<br></li>
<li>respondents born between 1941 and 1956, who came of age during the 1960s and during the rapid social change of the 1970s<br></li>
<li>respondents born between 1957 and 1966, who were young when the gay liberation movement emerged in Australia<br></li>
<li>respondents born between 1967 and 1984, who came of age during and in the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS epidemic <br></li>
<li>those born after 1985, many of whom feel they live in a “post gay” era where ideas about the meaning of gay and lesbian identity are shifting.</li>
</ul>
<p>Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories is an Australian first and will make an important addition to the National Library’s collection. It will provide a resource equivalent to the <a href="http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=CKEY6883338&library=ALL">Before Stonewall: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Oral History</a> collection, held by the British Library Sound Archive Collection. Unlike Before Stonewall, much of this Australian resource will be available online, thereby increasing availability and transcending national boundaries. </p>
<p>It will serve to foster broader awareness of lesbian and gay lives – and the ways in which generations of lesbian and gay Australians have shaped a profound transformation of social attitudes in Australia. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Reynolds receives funding from the Australian Research Council which is funding this project through its Linkage program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shirleene Robinson receives funding from an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant as part of a team on the 'Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories' project.</span></em></p>Australia’s legal system may not yet reflect this but in 2014, according to a range of polls, a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. Two decades ago, such support would have been beyond the…Robert Reynolds, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Higher Degree Research in the Faculty of Arts, Macquarie UniversityShirleene Robinson, Vice Chancellor's Innovation Fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.