The first cases of AIDS had appeared in Australia in 1983, at just about the time the ALP was elected. With its policy of consultation and power-sharing and with a sympathetic (but certainly not gay) Health Minister, Neal Blewett, the community’s expertise was welcomed in the corridors of power. Money flowed to the AIDS Councils and the work of the previous year or two (which had already changed gay men’s sexual practice dramatically) was ratcheted up.

Eventually the government decided that it needed to take the message into the heterosexual community. And one night in March 1987 viewers watched as the Grim Reaper appeared on their TV screens, all smoke and rags and scary sound effects. In one hand, his traditional scythe. In the other, a bowling ball. Yes, a bowling ball. He took to the lane and proceeded to strike out men, old ladies, small children, sparing none.

If the point of this was to grab people’s attention it worked. If the point was to convey information – well, here it scored a bit fat zero. No mention of what sexual acts were safe (well, there wouldn’t be on primetime telly would there?). No discussion of high-risk groups, condoms …

They learnt from this disaster – but as a start it was very, very late. Thank goodness.

Brought to you by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

The first such conference was held in Melbourne, sponsored by the Australian Union of Students, but organised by an autonomous collective. The result outstripped everyone’s wildest hopes. Six hundred gay people turned up and the discussions were, if fierce, widely felt to have been useful.

Another seemed inevitable. Sydney put its hand up – and an annual tradition was born. August became conference month and over the following decade the hoopla moved from city from city – Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra all got a go as well.

The shifting terminology caught the changing language of activism – it was variously a conference for homosexuals, lesbians and homosexual men, lesbians and gay men … Themes such as ‘The Common Ground’, ‘Come out, fight back’ caught the moods of the times.

And everything was on the agenda. From revolution to law reform, from rural gays to young gays; links with other struggles – were all debated.

But people found time to enjoy themselves too. The conference dance was a regular feature. More than one conference affair was noted. The occasional relationship was founded.

In the end the conferences were not abandoned because they were useless, but because AIDS was swamping all other issues. The rise of the national AIDS conference coincides with the decline of the broader one.

Brought to you by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

This major event brings together several international figures in queer history and politics to discuss the impact of Dennis Altman’s book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation and the legacies of gay liberation forty years on. Featuring Altman, leading UK gay historian Jeffrey Weeks and American feminist academic and cultural historian Alice Echols, along with archival footage curated by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the panel serves as the opening event for a two-day international conference marking this anniversary.

Tickets from Midsumma.

Margaret Taylor and Monte Punshon. Photo: Murray Little

We are sad to note the death recently of Margaret Taylor, aged 81. Margaret will be remembered for her work in many gay, lesbian and feminist organisations from the early 1980s onwards.

As an organiser in groups for older lesbians (Golden Oldies, Evergreens), a founding member of Matrix Guild (in which she and partner Sue organised several fundraising Satin and Silk balls), and as a member of the Performing Older Women’s Circus Showband, Margaret’s trademark energy and good humour were much valued.

In later life she moved to country Victoria, where Margaret’s and Sue’s contributions to community life were honoured in 2009 with life membership of Country Awareness Network.

YouTube user Kurvapicsa has uploaded a collection of archival Australian films on YouTube with lesbian and gay references or content that appealed to queer sensibilities.

Highlights include the first Australian female-to-male cross dresser on film (1913), excerpts from early Australian television (among them Bert Newton advertising ‘Gay-Life’ shirts), and a gallery of underwear advertisements, starting with ‘Beautiful Lines of Woman Triumphant’ in the 1920s.

Monte’s sexuality was an important part of her life and she never concealed it from friends. She once declared that she had always preferred the company of women in her intimate life – or at least from the age of six when she became instinctively aware, as she put it, of her desires.

The great love of her life was, as is often the case, her first: Debbie. They were introduced in 1910 and experienced an immediate, mutual and very great mental and physical attraction. They spent more and more time in each other’s company, eventually taking a house together.

After Debbie left her, Monte’s misery was alleviated somewhat by her circle of camp men friends (her ‘homosexual boyfriends’ she called them) who rallied to her, drawing her into a flurry of activities. There are photos of Monte and her chums – all cross-dressing – celebrating a camp wedding.

In 1985, at the age of 103, Monte was interviewed by a Melbourne gay magazine, openly discussing her life and her sexuality. She was sceptical about the gay scene that she saw around her: ‘drab, grey, empty’ she said.

Be that as it may, her advice to the young: ‘Cast out fear. Look forward and have a goal. There are so many new and wonderful things to discover in life’, speaks to us still of a life well lived.

Brought to you by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

Decriminalisation took two steps forward. In NSW, Labor premier Neville Wran finally succumbed to years of campaigning by gay activists and the gay community and led his party onto the reform road. Meanwhile, in Darwin, the NT government quietly changed the laws as part of a wider rewrite of the criminal code. Both opted for unequal ages of consent for homosexual sex.

More importantly, perhaps, the idea of anti-discrimination was taking root. Federal public service reforms recognised same sex couples and the ABC announced that gay couples would be treated on the same basis as heterosexual de facto couples in regard to leave and benefits. The NSW Police Force found itself with a Police-Gay Liaison Unit as part of government effort to bring the cops and the community together without the mediation of the baton.

The local government sphere saw the election of lesbians and gay men in Sydney and Leichhardt and in Fitzroy in Melbourne Ralph McLean became Australia’s first openly gay mayor. And in Sydney a gay community meeting to discuss immigration voted to form the Gay (later Gay and Lesbian) Immigration Task Force – which was to prove one of the most successful lobby groups in our history.

And for those who thought this was all too good to be true… In November the Queensland government announced that four Brisbane babies had contracted AIDS as a result of a blood transfusion, dramatically bringing the issue into the public realm in the worst possible way.

Brought to you by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

In 1982, gay businesses started to get involved, throwing off their earlier concerns about the dangers of being too public and too political, drawing courage of their own from the courage of the activists. A strategically allocated liquor-sales monopoly for the post-parade party probably didn’t hurt, but the involvement of businesspeople was widespread and often genuine. And their commercial expertise, their money and their connections helped build the Mardi Gras.

It was in 1982 that we saw the first official post-parade party – and later in the year the first Sleaze Ball.

The parties became an integral part of the whole Mardi Gras experience and preparations and recovery sent ripples through the queer world for weeks and months before and after. But they were more important than that. The parties funded Mardi Gras.

In 1982 Sleaze Ball generated a breathtaking profit – more than three thousand dollars! – which funded the other major innovation: the Workshop, where queer folk from all walks find space, materials, inspiration for the One Night of the Year.

Brought to you by the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives