Tag: gay
Eskilstuna Pride
"What's your name? Are you German or something?", I was asked by the bloke who sat down beside me offering me a beer. He was part of a larger group of men and women sitting at the adjoining table at Eskilstuna Pride. When planning my travel to Sweden, Eskilstuna was very much an afterthought. I'd ...
Tropical Fruits Parade and Launch
If I think about all of the things which have happened in terms of gay life in Lismore during my lifetime, there's a lot to reflect upon. As a teenager, I remember the homophobic editorials from Jim Brigginshaw, Editor of "The Northern Star". I remember doing a school project, aged 16, where I was part ...
Tropical Fruits Photography Exhibition
"Where The F... is 34 Union Street?", I asked myself out loud as I walked along Union Street, South Lismore, a street I've walked on many, many times. Although family members have lived on Union Street since the 1930s, I never once imagined there was a #34. Indeed, all of the numbers I've ever seen ...
Wednesday Night Drag
So it's Wednesday night, and there's not much on television, you don't feel like listening to music or the radio, and you don't feel like reading? You head of to Sydney's "Midnight Shift" for their up and coming drag queen competition. The perfect antidote to mid week blues, and the kind of reality television show ...
Sing Out Sydney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiH5iDhgo90 Twenty five years ago (or thereabouts) I remember attending the National Choral Championships in Wagga Wagga. Although it sounds fairly tame, the championship organisers found themselves the subject of national media interest, as they asked the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir to change their name to the "Eastern Suburbs Choir" (or something like that). ...
Ever Lovin’ Adelaide
"If you're there on a Wednesday night, there won't be any gay bars to go to", a friend who lives in Sydney, but who grew up in Adelaide, recently told me. He was bemoaning the lack of a gay scene in his hometown, and so I did an online check for him late in the afternoon. ...
Remembering The Man
When you read a book you always think you know the "voice" of the narrator. You think you know their cadence, their intonation. By projecting aspects of your own life, and the voices in your head, you think you KNOW them. But it wasn't until I saw the documentary, "Remembering The Man" on Thursday night, ...
Barney Frank
"I was once described to have a very radical gay agenda. I'm in favour of getting married and allowing people to join and stay in the military. I don't think that's such a radical agenda. In fact, I think that's a rather bourgeois agenda", said US Congressman, Barney Frank as he spoke tonight at Sydney's Masonic ...
Memories Of Mardi Gras 1978
I recently had an email from someone interested in the oral history project I had been involved in back in 1998, celebrating twenty years since the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Although I have a copy somewhere in my extensive CD collection, I needed to touch base with my friends Glen and Greig ...
Maudeville at Lismore Regional Art Gallery
Not long after arriving in Sydney in the mid 1990s, I remember being blown away by the elaborate wigs of drag queen, Maude Boate. In contrast to the permed and blow dried wigs of so many drag queens, Maude had cartoon-like headgear made of plastic. Maude was a regular performer at the legendary, sadly missed ...
Holding The Man
"I hadn't realised it was so soon after his death when the book was released", I told my friend. We had just been to see a screening of the movie version of "Holding The Man" at Sydney's Verona Cinema. We were right in the midst of the film in many ways. St Vincent's Hospital. "The ...
