Ask ECH: Connecting Through Culture_IDAHOBIT

The podcast episode discusses the history of LGBTIQ+ rights in Australia and the importance of listening to the stories of Rainbow Elders. Diversity Manager Robyn Lierton speaks with Will Sergeant who speaks about the decriminalisation of homosexuality in South Australia in 1975 and the first Pride Marches in Adelaide in 1973 and Sydney in 1978. Will emphasises the need to tell our own stories and support the ageing Rainbow community. The episode ends with a preview of the next topic on migrating to Australia. Welcome to Ask ECH, Connecting Through Culture, the monthly podcast about diverse backgrounds, cultures and communities. I'm Robyn Lierton, the Diversity Manager at ECH. On today's episode, I'm speaking with ECH volunteer, Will Sergeant, about LGBTIQ+ history in Australia, to coincide with International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, also known as IDAHOBIT. Welcome, Will. Can you please tell us a little about yourself? I'm a gay centenarian, and I'll be 74 in June. I've been styled an unreconstructed 1970s gay liberationist, and it's a label I wear as a badge of honour. Throughout my life, I've tried to live some of the catch cries of that early 1970s gay liberation movement, out of the closets and into the streets, out and proud, glad to be gay, blatant is beautiful, personal is political, and I must say, last year, it was a great thrill to be awarded an OAM for my contribution to the South Australian Rainbow community. The focus of IDAHOBIT is to raise awareness of discrimination against same-sex attracted and gender diverse people around the world. What some of our listeners may not know, is that homosexuality was still a crime in Australia until relatively recently. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in South Australia. How did this come about? I think the terrible drowning murder of Dr George Duncan on the 10th of May, 1972, was the precipitant for law reform. Within weeks of that terrible event, a Liberal member of the Upper House introduced a private members' bill to attempt to decriminalise homosexuality activity amongst men, because at that time, a homosexual man could be imprisoned for three years for gross indecency, five for indecent assault, and ten for buggery. That was unsuccessful. Another attempt in 1973, and finally success in 1975, so South Australia became the first jurisdiction in Australia to achieve decriminalisation. And at the time, it was the most progressive legislation in the world, I believe, with no differentiation between heterosexual and homosexual sexual activity, and an equal age of consent of 17 years, so it was very progressive and world-leading. You were part of Australia's first Pride March, held in Little Old Adelaide in 1973, and the first Sydney Mardi Gras in 1978. What did it feel like to be part of these events? Pretty special, and they were quite different events. So in 1973, it was a Saturday morning, we started in Victoria Square, and progressed through the city, and came down Rundle Street, which was still a traffic street at that time, right at the heart of Saturday morning shopping. We were brightly dressed, gaily dressed, and we had banners and bunting and balloons, and we were singing and chanting. It was very celebratory. Two, four, six, eight, gay is twice as good as straight. Three, five, seven, nine, try it our way just one time. And we had a special anthem written to the tune of Teddy Bear's Picnic. "If you go into the streets today, you better go in disguise. If you go into the streets today, you're in for a big surprise. Every gay that ever there was is out in the streets today, because today's the day that all the gays are marching". So it was really a very uplifting feeling, and I think looking at the people on the street, there was no aggression or anger, but I think there was sort of a look of bemusement. What is going on here? They'd never seen anything like it before, because we indeed, we were the first out generation. Sydney was very different, because it was in June in 78, coinciding and celebrating the Stonewall riots of June 1969 in New York City, so it was after dark. I thought it was more of a political march than a kind of a Mardi Gras celebratory thing. I remember there weren't many people on the streets as we came down Oxford Street. We got to Hyde Park, and that's where the police confiscated our truck. We just had one leading truck, everyone else was on foot, and there were probably a few hundred of us, and we were so intenser we said, we're going to march up to"The Cross'. So we just took to the streets, although we did have a police escort at that stage, marched up William Street to the cross, and then down Darlinghurst Road, and all the people at 'The Cross' were cheering us on, because I think it was seen as being a bit anti-police, so they liked that, and we got down to El Alamein Fountain, and that's where we were blocked. There was a roadblock leading down to MacLeay Street with a line of police, it was almost like entrapment, and we were ordered to disperse. I think some young people just were so imbued, they couldn't let go, and because the street was blocked, they started to move back down Darlinghurst Road, and that's when the police attacked. There were paddy wagons, they brutally manhandled people and threw them into paddy wagons, and took them off to the Darlinghurst Police Station. I decided to get on the footpath, not to stay on the road, and I wanted to stay. I've wondered whether I was a coward, whether I should have gone out there and supported my comrades. I do say in justification, I was working in the hospitality industry, and I did have to work the next day, so I was probably a bit mindful of that, but it was a really terrible end to that event. What is a good outcome, it has become very celebratory, and nowadays the police march with us. I went last year for the 45th anniversary, and we 78ers are right there at the front of the parade, and the response from the crowd is just amazing and exhilarating, and afterwards you have people come up to you and say, oh thank you, thank you for liberating us, so a very uplifting feeling now. You were part of the Adelaide Pride March in 1973, and in Sydney in 1978, while homosexuality was still illegal in those states at those times. Were you scared to be part of those Pride marches at the time? No, because having been imbued with the gay liberation ideology, about gay is good, glad to be gay, it was almost a bit exciting to be an outlaw! Never any sense of timidity, very much more an assertive, glad to be gay, and laws should change. You've been collecting and telling stories of same-sex attracted and gender diverse people for many years now. Why is it important to you that these stories are told? Growing up where everything was so hidden, nothing was spoken about or publicised, or if it was, it was misrepresented, it was negative or sensationalised. I think it's really important we tell our own stories in our own way, in our own voice, and take charge of that, so I think that it's very important. My dear late friend Ian Purcell and I created an alter ego, it was actually Ian's idea, Dr Gertrude Glossip, who has a PhD in formal drapery from Curtain University, to tell our history via a number of means, particularly history walks, and we've done that at every feast festival since 1997, with Ian's idea to have a drag persona, so while the walks and talks are always factual, we always want them to be entertaining and engaging, so hence creating a character and do it with a sense of fun and humour as well, even though some of the stories are very dark. You said earlier that yours was the first out generation, but it was also a generation where your sexuality was criminalised. Given these experiences, how can we best support our rainbow elders as they age? I remember being at an aged care conference in Prague in 2012, I remember grabbing the mic and saying that people working in the third age sector have to be aware that the first out generation are entering the third age, we will and we won't take things lying down. It's a double meaning to that, that we'll keep our sexuality, given that really we were the first out generation, and before that, most people lived discreet or double lives, and I'm sure people like that who may have contact with the aged care sector, whether at home or in a facility, some people, 80s and 90s, may still be very discreet, and to respect that. And I suppose some sensitivity, you don't go around and say, "How are your grandchildren"? No, that person doesn't have grandchildren, so that might be quite a confronting assumption to make. So I think it is about sensitivity for those who lived double or hidden lives and want to maintain their discretion, but on the other hand, the first out generation, perhaps you expect the next wave to be quite 'bolshie' and assertive and want their identity recognised and honoured and not dismissed or ignored or pretend that it doesn't exist, and I suppose too, situations where there are celebrations of various events, you know, Anzac Day, Australia Day, having a Pride Day where you actually celebrate diversity in all its manifestations so that allies, and people you want to become allies, have some appreciation of the diversity of life and sexuality and identity. Thanks so much for joining us today, Will. I think we know a lot more about the history of homosexual law reform in Australia and why it's important to listen to the stories of our Rainbow Elders. Join us again next month when we talk about the experience of migrating to Australia to coincide with World Refugee Day on the 20th of June. Do you have a topic about diversity and inclusion that you would like featured in a future episode? Write your comments, suggestions or questions in the link below. Until next time, this is Robyn Lierton. Take care and keep learning from each other. You've been listening to Ask ECH, connecting through culture. Produced by Robyn Lierton for ECH, with music by ECH music therapist, Bec Davies.