We are living in strange times for the gay rights movement.
On the one hand, we have the NSW government and the Sydney Morning Herald making formal apologies to the original activists of the movement, and federal party leaders marching in the parade.
We have overwhelming majorities of Australians supporting marriage equality.
We have historically high numbers of LGBT people coming out, according to Facebook.
We have transgender identity being discussed and acknowledged more openly and sensitively than many would have imagined possible a few years ago.
And yet we have the Turnbull government last week announcing in respond to their review of the Safe Schools program that they will be gutting funding for the program from 2017. This prompted Daniel Andrews to his credit to announce the state government in Victoria will fund the program itself, and prompted snap rallies and outpourings of emotion from young LGBT people telling stories of their own experience and what a difference Safe Schools would have made for them.
After the furore about Gayby Baby screening in a high school classroom that landed that innocent documentary on the front page of the Daily Telegraph, this week we had The Australian’s front page op-ed screaming about the queer propagandists brainwashing our kids over a totally voluntary anti bullying initiative that helped provide schools with resources to help support LGBT students.
It is also as if the conservatives are so desperate to find new battlegrounds in the culture war against the LGBT community precisely because they cannot accept they’ve already lost the war.
While I had journalists ask me if Australia really needed a gay music festival after Gaytimes held its inaugural magical mountaintop camping festival over Labour Day, I also had a good friend recount how they took a train through the western suburbs of Sydney and got called a faggot not once, but twice.
If that’s not enough of a justification for why we need Safe Schools and gay spaces, I don’t know what is.
Over Easter weekend, you’re spoilt for choice with party options.
On Easter Saturday, Unicorns will bring their glittery gender queer fabulousness to Rubix Warehouse in Brunswick for a night where getting naked and covering yourself in body paint is de rigure.
On Easter Sunday, Sundaylicious is back at the Wharf Hotel from 3pm.
Later that night, GiRLTHING and Thursgay team up for Confessions, a themed party at Laundry Bar on Johnston St.
For the muscle boys, Rock City are throwing a beefy party Oxygen at renovated The Terminus Hotel in Abbotsford with 8 DJs all playing commercial house on Good Friday from 12 noon to 8pm.
If you’d rather party with your hipster straight friends, the final Daydreams of the summer is going down at the Gaso on Easter Sunday and promises to be epic.
And if you’re away for the long weekend, you’ve got Melbourne Queer Film Festival to entertain you next week when you get back. Book tickets and check out the full program at mqff.com.au
