Journalist Anna Rüling, was born on this day in 1880. In 1904 she gave a speech to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin, the first known public statement of the socio-legal problems faced by lesbians. Her actual name was Theodora “Theo” Anna Sprüngli. One of the first modern women to come out as homosexual, she has been described as […]
In 1986 New Zealand decriminalised homosexuality On this day in 1986 New Zealand passed the Homosexual Law Reform Act that decriminalized homosexuality removing British colonial laws. The country had adopted English laws in in 1840 which made homosexual acts punishable by death. In 1893 the laws were broadened so that even consensual sexual activity between […]
In 1984 Greg Louganis won his first gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics On this day in 1984 American diver Greg Louganis won his first Olympic gold medal for the Men’s 3-metre springboard at the Los Angeles Olympics. A few days later he went on to win another gold for the 10-metre platform. The […]
Author James Baldwin was born in 1924 James Baldwin was born on this day in 1924 in Harlem New York City. Baldwin would become a celebrated author whose characters often sought acceptance into society. He included gay and bisexual men as characters in many of this works. Baldwin wrote essays, plays and novels and his […]
To mark the end of Pride Month in the US, Google has paid tribute to Black trans pioneer, HIV activist and Stonewall hero Marsha P. Johnson in the day’s Google Doodle. A key figure in the 1969 Stonewall riots that were a major catalyst for the momentum of LGBTIQ+ rights around the world, Johnson was […]
On This Gay Day: The first report about HIV/AIDS was published in 1981 It’s often reported that the first information about what would later be identified as HIV/AIDS was when on 5 June 1981 the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention published a notice about gay men who had died rare, and usually curable […]
Religious leader Jerry Falwell declares Tinky Winky is gay American religious leader Jerry Falwell declared on this day in 1999 that children’s television character Tinky Winky was gay. Falwell claimed there were many signs that the purple Teletubby was a homosexual. The British TV series had taken the world by storm in the late 1990’s […]
A uniquely queer performance is coming town as party of the Blue Room’s Winter Nights program – taking audiences on a historical walk through Northbridge. The Lion Never Sleeps is described as a walking performance by creator Noemie Huttner-Koros, tracing the spaces and places where Perth’s queer community have danced and gathered. Noemie spoke to the team at […]
A new book documents the 40 year history of Central Station and how the men behind the brand changed Australia’s music industry. In the late 1970s Giuseppe ‘Jo’ Palumbo bought a small record store in Melbourne, over the years it grew to be the independent chain Central Station. Working with his partner Morgan Williams, Jo […]
34 years ago the first safe sex booklet, “How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach”, was produced and 5000 copies of the forty-page booklet disseminated through New York City in response to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. The authors, Richard Berkowitz and Michael Callen, were both living with AIDS (they were also […]
