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"I’m just not into politics"...
"Why does the queer space at QUT need to be so political?"
As queers, we have struggled far too long under the oppression of a hetero-normative society that uses divisive laws to keep us subjugated, demoralised, ashamed and vulnerable to emotional, political and physical attacks.
For me, to be queer and political means to resist and reshape these damaging forces and to exert control over my existence. » I march to remember my queer comrades bashed or killed in violent attacks. » I stand proudly shoulder-to-shoulder with other oppressed minorities to send a powerful and unwavering message to their oppressors - we all fight back together. » I speak out in lectures and classrooms to silence queerphobic rhetoric and hate-filled speech. » My ballot box actions demand response from elected officials - afford to me (at the very least) the rights and privileges my straight-identifying siblings enjoy. » And I celebrate, nurture and champion the need for the QUT Queer Space to remain a politically-charged safe space for all queer students - a space where they can (without fear or shame) socialise, politicise, organise and theorise.
Please think of the many people who fought ferociously and struggled against immense adversity for you to be able to enjoy these spaces. Our safe queer spaces are not gifts or gestures of kindness - they are the fruits of victorious battles waged by extraordinary individuals.... individuals who banded together as queer political activists.
Always strength in solidarity.
Sean O'Callaghan
March 1, 2008 (the 30th anniversary of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras)
This piece written in memory of the following:
(with thanks to LGS)
Dr Duncan - murdered by police in Adelaide - charges laid but found to be not guilty - thrown into Torrens River, drowned, 1972 Brian Finemore, curator of National Gallery of Victoria, murdered in his home on 23 October 1975 MARK LANGLEY murdered in Adelaide 28 February 1982 (report in Australian 4 May 1982). "Mr Langley's mutilated and decomposed body was discovered in the Adelaide Hills eight days after he vanished from near the River Torrens on February 28 (1982). His body had severe anal wounds and a crude incision had been made in his abdomen and covered with adhesive bandage." LEO LESLIE PRESS, 63: murdered on 12 February 1988 in Harbord by Barrie Alan Hodge who was 18 when he bashed Press to death. Hodge was only charged and found guilty of the murder on 11 July 2000 and was sentenced on 6 September 2000 to 15 years' prison, with a non-parole period of 7 years. The SSO reported on 15 December 1989 that "A man found guilty of a 'poofter bashing' murder in a Geelong public lavatory has been sentenced to 16 years gaol. Daryl Ian Pritchard, 23, a labourer of Newtown, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Brent Everett in a toilet at Johnstone Park on 25 November last year (1988), The Age reported." BILL ALLEN, 50, of Newtown Street, Alexandria, was found slumped dead over his bath on 29 December 1988. He had been bashed the previous night in Alexandria Park. On 15 December 1989 the SSO reported that "Two men have appeared in a Brisbane court after being charged with the murder of a Vietnamese born gay man. The men, Bruce Ewen Joseph Doherty, 25, of Dutton Park and Peter Andrew Christopher Murphy, 24, of Sydney, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court. They are charged with the murder of So Chieu (Tony) Huynh, 41. Huynh's mutilated body was found in his room in a New Farm apartment house on 11 October (1989)." JOHN ALLEN RUSSELL was found dead at the foot of a cliff near Tamarama in November 1989. MICHAEL JOHN SWACZAK - Islington 1 January 1990. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 20 January 1990 stated that a New Year's Eve party organised by Newcastle's gay community and attended by about 500 men had become the focus of a murder investigation into the death of a local teenager, Michael Swaczak, 16. North Region Crime squad detectives have established that Michael, whose naked and badly decomposed body was found on the outskirts of Newcastle on Monday, was at the party at the Islington Bowling Club. Detective Sergeant Lance Chaffey said Michael was seen leaving with some men aged in their thirties about 3.30am on 1 January. His body, naked except for a wristwatch, was found in bushland about 300 metres off the Pacific Highway at Karuah, 50 kilometres from Islington. RICHARD JOHNSON murdered in toilet block in Alexandria Park on 15 January 1990. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald of 5 February 1990 stated that six juveniles and two adults had been charged with the fatal bashing of a 33-year-old man in Alexandria Park last month. Police alleged that an 18-year-old man, whose name was suppressed from publication, had murdered Richard Norman Johnson, of Coogee, at the park on 24 January 1990. The prosecutor, Sergeant Brad Cropp, said a post-mortem examination and scientific tests had revealed that all regions of Mr Johnson's body had suffered severe assault. His body was found on a footpath near a public toilet block in the park, in the inner-city suburb of Waterloo. Three men were later jailed for his murder. WAYNE TONKS, 35, a school teacher at Cleveland Street High School, was bashed and suffocated in his Artarmon home on 19 May 1990. A plastic bag had been tied over his head. KRICHAKORN RATTANAJATURATHAPORN, 34, was found bashed to death at the foot of a cliff near Tamarama on 22 July 1990. Three teenagers charged with his murder were committed for trial. FELIPE MARCELO FLORES, 27, battered to death at Woolloomooloo on Monday 2 September 1991 BRIAN TRAVERS, 56, bar-manager of the Latrobe RSL Club,murdered on 1 March 1992 by Damien John Roetz, 19. Roetz was found guilty of manslaughter by Chief Justice Green, who said: "I find that the accused's acts would otherwise have constituted murder, but the crime was reduced to manslaughter because the accused acted in response to provocation." But he said that while the law accepted that the provocation dismissed the murder charge, it did not excuse a homicide altogether. Roetz was sentenced to three years jail of which 18 months are suspended. CYRIL OLSEN, 64, murdered in Rushcutters Bay Park on 22 August 1992 GORDON BRIAN TUCKEY, 22, murdered in (August?) 1993 on remote part of cycleway at East Woonona, Wollongong, by Thomas Albert Dunn, 19. Tuckey's body was found in a pool of blood and was naked from the waist down and had a pair of panty hose tied around his penis. His head had been bashed against the concrete several times, making his face unrecognisable. JOHN MILICEVIC, 45, stabbed to death by three men in Rushcutters Bay Park on Sunday 15 August 1993. CRISPIN DYE, 41, Cairns resident in Sydney to visit his mother for the 1993/1994 summer holidays, murdered on 23 December 1993, bashed to death in Little Oxford Street laneway. Three youths were seen bashing and robbing another man in the area on the same morning, but they have never been identified. STEPHEN REGINALD DEMPSEY, 34, of Palm Beach, murdered at Deep Creek Reserve at Narrabeen on or about 4 August 1994. Richard Leonard,22, shot Dempsey with an arrow when Dempsey made homosexual advances towards him on 2 August 1994. Leonard submerged Dempsey's body in a creek before returning that night to dismember it and take the pieces home in garbage bags. He hed put the bags with the body into his refrigerator. About two weeks after the murder, Leonard allegedly started a relationship with Denise Shipley, 19. They were also accused of stabbing taxi driver Ezzedine Bahmad 37 times. JAMES WILLIAM MEEK, 51, murdered in his Surry Hills home in March 1995. Michael Alan Heatley, 19, was charged with the murder. Post-mortem results revealed that Meek died as a result of multiple blows to the head with a blunt instrument. WENDY BELL, 59, Sydney taxi driver, murdered 4 May 1995 by Michael Shand Walker KENNETH BRENNAN, 53, school teacher, murdered in his home, Elizabeth Bay Sunday 11 June 1995. JOHN DALEY, 17, killed in Brisbane (Spring Hill) January 1996 CHRISTOPHER JOHN SMITH murdered Gosford 8 April 1996 Dr PETER ROWLAND, 67, murdered on 25 June 1996. The doctor was shot point-blank in his bed with a sawn-off pump action shotgun at Gundaroo, near Canberra. No motive was established for the murder although the Crown had claimed at least one of the two brothers convicted on 3 August 1999 of the murder hated homosexuals. Michael Privett had told police five days after the murder that he had killed Dr Rowland because "he was a fag." He later recanted saying he had been offered $50 000 by his younger brother to lie. PAUL JOSEPH HARRIS, 47, was murdered on 20 June 1998 at Queanbeyan by Pieter Egbert Helmhout, 31, and Mark William Helmhout, 37, and were jailed on 22 June 2000 for at least 13 years and six months. Mark Helmhout had decided to make the killing look like a gay bashing and in a final act of humiliation the victim's trousers were pulled down in the bush where his body was dumped. DAVID O'HEARN murdered - Albion Park Rail 12 June 1998 FRANK ARKELL murdered - Wollongong - 26 June 1998 BRENDAN McGOVERN, 29, murdered on 3 March 1999. He was found strangled in harbourside bushland, close to the edge of the Parramatta River at Gladesville Reserve at Huntleys Point. JAMIE CREIGHTON and ALI MOKDAD murdered in Alexandria house 22 June 1999 HARRY JANSON, 57, murdered in his Cabramatta home, July 1999.
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