鈥淪top police attacks on gays, women and blacks鈥 shouts an iconic poster at the 2018 Museum of Love and Protest gallery exhibition.
It was the slogan that reverberated down Sydney鈥檚 Oxford Street 40 year鈥檚 ago as the protest-parade marched through Darlinghurst, laughing, dancing and imploring others to come out of the closet and join the fight to repeal anti-homosexual laws.
One hundred and twenty young people between the ages of 16 and 25 from around Victoria made their way to Parliament House in the first week of July for the YMCA Youth Parliament program. Spending up to four months preparing their bills, students in 20 teams of six presented and debated the issues most important to them. After debating each bill for an hour, each student was allowed a conscience vote.
The 20 bills presented by the Youth Parliament were mostly progressive responses to social issues, with a quarter having an environmental focus.
Carol Lloyd,聽a gay icon and trailblazer for female rockers,聽died on February 13 after a lengthy聽battle with聽pulmonary fibrosis. Lloyd is best remembered for her lead vocals with the funk band Railroad Gin, whose hits include the seminal 1974 classic 鈥淎 Matter of Time鈥, which hit number 1 on the charts.
鈥淚 just don鈥檛 see how I could be living an honest, truthful life and have that in the background,鈥 said My-King Johnson, the first openly gay recruit in major conference American college football (grid iron) on his sexuality.
Reactions by politicians and the media around the world to the horrific mass murder at an Orlando LGBTI club on June 12 have largely focused on the attacker鈥檚 alleged links to Islamic extremists 鈥 despite the killer pledging allegiance to both the Islamic State group and its nemesis Hezbollah.
