<
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-exhilaration-and-fear-dennis-altman-on-the-global-gay-rights-divide-232162>
"Earlier this year I visited Italy to mark the re-translation of my first book,
Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation (published in 1972). An attempt to
explain the emergence of gay liberation, the book grew out of my involvement in
New York’s early gay movement, which exploded after a police raid on a gay bar,
the Stonewall, in 1969.
There was something moving and humbling about talking to audiences, many of
whom were not born when I wrote that book, more so because I do not speak
Italian and was largely dependent on interpreters. In all four cities where I
spoke, audiences ranged widely across age and sexual and gender identities.
Some were veterans of the early Italian gay movement, others just discovering a
queer milieu.
Reflecting on the world in which I wrote my book, and the changes that have
occurred since, I turned to the words of the late civil rights activist Martin
Luther King. “The arc of the moral universe is long,” said King, “but it bends
towards justice.”
Certainly, in countries like Australia, this statement feels persuasive. Who
would have imagined back in 1972 that the most trusted politician in the
country would be an openly lesbian Asian woman? Or that the prime minister
would lead a Pride march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge? Of course there are
still people on the margins who struggle for acceptance. While we now have
large, well-funded queer community organisations, they often overlook the most
marginalised, as is the case for queer refugees and asylum seekers.
But King’s words seemed less apposite in Italy, now the least progressive
country in Western Europe, with a government committed to defending “family
values”, as long as the family is understood in conventional heterosexual
terms. Italy has civil unions rather than same-sex marriage, and while abortion
is legal, the Meloni government is seeking to restrict access to it.
In Italy, I was struck by the vigour of the queer cultural and intellectual
world, but also by how few resources are available for its queer community
compared to Australia. Nowhere in the country is there anything equivalent to
Melbourne’s grandiose Victorian Pride Centre or the government-supported QTopia
museum in Sydney.
Meanwhile, in other European countries, such as Russia and Hungary,
authoritarian leaders Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban are making attacks on
“gender ideology” and decrying “LGBT ideology”. Russia’s supreme court banned
the “LGBT movement” last November, and several courts have convicted people for
displaying “extremist” rainbow symbols.
In African nations such as Uganda, and, closer to home, in Indonesia, new laws
target queer sexuality. And earlier this year, Iraq passed a law imposing a
sentence of 10 to 15 years for same-sex relations."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
