Lesbians unite for 20-year celebration

Twenty years ago, 2000 lesbians gathered at the Sydney Opera House for a night of music and dance, and a celebration of community.

On July 10, lesbians will be back ‘in the house’ for a celebratory concert, the culmination of a weekend full of festivities.

The Lesbians in the House concert, organised by Creative Womyn Down Under founders and producers Georgina JD Abrahams and Gabrielle Journey Jones, will feature many of the original artists from the 1991 event, plus many more.

“The first half of the show is going to be basically the women who performed 20 years ago,” journalist and activist Julie McCrossin said.

“The second half is an introduction of a whole new, younger group of women who’ve been given the opportunity to perform — a passing of the torch.”
McCrossin is on the bill for a secret part of the night.

“I’m responsible for one mystery segment. I can’t go into too much detail, other than to say that the core of this event is to celebrate lesbian women, and my segment will do that in spades,” she said.

“I’ve been a longtime supporter of gay marriage, and I’ll certainly be making reference to it and saying ‘enough’s enough, let’s get full equality before the law’ in my segment.”

Although McCrossin was overseas at the time of the original concert, she has “performed with a number of these women — Judy Small, Deborah Cheetham, Bluehouse — on stage even before that, which makes me feel very old!”

Also appearing at the four-hour concert are artists including Shauna Jensen, Kerrianne Cox, Mignon, and Sally Whitwell. Before that, there’s an entire weekend of festivities on offer, starting with a Bush Dance in Marrickville on the Friday night and a full day of fun in Newtown on Saturday including a lesbian artisans market, poetry session, short films, a lesbian walking tour ending with a BBQ lunch at the Women’s Library, and a forum facilitated by Katrina Fox at the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre.

info: Lesbian Weekender, July 8-10. www.creativewomyn.net