Gunning for more respect
You know something is wrong on Oxford St when people are arrested with weapons. You know that things are very wrong when they’re caught with machine guns. But as unbelievable as that sounds, it’s exactly what happened on Monday night of the long weekend, when police searched a 30 year-old Kellyville man and allegedly found an Uzi-type semi-automatic machine gun with 32 rounds of ammunition in his bag.
We all knew that violence on the strip was on the up, but this latest episode shows just how ridiculous it’s become. This incident goes way beyond even last year’s shocking and deplorable gay bashings of Craig Gee and Shane Brennen on Crown St.
Violence is not limited to Oxford St though, nor is it particularly new. In 2006, a wave of anti-gay bashings swept through Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and left Big Brother’s gay cowboy David Graham in a pool of blood outside the Wickham. Over in New York, where guns are more common, a new gay rap opera called BASH’d premiered last week telling the story of two star-crossed lovers, Jack and Dillon, who must learn to cope with hatred after one is brutally beaten. Beneficiary of the play’s opening night, the Anti-Violence Project, reported a 24% increase in anti-LGBT violence in 2007.
This all leads me to a question: have we collectively become more violent, physically, mentally, emotionally? I personally get put off by the way some gay men have a penchant for verbally and mentally abusing someone while onlookers will just sit back and laugh, not caring less.
Have these people, who it has to be said are often queens with a lifetime membership, forgotten how hard it was being the gay one in high school and now they insist as adults on doing the same thing to others? From chat rooms to bars and clubs, gays can seem just too darn busy getting one up on each other at times to really get anywhere as a whole.
On to something lighter (phew!), celeb blogger Perez Hilton is dishing up the good dirt every morning on Nova FM, bringing the sum total of Hollywood queens that we love to wake up to in Australia to three (joining Sunrise’s Nelson Aspen and The Today Show’s Richard did ya know? Reid).
It looks like the old Cafe 191/Deck Bar in Taylor Sq-uare isn’t going to be sitting ugly and empty for much longer. Rothsay Accounting Services of Miranda has an application for a drink and dine liquor licence for the corner site and will have their application listed in front of the Licensing Court of NSW on 7 July. The working title for the venue is the imaginatively titled Oxford St Nightclub, and whether the operators are gay-friendly or gun-friendly is yet to be revealed.
Finally, I’m putting my money where my mouth is and promoting an event this Friday 20 June at the Mars Lounge called Different Drummer. Along with my partner, DJ Emagica, I’m trying to create a funky new alternative space where you can hear electro, techno and house sounds in a gay environment.
If you’re interested come down to the Mars Lounge tomorrow night and hear Mark Murphy, Jon Wicks (Clan Analogue), Emagica and me playing tunes while M mixes the visuals to mess with your mind. Entry is $15 -“ but if you email me at dcorvini@ssonet.com.au you’ll get in for $10. And please respect our dress code -“ strictly no guns. They’re simply not worth it.
