THE SSO A-Z GUIDE TO QUEER SYDNEY

V IS FOR

Victim mentality If there’s one thing many gay people are expert at, it’s playing the victim. You know the type, nothing goes right for them but it’s not their fault. They can’t get a boyfriend/ girlfriend because everyone on the gay scene is vacuous and everyone on the internet is more interested in rooting than romance.

The gays scene’s shit anyway and was much better a decade ago. Mardi Gras isn’t a patch on what it used to be and is now just a colourful parade for tourists. Furthermore the house prices in Surry Hills have skyrocketed since all these moneyed-up poofs moved in and a flat white is now $3.75 in Darlinghurst and they can’t even make it properly and I’d stay in on a Friday night but have you seen what dross they put on Channel Seven these days?

It’s enough to drive you to drink -“ which brings me back to my first point -“ the gay scene is shit. Get over it or do something about it. Go to a different pub, roam a different dating site, join Mardi Gras and change it, find a coffee shop that’s cheaper, watch SBS, take up salsa dancing -“ just stop whinging to me about it.

Visionaries Where is the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the queer movement in Australia? Who can stand up and inspire a whole community to look beyond immediate struggles and small victories, and imagine a world where newspapers such as Sydney Star Observer are no longer necessary? Or perhaps where gay pubs don’t feel the need to request anti-discrimination exemptions.

Unfortunately, in recent years Australia has lacked gay and lesbian visionaries of our own, always a step behind European and American example. Discrimination in law still exists at both federal and state level and yet few speak out. Those that do are focused solely on very small steps that are achievable. If not for Vermont and Massachusetts, how many decades would it have taken before Australia even considered the idea of same-sex marriage?

Even today, the recent report into same-sex relationships by the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby found many in the community are looking only to civil unions, not because they’re preferred, but because they’re perceived to be more easily achievable. So while the battle over gay and lesbian equality is still largely fought by heterosexuals in government cabinets around the country, the community is still waiting for one of their own to stand on the steps of Town Hall and announce a dream of their own.