A generation of party thinking

A generation of party thinking

I went to Queer Thinking at the Seymour Centre, my first Mardi Gras event as an “out” gay man in Sydney.

I was expecting a dynamic and interactive experience, after hearing about topics like Google Presents: Activism In The Internet Age and seeing a Sydney Mardi Gras tweet that read, “At one of our events today? Don’t forget to use the hash-tags #queerthinking and #harbour12”.

I was initially and continuously disappointed at the dwindling proportion of young people who made up the crowd throughout the day.

At one of the concluding sessions, Dennis Altman’s retrospective on his 40-year-old groundbreaking book Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation, I asked the author and his fellow panel members why they thought more young gay people had chosen to go Harbour Party over Queer Thinking to hear about topics like gay liberation.

After attending a few sessions, it seemed to me as though the event as a whole really didn’t embrace new technology, multimedia or any kind of social media interaction to entice young people to stay throughout the day.

The setting was quite dull, and to be perfectly honest, Google would have been my last guess as to who was the major supporter of the event. The #queerthinking hash-tag generated 29 tweets the whole day, so when you compare this to the also lacklustre but still triumphant 48 tweets for #Harbour12, it’s easy to see how the intellectual part of the Mardi Gras festival somehow missed the mark.

As Sydney Mardi Gras is a not-for-profit organisation, securing financial support to put on this event will always be a challenge, one that relies heavily on the hard work of much-appreciated volunteers. I have the utmost respect for all of the organisers and participants of Queer Thinking 2012, including Sydney’s Pride History Group and Sydney Mardi Gras.

But it might be as simple as scheduling Queer Thinking on a different day from Harbour Party next year. For many, it might not be a stretch to imagine young gay people choosing to go to a dance party over an intellectual ideas forum, but I say that’s a disappointing assumption of those who might want to go to both.

I think we’d have a larger and younger crowd that would stick around for the whole day if these events weren’t running at the same time.

Though it wouldn’t be fair to raise these points without shining a spotlight on my peers. I don’t feel as though pushing boundaries or promoting intellectual thought are celebrated actions for a substantial proportion of gay Sydneysiders in their 20s.

One of Altman’s responses was that not every homosexual in the ’60s was a revolutionary political figure who fought tooth and nail for the rights we now enjoy. A fair point, as I’ll admit I romanticise aspects of past revolution noteworthy enough to make the pages of books like Oppression and Liberation. Maybe that’s where this whole piece stems from.

But my identity as a young gay man plays a fundamental role in my life, and I choose to see it as an opportunity to inject more substance and ideas into the heads of those around me.

I do believe this event has the potential to be the most forceful part of the Mardi Gras festival, because we need intellectual thought for a continuously progressive society.

We live in an age where technology can help us present the stories of young and old in ways that have never been done before. Videos, sound clips, live tweet screens, roving mics, presentations and, dare I say it, controversial debates — could we imagine TEDxQUEER for 2013? I think these are the things that could attract more young people to the event next year.

I do wish more of my peers took the time to appreciate the history of gay liberation that day, and why it is that in 2012 we’re able to go to dance parties on Sydney Harbour to celebrate who we are.

And yes, I’d love to volunteer my time and energy next year into making some of this happen.

By BENJAMIN VOZZO

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2 responses to “A generation of party thinking”

  1. Nice article.

    I think for me it was a general lack of exposure that lead to me not turning up. In the past I have been pretty apathetic about LGBTI events and only this year have I started to really take part.

    Something like this would be something I would enjoy taking party in and I agree that beefing things up with some technology and social media interaction sound like a great way to help!

  2. So true. I really wanted to stay longer for Queer Thinking but was pressured by friends to run off to Harbour.

    I think a Q&A style debate would of been great!