Activism: Sydney Gay Liberation

Gay Liberation split from CAMP. It had other ideas about change. John Storey and Brian Woodward were there. Dennis Altman was the media face of Sydney Gay Liberation and Anton Veenstra remembers him speaking to students. Dennis McManus speaks about demonstrations called ‘Zaps’.

John Storey recalls speaking about Gay Liberation at the University of NSW and Dennis McManus describes a zap. Katy O’Rourke relates her experiences at consciousness raising groups. In June 1973, Jeremy Fisher was expelled from his college at Macquarie University and he describes what happened and the intervention of a union, the Builders Labourer’s Federation. There were a couple of Centres and Gary Schliemann describes what happened there.

Gay Pride Week in 1973 was the first national gay protest. In Sydney it ended in violent mass arrests. Terry Rolfe helped plan the week and was arrested. Diane Minnis and Katy O’Rourke also describe Gay Pride Week.