Co-Convenor's Report

Secretary's Report

Campaigns Reports

Events and Fundraising Report

Treasurer's Report

Summary of Achievements

Thank you

ANNUAL REPORT 2001-2002

Annual report 2001-2002

Co-Convenors Report

The year 2001-2002 has been a successful yet challenging time for the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. The political climate and commitment to equality, federally and in NSW has become less lesbian and gay friendly over recent years and even small wins are extremely hard fought. The GLRL has however, galvanised many of our organisational strengths over this year and made good political headway. We are pleased to report that the GLRL is in an excellent position, both structurally and financially, to continue the fight for equal rights for lesbians and gay men in NSW.

At the 2001 Annual General Meeting we (Anthony Schembri and Alex Sosnov) were elected convenors for a second term. We brought our excitement, motivation and open hearts into the roles. Our leadership has been characterised by significant effort in recognising the important bonds between legal and social reform.

Our sole mission is to protect and promote the rights of lesbians and gay men in NSW. These legal and social rights are about freedom from prejudice, freedom from harassment and freedom from discrimination because of sexuality. They are about equality in laws and institutions and rights in the social arena. Rights we fight for include: the right to parent and form families of our choice; the right to love and enter recognised relationships with whom we wish regardless of sexuality or gender; the right for an accurate representation of gay and lesbian interests in the media and finally the right to walk the street without fear of harassment or violence.

The mission of the GLRL therefore remains a big one and we were only a part of the extraordinary talent that has made up the committee team, supported also by a small volunteer base. We'd like to take the opportunity at the outset of this report to thank wholeheartedly each individual on the committee for their help, support and, at times thankless, enthusiasm. We have learnt much from you. Thank you also to our Office Manager, Tim Moyes for your commitment and dedication to the work of the GLRL.

The diversity of the work of the GLRL will be found in the pages of this annual report however, our core business of direct political action such as lobbying politicians, community leaders, the media and key bureaucrats did not distract us from our other work in promoting and protecting rights. The GLRL in 2001-2002 has researched and wrote about issues affecting our communities, we reviewed legislation, we did extensive media and community awareness work, we provided a referral and information service on rights issues, we held seats on a number of government boards and advisory committees, we worked in partnership with other gay and lesbian community groups as well as groups outside our communities and we coordinated a range of projects such as our parenting work. The year has been one of much work and activity.

The federal election and the subsequent return of John Howard's leadership kicked off this GLRL term. We had campaigned strongly along with some of our interstate counterparts, for federal reform including superannuation reform. We spearheaded a high profile superannuation campaign and secured commitments from the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Attorney General for inclusion of same sex reform in super as well as gay and lesbian inclusion in federal anti discrimination legislation. Unfortunately the Government was less forthcoming and any lesbian and gay reform to federal laws has been put on hold. The lack of federal leadership on lesbian and gay reform is not at all surprising given the record, even more so in light of this same leadership team later making way for Senator Heffernan's vicious homophobic attacks upon Justice Michael Kirby.

The accusations made by Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan under cover of parliamentary privilege caused great distress not only to Justice Michael Kirby but also to gay men and lesbians throughout Australia. Unfortunately less public attacks of this nature occur every day. Ordinary gay men and lesbians frequently have to deal with prejudice, harassment and even violence and have little or no protection from discrimination at a federal level.

Federal anti-discrimination legislation prohibits discrimination on a number of grounds, including sex, race, ethnicity, marital status and disability. This has been successful in prohibiting discrimination and providing a remedy for victims. More importantly, it has proven to be a positive tool in promoting equality. However, there is no such protection for lesbians and gay men, despite numerous studies showing that most have suffered workplace discrimination, many have been refused services and that violence and harassment is common in schools and elsewhere. Legislation is urgently needed to fill this gap. Federal Attorney General Daryl Williams responding to a call by the GLRL to federal sexuality discrimination has ruled out such law reform and the picture for federal law reform looks grim.

Long time advocates for lesbian and gay rights the Australian Democrats have a strong interest in this area and will no doubt continue to pressure and advocate for federal anti-discrimination reform in the Senate.

Other federal developments included the release of the 2001 Census preliminary data that demonstrated large number of self-identified same sex couples across Australia. Whilst the statistics do not provide an accurate view of gay and lesbian Australia, the coming out by so many same sex couples will be helpful in the planning of services and in ensuring future census's are sensitive to our issues.

Refocusing back on state issues, we have had a full year making social and legal headway. Our efforts have concentrated on a number of priority areas including further relationship reform, parenting and age of consent. These remain our priorities heading into the state election due March 2003.

After securing a personal commitment from the Attorney General Bob Debus last August for the introduction of what we termed the 'missing pieces' legislation that which was missing from the GLRL secured relationship reform in 1999 [the Property Relationships Amendment Act], we went to the press with a 'times up' headline. Someone once said never to mistake motion for action, and unfortunately the State Government was talking but not acting. This is not acceptable to our community or to our sense of justice.

Then in mid 2002, the Attorney General advised that Cabinet have approved law reform that recognises lesbian and gay de facto relationships in 23 different Acts. These 'missing pieces' of the Property Relationship Amendment Act (1999) significantly re-dress much of the inequality faced by lesbian and gay couples and, when passed by the Parliament, will be a tremendous victory for lesbian and gay rights in NSW. As we go to print, the 'missing pieces' amendments proposed by the Attorney General are scheduled to come before the parliament in September 2002.

Lesbian and gay parenting has been an area the GLRL has been campaigning on for a few years now. It's an area where we recognise that our work has to concentrate not only on political or legislative reform (of which there is much to do) but also on social reform. As lesbian and gay rights are more than legal rights, much of the social reform aspects have to focus on our own community and their awareness and attitudes to lesbian and gay parents and their children.

At fair day this year during the Mardi Gras Season, we launched the second of our parenting reports. Entitled 'Meet the Parents' this report, researched and written by Jenni Millbank, was a world first in bringing together all the credible research into lesbian and gay parenting. Launched by Dr Kerryn Phelps, it came as no surprise to us that the research findings showed that lesbians and gay men made as good, if not better, parents than their heterosexual counterparts. Research reports like this one are an important tool in countering anti-homosexual attacks and providing politicians with important information to aid legislative reform. Media interest in this topic was high and not always supportive. A lot of questions focused on 'why we now suddenly wanted to have children', the fact being that gay men and lesbians have being having children for a long time. However now lesbian and gay families with children were becoming visible in both our own community and in the wider community. This is actually a pleasing outcome for us, as our first report highlighted invisibility as one of the causes of discrimination.

We are pleased to say that we also secured a grant this year from the Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales to conduct the next phase of our parenting campaigning, which is to research and community focus test options for legislative change. This work will begin in this next term of the GLRL and we can't wait to see the results going forward. This project will also support the GLRL submission to the Law Reform Commission review into the Property Relationships Act.

As mentioned, another priority area for us this year has been the discriminatory age of consent in NSW. A detailed report on this issue is found in this annual report. In summary, the GLRL has continued to campaign extensively in 2001-2002 for the equalisation of the current discriminatory age of consent laws in NSW. NSW shamefully now has the most draconian laws of any Australian State or territory on this issue. The GLRL has been working very hard behind the scenes to assist in supporting the conditions that will best facilitate reform when the matter comes to the Upper House for a vote later in 2002. This strategy has involved four key components. Firstly, demonstrating that an unequal age of consent is harmful to young men, secondly improving our members' and community's understanding and literacy of the issue, thirdly building networks and partnerships with other organisations in preparation for the campaign and finally direct lobbying of parliamentarians and opinion leaders. The incoming Committee will be well placed to lead the campaign for law reform in this area in 2002-2003.

Every year the challenge for our events and fundraising team grows. It's no secret that funding community organisations is increasingly difficult, and added to that is the fact that the GLRL is generally not eligible for any on-going government funding nor eligible for charity tax status. That said, we have benefited enormously from the generous support and sponsorship from First Fleet Productions who ran the Harbour Party, and NiteGroove for the Frisky Parties. These two organisations together have almost entirely funded the activities of the GLRL for the past 5 years or so.

Unfortunately First Fleet have retired from running the harbour parties and so we have been exploring other ways to bump up our fundraising. This has included a successful new event in the Stonewall commemorative 'Pride Week' which we called 'Rhythms of the Night', held at The Midnight Shift and produced by JoJo of Frisky fame. This first for us brought in approximately $5000 toward our State Election Campaign. We also raised funds during the Mardi Gras season, and at our 'Launch Party' at the Stonewall Hotel where we raised over $4000. Our other key supporter in 2002 included South Sydney City Council for the subsidised accommodation provided to the GLRL.

The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras also is of concern for us not only financially but for the social and political impact on our community and the perception there of. At the time of going to print it is difficult for us to comment much more on the Mardi Gras issue except to say we are committed to ensuring the political impact of an event, such as the parade, is not removed from our community.

In addition to community politics, our biggest task ahead is concentrating on the State Election and gaining commitments for reform in the lead up to that. Two months ago, at our last community forum, we launched our annual rights campaign with a focus on the State Election postcard campaign. This campaign, conceived on our last Committee planning day highlights NSW as now the 'last state' in lesbian and gay legal reform. Committee member Shane Garland developed the theme into the NSW numberplate image and we have now released three different postcards featuring a version of the NSW 'The Last State" number plates. We believe the response rate has been good with people filling them in and posting to Premier Bob Carr, although his office will not disclose volumes received. It is our estimate that over 500 cards have been sent to the Premier's office. We strongly encourage anyone who has not filled one in to do so, and send your message of support for equal rights to the Government. The reality is that this is a numbers game and we need all our members and supporters to ring or write to your local MP and to Bob Carr telling them homophobia in our laws and government is not okay.

The lack of action and commitment to law reform in NSW clearly demonstrates that the government thinks there is more votes to be won in homophobia in the coming state election, we need to show there are actually more votes in equality and human rights.

One of things we've learnt in our lobbying work is MP's and political parties take some notice of lobbyists, they take more notice of the media but what they absolutely sit up and pay full attention too is letters and phone calls from people in their electorate. Don't be fooled by thinking logical and justified arguments will win the game: it won't. It's about numbers and it's about letting MP's know that if they think there are votes in homophobia - then they've lost yours.

Much of the work of GLRL convenors is behind the scenes and we have been no different in this regard. We hold appointments to a range of government and non-government committees including the State Government Network of Government Agencies on Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Issues; the Attorney General's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Advisory Committee; the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Advisory Committee of South Sydney City Council, the Same Sex Domestic Violence Interagency and the Advisory Committee of the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project to name but a few.

Other activities to note this year include: the GLRL's involvement in the boundaries commission issues relating to South Sydney and Sydney City Councils; speaking engagements at SGLBA dinner, the Queer Revival Festival at the University of New South Wales and guest lectures at Sydney University and the University of New South Wales; involvement in the South Australian Rights Lobby's Hypothetical event; the reprinting of our fact sheets in some Spinney Press school curriculum books; donation of $2000 from the GLRL to a children's reading project; the development of new GLRL stationary and t-shirts; and the re-development of our website to be launched early next term.

We wish to also offer our condolences to the family and friends of Paul Costello who recently passed away. Paul had served previously as a convenor of GLRL and was also a great volunteer and activist for our community. To him we say thank you.

At this next Annual General Meeting, we both intend to stand down and retire from the convenor positions and the committee. This is a decision based on our other personal and professional commitments as we both have had long involvement now in the GLRL stretching over many years as both volunteers and Committee Members. Although at times its been incredibly hard to fit Lobby work into our lives, our commitment to the positions which have been entirely on a volunteer basis, has meant we are leaving with a great deal of sadness. It's been fantastic to work with such a dedicated group of people and a privilege to represent the community on important matters of legal and social reform.

One of the great and longstanding aspects of the GLRL is our commitment to women and men working together in partnership and at a personal we have enjoyed very much working with each other during what is at times a difficult and demanding community leadership role.

We wish the next committee and its convenors all the best and offer our continued support to the work of the GLRL. Thank you to Kathy Sant for all your hard work and assistance over the year in your role as advisor to the Convenors, to our fellow Executive Members, Andrew Pickles and Jenny Mann, thank you. We wish to also thank our partners Debra Jones and Robert McGrory for their patience and support. We couldn't have done our work without you both!

Finally, there is still much to be done in NSW for gay and lesbian rights. The GLRL needs all our members and supporters to rally together. With age of consent soon to come to a head and the state election only a few short months away the GLRL will be again be called upon to provide leadership on these issues. We are pleased to report the GLRL is in an excellent position to confront and respond to these challenges.

Yours in the fight for equality

Anthony M. Schembri and Alexandra Sosnov
Co-Convenors