Peter de Waal AM (born 1938) is an Australian LGBT rights activist and author. He was a foundation member of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) and participated in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Peter De Waal was born in 1938. [1] As lifelong activists for the gay and lesbian community in Sydney, de Waal and his partner Peter Bonsall-Boone shared Australia's first televised gay male kiss, [2] established a counselling service from their Balmain home and confronted police during the first Sydney Mardi Gras parade in 1978. [3] [4]
de Waal is one of the group known as the “78ers” who participated in the events in Sydney in 1978 including the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, protests at Darlinghurst and Central Police Stations and Central Court, and marches through the city. [5] [6] [7] He attended the New South Wales State Parliament formal bipartisan apology to the 78ers on 25 February 2016. [7] [8]
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)In June 2017, de Waal and Bonsall-Boone (posthumously) were both inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, [9] "for significant service to the community as an LGBTIQ advocate and supporter, and through a range of volunteer roles." [10]
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest LGBT festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania. It includes a variety of events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and Party, Bondi Beach Drag Races, Harbour Party, the academic discussion panel Queer Thinking, Mardi Gras Film Festival, as well as Fair Day, which attracts 70,000 people to Victoria Park, Sydney.
The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) was a Christian democratic political party in Australia, founded in 1977, under the name Call to Australia Party, by a group of Christian ministers in New South Wales. One of the co-founders, Fred Nile, a Congregational Church minister, ran as their upper house candidate in the NSW State election. The Christian Democratic Party's platform espoused social conservatism. It changed its name in 1998.
The Star Observer is a free monthly magazine and online newspaper that caters to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities in Australia.
SX News was a weekly gay and lesbian newspaper based in Sydney, Australia.
Julie Elizabeth McCrossin is an Australian radio broadcaster, journalist, comedian, political commentator and activist for women's and gay rights. She is best known for her role as a team captain on the news-based comedy quiz show Good News Week between 1996 and 2000.
The Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) is a community-based non-profit organisation committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of material reflecting the lives and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex LGBTI Australians. It is located in Melbourne. The Archives was established as an initiative of the 4th National Homosexual Conference, Sydney, August 1978, drawing on the previous work of founding President Graham Carbery. Since its establishment the collection has grown to over 200,000 items, constituting the largest and most significant collection of material relating to LGBT Australians and the largest collection of LGBT material in Australia, and the most prominent research centre for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex history in Australia.
The Mardi Gras Film Festival is an Australian LGBTQ+ film festival held in Sydney, New South Wales annually as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations. It is organised by Queer Screen Limited, a non-profit organization, and is one of the world's largest platforms for queer cinema.
Peter Tully (1947-1992), was a jeweller, designer and artistic director, notable for his influence on jewellery design in Australia through the utilisation of found and non-precious materials, as well as his artistic direction of the Sydney Mardi Gras (1982-1986).
Peter "Bon" Bonsall-Boone was an Australian LGBT rights activist. He was a foundation member of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) and participated in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
Sydney's Pride History Group was established as the first volunteer community group dedicated exclusively to preserving the history of LGBTIQ Sydney predominantly through the collection of oral history interviews. The Group's origins date from discussions held at the Sydney Pride Centre in between 2003 and 2004. The Group's Patrons are Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, artist William Yang and Meredith Burgmann.
C. Moore Hardy , is an Australian photographer, nurse and community worker, known for her extensive photographic documentation of the Sydney queer community since the late 1970s. Hardy's work has encompassed both freelance and commercial photography, featuring candid portraiture of community events, most notably the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and in particular minority groups within the LGBTI community. She successfully ran Starfish Studio Photography Studio/Gallery in Clovelly, NSW for 15 years. Hardy held a major exhibition of over three decades of her documentation of Sydney's LGBTQ+ scene at the National Art School in Sydney.
Sue Wills was an Australian activist, prominent in the Women's Liberation Movement and the press for LGBT rights. She was instrumental in challenging the psychiatric community's views and treatment of homosexuality and a co-founder of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (C.A.M.P.)
The 78ers are a group of LGBT activists who marched in the original Sydney Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978 and participated in the subsequent protests against police violence and the arrests of participants in the Mardi Gras. In 1997 a small group of people who were part of the 1978 events contributed to planning the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Sydney Mardi Gras parade in 1998. This group became known as the 78ers and has led each year's Mardi Gras parade since 1998.
The Paris Theatre was a cinema and theatre located on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and Liverpool Street in Sydney that showed films and vaudeville, cabaret and plays. The theatre changed names several times, trading as Australia Picture Palace (1915-1935), Tatler Theatre (1935-1950), Park Theatre (1952-1954) and Paris Theatre (1954-1981) before being demolished in 1981. In May 1978 the theatre hosted a film festival that inspired the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. The theatre was also the home of Paris Theatre Company, a Sydney based theatre company.
Ron Austin was an Australian LGBT rights activist, who was known for being one of the founders of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 1978.
Lance Gowland (1935–2008) was an Australian LGBT rights activist, unionist, peace activist and Communist Party member. He was a member of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) and as one of the organisers drove the truck in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The Campaign Against Moral Persecution was an LGBT activism group. It was officially established on 6 February 1971, at the first public gathering of gay women and men in Australia, which took place in a church hall in Balmain, New South Wales.
Riot is an Australian drama television film that aired on ABC and ABC iview on February 25, 2018. The film is directed by Jeffrey Walker from a screenplay by Greg Waters and a story by Carrie Anderson. It stars Damon Herriman, Kate Box, Xavier Samuel, Jessica De Gouw, and Josh Quong Tart. It takes a look at the 1970s LGBT rights movement in Australia through the eyes of dedicated activist Lance Gowland.
The LGBT community of Sydney, in New South Wales, is the largest in Australia and has a firm place as one of the iconic gay cities of the contemporary world. In a 2013 Pew Research poll, 79% of Australians agreed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, making it the fifth most supportive country in the survey behind Spain (88%), Germany (87%), Canada and the Czech Republic. With a long history of LGBT rights activism and the annual three-week-long Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival, Sydney is one of the most gay-friendly cities in Australia and in the world.
Queerstralia is an Australian documentary TV series about LGBT history in Australia that aired on ABC Television in 2023. The three episodes were hosted by comedian Zoe Coombs Marr.