Stories from the Frontlines: A history of LGBTIQA+ activism in Australia

About Liz Ross

Liz Ross is an activist who has been involved in Women’s and Gay Liberation politics since the early 1970s.

She is a founding and now life member of the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA, formerly Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives), and author of Revolution is for us: the left and gay liberation in Australia.

Ross’ book examines the role that socialist, progressive and working-class organisations played in the earliest gay rights movements and uncovers the rich history of the Left and Gay Liberation in Australia, an inspiration for activists today.

About Graham Willett 

Graham Willett has been active in gay politics in Melbourne since 1979. He was a founding member of the editorial collective which produced Gay Community News (now OutRage) and participated in numerous campaigns on a range of social issues in the 1980s and 90s.

Graham’s latest book, Before Mardi Gras: Lesbian and gay activism in Australia, 1969-1978, examines the often-overlooked first decade of lesbian and gay rights activism in Australia, when the foundations for our communities were laid. Willet’s book focuses on activist groups The Homosexual Law Reform Society (Canberra, 1969), the Daughters of Bilitis (Melbourne 1970), and Campaign Against Moral Persecution (Sydney 1970). These groups built a movement by publishing newspapers, graffitiing and pasting up posters, lobbing eggs and lobbying, and dancing and kissed in public at a time when it was illegal to do so.