Mel Hughes, Sydney
This year's Queer Collaborations (QC) conference, held at the University of New South Wales on July 3-7, was attended by 250 people, most of them university students.
The conference — Australia's largest national forum for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and other queer activists — was themed "Rainbow Terror Alert", a spoof on the US colour-coded terrorism alert system, aimed against PM John Howard's inclusion of same-sex couples in "anti-terror" laws while denying them civil unions and same-sex marriage.
The conference addressed the rise of "fear politics" through a plenary featuring queer Refugee Action Coalition member Norrie May Welbye; sedition law, queer and civil rights expert Kate Davison; and Peter Polities, an expert on government outsourcing of services from the queer and community sectors to religious organisations.
Other speakers included Anna Samson from Sydney Stop the War Coalition, and Farida Iqbal from Sydney's Community Action against Homophobia.
Fred Fuentes, national coordinator of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, addressed the conference on the need for "cross-movement solidarity".
The conference concluded with a rally at the Crown Hotel in Surry Hills, condemning it for its homophobia and discrimination against people with disabilities.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 26, 2006.
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