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One of Australia’s oldest and longest running gay saunas, the Bay City Sauna located on Glen Huntly Road in the inner Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick, will close down at the end of December 2022.“We have been informed by our landlord that the construction of the slab may be compromised due to the age of the building,” Shane Gardiner, General Manager, WP van der Linden Pty Ltd, told Star Observer. Last week, the sauna had posted on social media that it was closing for maintenance from October 10, 2022.“Sadly it has come to the end of its life and the landlord has been concerned about the weight from all the equipment.

The Drag Kings are set to break a world record when they march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) Parade on February 25.In a conversation with Star Observer, drag king Big Rod, one of the float organisers, explained, “The float is called Drag Kings Unite, and it’s really about that push for representation for drag kings and showing how diverse and huge our community is.”The Drag Kings Unite float will feature a crown made of strip lighting and a DJ on an elevated platform. The parade participants will be dressed in royal colours, symbolising the drag king community’s strength and desire for more representation in the LGBTQIA+ community.Talking about the misconceptions drag kings face, Big Rod said, “I think a lot of people think drag kings don’t exist or that we aren’t as good as [drag queens]. “I would say that it’s time to stop comparing us to drag queens and respect us as our own genre, our own art form, that is just as wonderful and diverse as drag queens, and it’s time for us to share that space a bit more.”Drag king Sexy Galexy believes that drag kings do not get the same recognition as drag queens because “we live in a man’s world.”“We’ve had our mouths taped shut and pushed back to the back rooms, small rooms, offstage.

Victoria may have some of the more progressive laws in Australia for the LGBTQI community, but it has one of the lowest representation of out MPs in the state Parliament. Just around 1.6 per cent of members of Parliament  in Victoria identify as LGBTQI,  as opposed to 16 per cent in ACT and 11 per cent in Western Australia. Northern Territory, NSW and SA have around 4 per cent, 3.7 per cent and 2.9 per cent of MPs who identity as LGBTQI respectively.

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, President Biden’s pick for White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator, is a “gay Satanist.”Seeking evidence for this far-fetched claim, Twitter users have breathlessly scoured through various pictures from Daskalakis’ social media accounts — which have since been made private — and magazine or newspaper articles touting his past work as a New York City health official and as director of the CDC Division of HIV Prevention.Their chief piece of evidence for his alleged allegiance to Satanism is a pentagram symbol that Daskalakis has tattooed on his chest, as first reported by the Australian newspaper the Star Observer.“Meet Demetre Daskalakis.

The National Union of Students’ Queer/LGBTQIA+ department has launched a national campaign to stop the deadnaming of trans, non-binary and gender diverse students. The campaign, My Records, My Rights: Stop Deadnaming at Universities!, aims to prevent the use of deadnames of students across tertiary education.A survey conducted in April 2022 by the NUS Queer/LGBTQIA+ department found that every single respondent had experienced some form of deadnaming at universities.  Around 83% of students said there was a persistent deadnaming issue at their university, with 20% saying they were dead named by staff. “What students are trying to do is make sure that universities are aware of their chosen name, but the systems in place just don’t allow it,” Jordy Duffy, the National Queer/LGBTQIA+ Officer for the NUS told Star Observer. “Universities have said ‘Oh, it’s an IT issue,’ and we’re trying to basically say no, it’s about validating a person for who they are.”Jordy mentions that on top of the disappointing statistics from the survey, they’ve listened to a lot of shocking individual stories.The NUS said it has been in contact with a variety of departments and student unions throughout the country, which has only made it more apparent how widespread the issue is.

The Bookshop Darlinghurst, Australia’s oldest LGBTQI bookstore, turns 40 this month.In recent years, The Bookshop has weathered the impacts of COVID, economic and political uncertainty and inclement weather, and for a while its future was precarious.

Blake Appelqvist, one of the stars of the musical Bonnie & Clyde, currently playing at the revered Hayes Theatre, had a flying chat with Star Observer. We quickly got down to business when Appelqvist replied to a question asked about any possible differences in how they, as a non-binary actor, approach the role of a storied, married, heterosexual man from America’s past compared to other roles they’ve tackled, such as Oaken in Frozen or an Angel in Kinky Boots.“So it is a little bit of a freedom to be non-binary and playing a role that is not necessarily specified as whether or not he’s non-binary or if he’s binary presenting but I think it’s good and I feel like there should be more non-binary and gender non-conforming people playing cis-presenting roles.

From growing up with his ‘foot in two camps’ – queer and Indigenous, to being the voice of the LGBTQI community in Victoria, Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Communities Todd Fernando tells Star Observer it’s been an exciting journey. Todd Fernando, Victorian Commissioner for LGBTIQ+ Communities, is the first out queer, Indigenous person to be appointed a commissioner in Australia. For this descendant of Kalarie people from the Wiradjuri nation, growing up with his “foot in two camps” was not an easy task. “Being a young Wiradjuri person, we were fighting for the recognition of our culture. I had to put my queerness on the back burner and, and really not allow it to overshadow what we were trying to do within the Wiradjuri space,” Fernando told Star Observer. You can read more here: https://t.co/q70htML9Kv— Victorian LGBTIQ+ Commissioner (@VicLGBTIQ) June 14, 2022It was not until his early 20s that Fernando found a way to reconcile his two identities.

Long-overdue law reforms to ban religious organisations and faith-based schools in Victoria from refusing to hire or sacking teachers and staff for being LGBTQI came into effect Tuesday, June 14, 2022. The Equal Opportunity (Religious Exceptions) Amendment Act passed by the Victorian Parliament in December 2021 commenced on Tuesday. Victoria now joins other jurisdictions in Australia that have enacted laws to protect LGBTQI staff. Tasmania, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) already prohibit religious organisations and schools from sacking staff for being LGBTQI. LGBTQI advocacy organisations and unions said that the Victorian government’s law reforms protect not just school staff but also students.“This is a day to celebrate,” Debra James, General Secretary, Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania told Star Observer.

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has warned the NSW’s minority Dominic Perrottet government that he would withdraw his support if the Premier continued to make comments against the transgender community.The Perrottet government, which does not have a majority in the NSW Parliament, relies on the support of Independents, including out gay MP Greenwich. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Perrottet is likely to meet Greenwich and trans advocates next week. Trigger Warning: This story discusses transphobic comments made by political leaders, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.Premier Perrottet had earlier this week waded into the debate on trans sportspersons in female sports, while supporting Liberal candidate Katherine Deves.

A social media post promoting a transgender and gender diverse swim night hosted by Inner West Council has received a deluge of abusive and transphobic comments, causing the post to be removed from . Earlier this month, Council announced that Ashfield Aquatic Centre would be hosting a free, exclusive swim night for the local trans and gender diverse community, as well as allies, friends, partners and families.

Newtown’s Bedford Square is set to become Pride Square.The Inner West Council in NSW is seeking to permanently rename the public square outside Newtown Town Hall in time for WorldPride 2023.Inner West Councillor Mat Howard put forward the amendment which passed unanimously.Howard believes that Bedford Square is an ideal location as it is centrally located just adjacent to Newtown Station and is “right in the middle of businesses that are LGBTQ and/or LGBTQ friendly.”Howard continued, “I know when I first moved to Sydney, Newtown was the first place I came to looking for connection and support. I hope future generations of young LGBTQ+ people will do the same, see Pride Square at the heart of the suburb, and know that this is a community where they can be safe, be valued, and thrive.”Pride Square and the recently announced Rainbow Crossing would join the Rainbow Crossing in Summer Hill.It passed unanimously at the March 8 Council Meeting.  The Newtown Rainbow Crossing and Pride Square would be the fulfilment of a campaign aspiration by Howard.Prior to the 2021 Inner West Council Elections, he told Star Observer,  “I’m committed to delivering an Inner West Pride Centre, creating a rainbow crossing in Newtown, and making sure Council marks IDAHOBIT, Transgender Day of Visibility and Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The NSW Police have apologised to  ‘78er Barbara Karpinski for ejecting her from the Sydney Cricket Ground stadium where she was watching the Mardi Gras parade on March 5. In response to questions from Star Observer, a NSW Police spokesperson issued the following statement on Friday: “The NSW Police Force is taking this matter very seriously and is conducting inquiries to determine why and how this incident occurred and ensure it is not repeated.”   “We apologise sincerely to the 78er who was asked to leave and to all 78ers and the LGBTIQA+ communities broadly. Our dialogue and communication with the LGBTIQA+ communities will continue to build on the solid relationship we have established together.”Barbara KarpinskiWhen Star Observer informed Karpinski of the apology last night, she thanked both the NSW police and Mardi Gras CEO Albert Kruger for their swift apologies, but she said that action rather than more apologies are needed. She said that although sceptical, she remains hopeful that communication and openness are the way forward.This is not the first time that NSW Police have apologised to Karpinski who was arrested as a schoolgirl in 1978.

This Saturday, March 5, the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade will take place at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) for the second year in a row.  In order to attend, visitors will have to pay for a ticket, which has raised equity concerns among members of Sydney’s LGBTQI Communities. The Parade was free to attend when it was held along  Oxford Street in Darlinghurst. Wei Thai-Haynes, a member of the SGLMG Board and activist group Pride in Protest, told Star Observer that “Mardi Gras should be free and accessible to all those who wish to attend.

 The Trans Pride Concert will be held on February 12, 2022 in the heart of Melbourne at Fed Square, and the Trans Pride March is scheduled to be held in November 2022 to coincide with Trans Awareness week. “The trans community has long been marginalised and we still face countless oppressions and stigmatisation from the broader community,” Rebeckah Loveday told the Star Observer. “To showcase who we are in a public space, will allow our community to come together and celebrate who we are but also show the broader community, we are more than just the labels that are placed upon us,” said Loveday. The organisers reckon it’s one of the first march and concert of its kind in Australia, organised by the trans community to showcase trans excellence and talent on stage. The concert is being planned as a three-hour extravaganza, showcasing performers from the trans and gender diverse community in Victoria. Racerager, Kindred Surprise, Sei Vainalei Chen Pao, Jade Starr, The Trans Showgirls and Stone Motherless Cold have been confirmed as talent for the event. “There will be a smoking ceremony and welcome to country.

Queer exhibition has been five years in the making. An Australian-first, the landmark exhibition opens on 10 March 2022 and trains a queer lens on the NGV collection, celebrating the rich diversity of the LGBTQI community and foregrounding the many untold stories. The exhibition originated as a themed issue of the NGV’s art journal around the time of the Marriage Equality debate in Australia in 2017. The bathers (1926-1933) by Duncan Grant“We realized very quickly that there was actually a lot of content and enough to really dive quite deep and explore the whole collection.

Star Observer, no one on the committee has been willing to speak on the record, citing that they all signed non-disclosure agreements(NDAs).According to Kruger, the Mardi Gras Organization has been “proactive in ensuring that the entire review process has been open and transparent – of particular focus is that the constitution is developed with consideration given to community feedback at each stage.”“Work is still being done on the constitution and thus we are still in the early stages of this

Shaun Resnik, a 44-year-old Melburnian, is believed to be the first single man in Victoria, to receive approval to have a child via surrogacy. The naturopath and mind coach has wanted to have children since the age of 30. “I always knew I would love to be a dad; I just didn’t know how I was going to go about becoming a dad,” Resnik, who came out as a gay man when he was 24, told Star Observer. Shaun Resnik with his baby’s surrogate mum Clara.

Star Observer. “We think that kind of intimacy, without knowing who did what with their genitals, is part of what feeds into our sense of who we are (as queer people) and what we value in the past.”A History of LGBTIQ+ Victoria in 100 Places and Objects, prepared earlier this year by the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) and commissioned by Heritage Victoria, is the first such report of its kind in Australia.

Star Observer, is “It’s time to get vaccinated, if you haven’t already, because it’s the only way we are going to be able to return to live music, theatre, gay bars, clubs, pubs and drag shows and all the things that we love.’“If one of the artists involved with the vaccination program is somebody that audiences look up to, and they start talking about getting vaccinated and focusing on those positive sides, then hopefully it will encourage more people to go out and do it,” Act says.

Mitch Edwards and Mark McKie, the Bondi couple from Season 19 of The Block are returning to the new ‘Fans v Faves’ season of the show and they have one request, nay, demand – ‘Stop referring to us as the gay granddads’.“We were described continuously last season as the ‘gay granddads’… we were never the couple who have a family,” Mitch told Star Observer, pointing out that the term was a “double whammy”, that focussed on their sexuality as well as their age. Mitch and Mark spoke to Star Observer

As reported last month by Star Observer, Senator Chandler has long been a staunch opponent to trans inclusion in sport.

reported by Star Observer back in JanuaryAshby had sought that the Commonwealth pay legal costs – $3.67million for his own costs and more than $780,000 in costs incurred by his solicitor Michael Harmer. – incurred in his litigation with his former boss Peter Slipper.The request was pertaining to allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at Slipper, dating back to 2012 in which Ashby alleges he was sexually harassed via txt message and “lewd remarks”.

The Federal government is set to bring in a new – its third – draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill later this year, but a growing number of Liberal MPs are voicing their concerns about its impact on marriage equality and LGBTQI+ rights in Australia.The latest to add his voice to the growing chorus in the Coalition against the current draft of the Bill is Wentworth MP Dave Sharma.

PrEPARE we’ve also found that younger men (aged under 25), guys on lower incomes, or those not in full-time jobs are significantly less likely to use PrEP,” Professor Holt told Star Observer.“To me, that indicates the cost of going to the doctor (particularly if the doctor doesn’t bulk bill) and of getting a regular prescription are barriers to PrEP use.

The NSW Police on Thursday morning charged a 43-year-old man with the alleged murder of his boyfriend in the car park of an apartment block in Rushcutters Bay, an eastern suburb of SydneyThe 39-year old victim died on Wednesday afternoon after a domestic violence incident, the police said.A spokesperson at NSW Police told Star Observer on Wednesday evening that the victim was in a relationship with the alleged offender, identified as Phillip Papaefthymiou.Sources close to the investigation said

Considerable Sexual Licence.

Star Observer, “The disability justice network came about because a lot of us disabled people living in Australia were getting our resources around disability justice from America and a lot of organisations based in the USA. There was training, workshops and panels coming out of America, but there didn’t seem to be any centralised movement in Australia.“We realised we were waiting for somebody to create this, so eventually it clicked that this was something we could do ourselves.

Star Observer caught up with Inkpin, on what was Transgender Day of Visibility, to discuss what this news meant for her personally and for the church at large.Such a tremendous joy to become Minister of @PittStUniting today – the 1st openly #trans person inducted in a mainstream Australian Church – with such an extraordinary range of friends old & new

Family and friends of missing person McKenzie Raymond are appealing to members of the public after McKenzie was last seen on Thursday night in Marrickville at 6pm. Family and friends have not heard from McKenzie since then and are concerned for thei mental wellbeing, following messages sent to their sister prior to her disappearance.Speaking with Star Observer, their sister Chelsea explained that they had “sent a message suggesting suicidal intent.

Family and friends of missing person McKenzie Raymond are appealing to members of the public after McKenzie was last seen on Thursday night in Marrickville at 6pm. Family and friends have not heard from McKenzie since then and are concerned for her mental wellbeing, following messages sent to her sister prior to her disappearance.Speaking with Star Observer, their sister Chelsea explained that they had “sent a message suggesting suicidal intent.

Ali Brigginshaw, one of the biggest names in women’s rugby league, has married her partner Kate Daley.In an exclusive chat with Star Observer, Brigginshaw, captain of the Brisbane Broncos, said she and Kate decided to elope and get married, a year after a very public proposal. But it was not actually love at first sight.“We first met in 2009 through a mutual friend in Ipswich.

After October’s protest against Mark Latham’s proposed Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill 2020 went ahead despite being banned by the Supreme Court, Community Action Or Rainbow Rights (CARR) is planning a second protest for this Saturday.Speaking to Star Observer, CARR Co-Convener April Holcombe said, “we have plenty of rainbow facemasks left and attendees are welcome to them, for a small donation where possible.” Holcombe also stated that “hand sanitiser will be provided and

Sphen and Magic, SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium’s gay penguin couple, have become parents for a second time. The couple first gained world-wide fame in 2018 when they adopted an egg and raised their first child Lara. They have now successfully hatched another egg together.The folks at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium were naturally delighted when they shared this news with Star Observer.“If one of our pairs has too many eggs or are not good at looking after their eggs we will sometimes foster these eggs out

Campaign posters for two prominent LGBTQI activists and Victorian Socialist candidates have been defaced with box cutters and torn down on Melbourne’s northside. In images supplied to Star Observer, Ali Hogg who is running for Darebin South West Ward and Roz Ward who is running for Central West Ward, have both had images of their faces and their surnames slashed out in a manic fashion.“I caught them in the act.

“It’s totally undermining of everything, your confidence, your self-worth, anything that is positive in your everyday life is just undermined by this stuff. The online world isn’t this abstract thing, it’s real,” Bridget Clinch told Star Observer.For two years now, Clinch – a former Greens member and activist who was the first transgender soldier to transition while serving in the Australian Army – has been embroiled in a deeply personal and highly publicised court battle between herself, and