Gay Fm History

While most radio stations are racing to be the first, one UK station hopes to be the last. Starting today, Birmingham’s Free Radio 80s aims to set a new record as the first FM radio station to broadcast nonstop holiday tunes for 33 days

Australian Dance is highly diverse in form and geographical distribution but it uncovers a continuous captivation with the body, the place, popular culture and the multicultural society.

As the producer of ‘ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club’, I feel compelled to inform you that recent episodes have been substandard in quality and irrelevant for today’s contemporary audience. The best suggestion is for an entire episode devoted to the poetry of Gwen Harwood, a widely celebrated Australia poet. Her poetry presents unique ideas about the beauty of music, the growth from childhood to adulthood and the recollection of memories and experiences. The nature of her poetry is both intense and brilliant, qualities which effortlessly justify the enduring value of her work to still hold great value in today’s society.

In today’s Australian society it has now become almost commonplace for us to question our beliefs and what it means to be an Australian. We have always turned to consider our cultural aspects and how they determine a strong Australian identity. The voice of a hot climate, the tone of the red sand, the indifference of man and woman and even the lifestyle of the Australian people all play important parts within our community. However to be an Australian is truly shaped by the kind acts of mateship that we possess within our relationships with friends and family. The mateship of society should not be affected by gender but really truly lie upon the relationships in our lives, which is why I have chosen Priscilla and Red Dog,

However displaced the notions of egalitarianism and its associated masculine ideal of mateship may be, these aspects of the Australian identity are of the most recognisable and compelling, and even in contemporary, cosmopolitan Australia, continue to be invoked and celebrated. It is crucial that these ideologies are reinforced among Australians, as they differentiate Australia from the rest of the world. In other words, these ideals are what make Australians unique. In order to evoke change within our society, it is vital that the voices of working-class

With Queensland’s antiquated anti-gay laws repealed and a sense of freedom pervading the gay community, LGBT+ Cairns, still reeling from the tragedy of AIDS, though reassured by the success of safe sex campaigns, felt in the mood for a coming out party and what better way to come out than a float in the now renowned Sydney Mardi Gras. Buff, tanned men in pink skimpy shorts; what's not to love? So they set their sights on the 1994 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The faces of Queer Culture has long been K.D. Lang, Ellen Degeneres, and Elton John. While these icons represent the queer community in that they are gay individuals, they are not wholly representative of the community because there is no one "queer story." However, these icons all have cisgender, white privilege which results in a great dearth of representation for transgender, non-binary, and people of color in the media. Another issue with queer representation in the media is the differentiation between gender expression and sexual orientation. Gender expression associated with masculinity such as short hair, loose clothing, and rough materials such as denim when worn by a woman is seen as a demarcation of "alternative" sexualities. However, those assumptions neglect to recognize the diversity of gender expression. Gender expression among heterosexuals varies greatly with some men presenting as "metrosexual" and some women presenting as "tomboys." Similarly, this type of variation exists within the LGBTQ+ community as members can range from "femme" to "butch" to androgynous. Portia de Rossi would be a classic example of a "femme" lesbian in terms of her long hair and frequent wearing of dresses. Often times these feminine lesbians, if they are portrayed at all, are often used to attract male audiences. However, Orange is the New Black challenges these conventions through the genres of Sophia Burset, Piper Chapman, and Big Boo.

One of several entry points to the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns gives Aussie a sense of still being attached to a cosmopolitan centre while being a gateway to Queensland’s tropical north. A laid back ambience, partnered with a flair for the sophisticated, is what sets this city apart from others.

Many of Tim Winton’s fictional texts mirror moments in his own life, and with an understanding of Winton’s personal context, we can begin to discover the importance of these events and an understanding into why many of his text orbit around similar ideas. Through the insight given in his landscape memoirs, Lands Edge and Island Home, a more considered reading of his fictional texts; Breath, A Blow, A Kiss and Sand can be found. Specifically, these texts explore the role that landscape and place have had in shaping his perspectives and distaste of the expectations of Australian males. These texts each explore certain aspects of the expectations that men all over Australia are subjected to that Winton strongly opposes. Winton grew up in the 1960’s middle-class suburb of Karrinyup, WA, his working class Christian family’s beliefs and values, and events in his early life have evolved to form many of his present-day values towards landscape and masculinity.

Australia made an appearance again in Eurovision in 2014, when Jessica Mauboy, an indigenous artist was invited as a guest performer during the contest’s intermission. By placing an Australian representative on an European stage, it was another step to engage Eurovision as a part of a broader transnational audience, rather than solely an Australian audience.

As Bea Mitchell wrote on the “Pinknews”, “Often credited as the first LGBT person on primetime TV was a character called Steve, played by Philip Carey, in 1971’s All in the Family.

A key component of Australian culture today is not only their diversity, but more importantly, the

Joyful Strains is a collaboration of short memoirs written by a group of expatriates about their experiences moving to Australia, and the struggles they faced that shaped them into the people they are today. Deborah Carlyon moved to Australia from her birth country of Papua New Guinea when she was 12-years-old, and has written the story ‘Hidden by the Dream’. Paolo Totaro moved from Italy to Australia when she was only a child and has contributed to the book with her short story ‘Pointing North’. Joyful Strains follows the authors as they explain how they navigated the process of finding a sense of belonging in Australia and establishing their own identities.

The history of the gay rights movement goes as far back as the late 19th century. More accurately, the quest by gays to search out others like themselves and foster a feeling of identity has been around since then. It is an innovative movement that seeks to change existing norms and gain acceptance within our culture. By 1915, one gay person said that the gay world was a "community, distinctly organized" (Milestones 1991), but kept mostly out of view because of social hostility. According to the Milestones article, after World War II, around 1940, many cities saw their first gay bars open as many homosexuals began to start a networking system. However, their newfound visibility only backfired on them, as

Born in 1903, Theodore Adorno is one of the most prominent figures in the Frankfurt school of communications, a school of social theory and philosophy which studied the effects and structure of the media. In 1945, Adorno published one of his most famous articles, “A Social Critique of Radio Music”. In his somehow controversial essay, Adorno claims that the music played on the radio reflects broader social behavior patterns, that benefits the power elite and numbs the masses. Adorno goes on and state four axioms he believed to be true regarding the existing capitalist society, including how we live in a society of commodities. The main problem he dissects in his article, is that now music is being treated as a commodity as well. Further,