Tonight | Queerstralia on ABC – This final episode looks at how Queer people jostled for space and representation; how communities united during the AIDS era; the experiences and challenges of multicultural Queerdom; and onscreen Queer representation.
It’s the Bicentenary. Expo 88. Australia’s stepping onto the world stage, and Hawkey calling your boss a bum. As the 20th century closes Australia presents itself as strong, prosperous, confident, egalitarian and reconciled. But not everyone is welcome in the picture.
This episode looks at how Queer people jostled for space and representation, eventually finding our own place within society. It documents the ways that communities coalesced during the AIDS era, coming together to support each other. It covers the various experiences and challenges of multicultural Queerdom and includes histories of Coming Out and Same Sex Marriage, charting the evolution of acceptance. It spends up big with the Pink Dollar, floats through four and a half decades of the Mardi Gras, and takes the viewer on a journey through onscreen Queer representation in Australian film and television.
As Queers enter the mainstream, we ask, do we even want to? We talk separatism, communes, and take a trip to Faerieland to visit the Radical Faeries. We squeeze in 21st century issues around Safe Schools, trans kids and the rise of the Queer family. We finish by considering what it is to be Queer in 2023. Where do we fit in, and should we? And if Queers assimilate fully into the broader community, will we still be Queer?
Queerstralia – Tuesday 14 March, 2023 on ABC and ABC iview
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