Intimacy, Violence and Activism: Gay and Lesbian Perspectives on Australian History and Society

Description

In this, the latest in the Gay and Lesbian Perspectives series, researchers explore the rich history of queer Australasia, uncovering photographic records of small-town male intimacy, cases of police entrapment, the mysterious suicide pact of Charles Marks and Edward Feeny, ASIO attempts to grapple with persons with serious character defects, and previously unexamined political and cultural expressions of gay/lesbian/queer activism over the last four decades. The result is an original and important contribution to understanding a history that is all too often shrouded in secrecy.

Graham Willett is a historian of Australias gay and lesbian past. He is the author of Living Out Loud, a history of the movement, and co-editor and a major contributor to Secret Histories of Queer Melbourne. He is a long-time committee member of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. He has recently retired from the University of Melbourne (Australia). Yorick Smaal is a historian and ARC DECRA Research Fellow at Griffith University. His areas of research focus on sex and gender, war and society, and law and criminal justice.