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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Freedom of Expression: IDAHOT

I went to an awesome event on Tuesday night: a belated celebration of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT). Deakin Writers Club and Deakin Pride Queer Society organised and hosted the event together at Hares and Hyenas, Melbourne's (most popular?) queer bookshop. Of course, being on the Deakin Writers Club team, I didn't even need an excuse to go and hang out with my fellow writers, my friends from the Pride Club, and those that belong to both parts. The event wasn't limited to the club member either, which was great. I'm not sure how many from outside of the Writers or Pride club were at the event, but I know there were definitely people from different universities.

It was a fantastic night, with beverages and finger food courtesy of the clubs, some great live music, and readings from whoever wasn't afraid to jump up in front of the mic to express themselves. The theme for the night was freedom of expression and it was great to see how many people got involved, attended the event, and made it a great evening. Even little old me jumped up at one point with a poem about refraining from sticking labels on people or trying to define them by one particular aspect of that whole. Some of the music and readings that were shared were funny, casual, and happy, others were sad, personal, and took a lot of bravery to share. I guess the best part of the night to me was that we had all come together in a place where no one had to feel like an outsider, or like they didn't fit in; a place where everyone could say what they wanted to say and be themselves.

I made a couple of new friends over the course of the night and didn't make it back to my unit until past midnight, but it was worthwhile. In class on Wednesday morning, my Creative Nonfiction teacher and I had a conversation about the event because she had been there too, and she had read some poetry (my goodness, she has an amazing voice!). I thought it was brilliant that she had been invited by the clubs to attend and that she had been so willing to participate. She was very understanding about me being all sleepy in her class.

Have you been to any writerly or pride events recently? Or a combination of the two? 

- Bonnee.

4 comments:

  1. Love that poster!

    Sounds like a splendid time was had by all, good for you for doing a reading and showing your support. This is one of the things that's a positive from 'back in the day', that people are much more able to be themselves, though there's still a long way to go.

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    1. How groovy is it?

      There's definitely a long way to go, but at least we're getting there. Slowly... Thanks for visiting, Jeff! :)

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  2. It's nice that you all came together and I like the the story at the end about your teacher. In my second novel I have a secondary character a teenager who is lesbian so I wrote about this topic in the novel. Toronto, where I live , has a biog Gay Pride Parade every year and this year we host the International Gay Parade (in June I think) where people form all the world will come. The city will be packed.
    I wrote the dialouges by the Aussie man in my third novel. May I post it here and you can correct, improve the slang? Not many lines.

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    1. Both Sydney and Melbourne host some pretty big Pride marches over the year, though I haven't had a chance to attend any myself. Writing about LBGT is something I haven't really tried, but it's something I would like to do for sure.

      You're more than welcome to post the dialogue here for me to look at, otherwise feel free to email me (see 'Contact' tab). Thank you for visiting, Giora :D

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