These are Scotty's images from Newcastle to Sydney in 2003.
Below are Notes for the Archives!
Putting together these archives means that I have connected again with some of my "Lost" pre facebook Friends. It's good to know that folks like Ruben are alive and happy. Sadly, many people have passed away in recent years, some without anyone bothering to tell me about, which is one of the reasons why I decided to provide these archives to provide a memorial to lives lived.
I also put my money where my mouth was and made a large donation of images plus a collection of Lorenzo Monti's hand crafted jewellery with many very special OPI Veils and documents to West Pride, the LGBTQ Archives of WA, held at the Murdoch University Library. I have not been sent a thank you from West Pride for this so I do not know if the very expensive items are viewable or not, but that I guess says something about the status of manners in Perth!
The Dear Leaders & Groomers of the LGB, HIV and Trans Community in WA don't like me saying this, but their approach to community development based around small cliques of fighting factions, political machinations, tyranny and bullying has undermined the LGBTQ Tourist Industry. The annual west to east migration of graduating students has become an annual brain drain and led to the creation of a bit of a beautiful looking shithole when it comes to the level of cultural abundance of the LGB, HIV & Trans Communities.
I believe the toxic political machinations that infect LGB HIV & Trans Community Groups with the trickle downed widespread usage of bad manners including the distasteful sexual credit scoring displayed towards newcomers and visitors, plus a better mannered heterosexual community, equals the reason why the Majority of young LGB & Trans People & newly diagnosed HIV+ People, take a look & decide they have better lives outside the LGB, HIV & Trans Community. Ergo the problem of ageing means that many LGBTQ will simply cease to exist in the years to come as those who might have been willing to take on the mantle are being excluded from participation by the Gravy Train Mentality of Ageing Leadership Groups.
If you speak languages other than English then you will find many bad reviews online. In Sydney & Melbourne, where I worked as an ESL Teacher we had many Asian Students relocate colleges because of what they described as mistreatment they had experienced in Perth's LGB, HIV & Trans Community. I saw with my own eyes how visiting Asian Men were ignored by the locals and others "mobbed" in a new meat syndrome, then ignored, once the bets in the race for first bedding were paid out by the "bookies"!
I also know stories of and witnessed how HIV+ Gay Men coming to Perth would be first considered hot and then once they disclosed their HIV Status I saw how like a bushfire the "news" would sweep through the HIV negative community and backs would be turned, which says much about the commodification that is inherent in the hyper sexualised culture that has been normalised in the LGB, HIV & Trans Leadership Community. And paid for by AIDS funding that were supposed to have been used to support PLWHA?
It's an open secret, that if you are not born and bred in one of the cliques or don't have lots of money then Perth's LGBTQ Scene is not very inclusive. BUT the LGBTQ Media and their allies along with the LGB, HIV and Trans Leadership Community are engaged in a conspiracy to ensure that in the (English) publications only good news is reported!
Too many travellers have come to Perth and experienced the cold shoulder and the meat market approach to dating visitors and returned back to their own countries with bad reviews. Why do you think ESL Colleges employ Speakers of Languages other than English to monitor their reviews in Overseas websites?
I say this because it explains why no one I met overseas or over east seems to want to come to Perth. Wayne Ostler famously visited for Pride in 2006. That was the one where it is alleged that 2 Pride Committee Members had a punch up in the toilet at the Party and I think it was the one where the allegation where the free drink vouchers were taken by someone and shared amongst their friends resulting in a mess?
Wayneio might have had stories to tell about Perth but I'm not sure he went around Melbourne telling people to go visit fantastic Perth! I say this all because, I've often flown to Sydney or Melbourne to meet friends from Overseas who have bypassed Perth on their travels and it was the experience of bullying that led me to retire from taking free photographs for the Community.
I feel that the LGB, HIV & Trans Communities Leadership Group's collective failure, to eliminate the nasty bullying and toxic culture that exists beneath the thin veneer of civilisation and that destroyed the diverse and cultural abundance of the pre AIDS era, in which there was spaces for all sorts and where people looked out for people, deserves to be held accountable in the archives of history.
James Rendell, President of Fagmedia and Chairperson of CADT Photography.
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