Pride Line vox pops, file 3

Prideline_2023-04-01_1220.mp3

00:00:44.064

Hi, this is Rachel, Aaron and Daniel. And we were the executives for our society at UTS. The LGBT Social Club at the uni. Now called Darlings, so we were execs for like quite a few years and it was really cute and we helped other people make LGBT friends. And it's really nice to just bring all the LGBTQ kids together at uni. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was awesome. Do you want to say anything else? No, it's OK. Thank you. OK. Thanks. Bye.

Prideline_2023-04-09_1608.mp3

00:00:28.440

Hi, my name's Talula. I'm Emma. I'm Chris, me too. And we're at the library and excited to leave a message about being fruity. Super fruity. We love your phone. This is really cute. It's so important to be gay. It's so important. Everyone should be if they want to be, if they want to be. But be proud of yourself. We love you. We love you. Bye.

Prideline_2023-04-12_1224.mp3

00:00:22.068

Hello. Hello. Ok, so basically this girl was my friend, and then I just felt like she wasn't my friend anymore. And then she said she didn't want to be with me. That's it.

Prideline_2023-04-13_1720.mp3

00:01:16.644

Hi Pride Line. It's Thursday, April the 13th 2023, and I'm here at the State Library of NSW for the Pride Revolution. And we're celebrating the 50 year anniversary of Phone A Friend, Gay Lesbian Counselling Service NSW and QLife in its current iteration. I feel so incredibly proud and privileged to be able to work with all the amazing team at 2010 incorporating GLCS NSW and all the peer supporters who work on Q Life nationally, who support some of our most vulnerable, isolated and in need members of our communities.

The work is so impactful and it means so much to so many, and its impact can't be underestimated, not in 1973 or, as we've been more recently reminded of, not in, not even in 2023. We've got a lot to be proud of as a community, and we're going to continue to wear that pride in our hearts, sometimes on our sleeves. It is a revolution. I'm so happy to be part of it.

Prideline_2023-04-15_1317.mp3

00:00:48.924

Hi, my name is Nicholas Stewart and I run an LGBT law firm in Sydney in Macquarie St at 235 Macquarie St on Level 3. We are called Dowson Turco Lawyers and were founded by Mary Turco and Stacy Dowson. Today I am in the city walking around with my boyfriend, Adam Bub, and we're just exploring

the Pride collection at the State Library and enjoying the city's vibrancy just after World Pride. We've been together for 15 years and we just love being our authentic selves and watching as our communities slowly accepted and protected in the state of NSW and in Australia. Thank you.

Prideline_2023-04-18_1105.mp3

00:00:54.288

Hello, my name is Tony. I'm a senior gay man, now 70. I lived in Sydney through the 1970s in the Catholic community of men friars. At no stage should we ever acknowledge the diverse sexuality that was happening around us among some of the community members, including myself. I looked back with a sense of incredible loss of that era. But I look forward to the change in culture and community that welcomes diversity, celebrates who we are and honours her truth of our presence. Thank you.

Prideline_2023-04-21_1400.mp3

00:00:49.392

Oh, hello. Well, 2023, what, this year was the first time I ever actually went to a Mardi Gras. And it was with my girlfriend. So that was, that was a pretty awesome Pride story. Pretty awesome. Uh, yeah. It's really fun being queer. And this is a cool phone, anyways. Goodbye phone.

Prideline_2023-04-26_1253.mp3

00:00:49.464

I feel like, whenever I see Pride, I don't feel like I truly belong. Like I see all the glitter, all the beautiful people, and it feels like I'm not, like, good enough for it. And sometimes it makes me feel left out or it makes me feel angry. But I do realise that it is an important part of history and also an important part, not just for me, but for everyone.

So even though I don't feel like all this will improve, but I don't feel gay enough or pretty enough to be part of Pride. I still will fight for inclusion, and for its right to stay, as part of our history and our culture.

Prideline_2023-04-27_1816.mp3

00:01:44.616

So, my Pride, wait. First, don't, I want to remain anonymous. OK, so my Pride story is, when I was 9. Me and my, not not nine, sorry 12, me and my dad watched Orange Is the New Black and then we saw that lesbian sex scene in the beginning. And then my dad shut off the TV, threw the remote and said that that sort of stuff shouldn't be shown on TV.

And then about, three years later, I got so drunk that I shat myself. And literally lost most of my conscious, consciousness. So then I came out to my mum, pissed drunk, literally pissing myself drunk, and she told me that sometimes it's normal for women to feel a little gay, that we all love our friends and that hopefully. Actually, that she knows that I'll just marry a man. And it's all just, you know, a generational curse. And then after that, I have discussed homosexuality with my dad. And he still thinks it's completely wrong, despite my mum thinking he's gay.

Moving on, as of recently, my mum has mentioned the fact that I was bisexual. And she's just said, it's a phase, you'll get over it. I slapped my friends' butts too. And so that's my story. Alright, bye.

Prideline_2023-04-29_1331.mp3

00:03:11.306

History of my coming out, I knew I was a lesbian since I was 10 years old and I was 13 when I realised I had a crush on this girl that I really liked back in high school. But, unfortunately, the school that I went to was very religious and they just couldn't accept, you know, the LGBT community and yeah, I was in the closet for eight years.

And one day I was watching this movie called Happiest Season with Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. It was like a Christian, a Christmas lesbian movie. It was the most inspiring moment that I had. And as soon as that character, Harper, she stood up on her ground and her parents were so conservative and, you know, growing up in a conservative family was just so hard for me to come out as well, and she took up the courage to come out and.

At that moment, 2 weeks later, it was you know, Christmas and I went to my auntie's house with my mum and my uncle and yeah, one of my auntie's sons was also gay and he had a, partner. And when they were watching TV and I just decided to come out and just get out of the closet and said I'm gay and that moment I was so nervous and I was so terrified and I just, it felt like, I don't know, it's it's it felt like a storm. And then there was this silence around the room. And my mum was, so, she didn't believe it, said you're not gay. I don't believe you. I think you're just confused. You know, it's not that immediate rejection and my auntie was like, well, we we knew, you know, it's alright, it's OK. And my uncle was like, that's that's fine. Don't don't even talk about, don't even mention it. She already knows. And as soon as I got back from the car, I I asked my mum, I said, do you accept me for who I am and she said, I can't accept you for who you are. It's just against God and, you know, all these religious sort of stuff and it's not ok, and you know, it really did take the time. And I really wanted to move out.

And to this day I still want to move out because even though it's been two years since that happened for me to come out, she's still confused. She's trying to understand. And recently I went to Melbourne just a couple of weeks ago and my uncle tried to explain about how the LGBT community is and you know who they are. And you have to understand, you know, that all of their lives they have been, you know, oppressed because of religion and society in general. And he really tried to, you know, make my mum understand. But she's getting there, but she, just takes time and hopefully someday she'll accept me and, yeah.

I mean, I'm a proud lesbian and that's who I am and I continue to fight for it and you know, as a quote with Lady Gaga, she said, I'm beautiful in my way because God makes no mistakes. I'm on the right track, baby, because I was born this way. Thank you.