Islamic societies embraced homoerotic love until the 19th century. What happened? For centuries, literature from Islamic regions, especially Iran, celebrated male homoerotic love as a symbol of beauty, mysticism and spiritual longing. These attitudes were particularly pronounced during the Islamic Golden Age, from the mid-8th to mid-13th centuries.
But this literary tradition gradually disappeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, under the influence of Western values and colonisation.
Islamic law and poetic licence
Attitudes towards homosexuality in early Islamic societies were c…
Australian travellers heading to the United States this year will be required to disclose all their social media information. If you're planning a trip, be aware that having tweets or posts critical of the US from the past 5 years will determine your ability to enter the country.
All the world’s a stage. This one’s yours. What if Juliet’s story didn’t end with Romeo? What if she had the chance to live, to love, and to write a new chapter – one that was truly hers?
The Australian Trans Theatre Festival, co-presented by Green Door Theatre Company, Carriageworks and Malthouse Theatre, under the artistic direction of Dino Dimitriadis, marks a historic moment in Australian performance: a festival dedicated entirely to the voices and visions of trans and gender diverse theatre artists.
Running 7–18 January at Carriageworks (Sydney) and 21–31 January at Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), the inaugural festival unites trailblazing artists from Australia and beyond for a month of urgent, ambitious, unapologetically trans-lensed storytelling.
Headlining the festiv…
Recognising economic control as family violence and understanding your rights under Australia’s new laws. Financial abuse is one of the most powerful but least visible forms of family violence. It can happen to anyone, in any type of relationship. For people in the LGBTQIA+ community, financial abuse is difficult to detect due to social stigma and underreporting, plus a lack of tailored services providing education or support.
Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes have surged to record highs in California, with new data from Los Angeles County painting a particularly grim picture for trans and nonbinary communities.
In 2017, photographer Jane Duong and producer Victoria Firth-Smith created Queerberra to document the lives of Canberra’s LGBTQIA+ community during one of the most emotionally charged moments in Australian queer history—the national postal vote on marriage equality.
As love became a national battleground, queer Canberrans turned to one another. Over weekends spent in bedrooms, workplaces, and on the streets, Duong and Firth-Smith captured portraits of pride, exhaustion, defiance, love, and hope.
Eight years on, the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG) has revisited Queerberra in a new exhibit…
In Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s award-winning directorial debut, Lesbian Space Princess, outer space emerges as a new and inclusive habitat for a smart, funny story exploring the inner spaces of lesbian consciousness and self-affirmation. The film pushes hard against the gendered conventions of the sci-fi genre, re-pointing them to unexpected ends.
Inner growth in outer space
Lesbian Space Princess is structured around a basic quest narrative. Can introspective Princess Saira rescue her ex-girlfriend, Kiki, from the evil clutches of a rogue group of incels known as the Straight Whi…
For over four ridiculous decades, Mark Trevorrow has been making audiences laugh, sing and swoon through his fabulous, iconic alter ego — the ever-charismatic Bob Downe.
In this very 1980s fluro feature interview, Mark reflects on Bob’s glitter-dusted history, queer comedy in Australia and the joy of camp that refuses to fade.
From the early days of Oxford Street cabaret in Sydney to the big stage around the world, Bob Downe remains a beacon of humour, heart and unapologetic queer fabulousness. Get ready for sequins, sincerity and a few cheeky surprises — because Bob’s still got it and Mar…
