A few weeks ago, Sydney came alive with World Pride, a massive event celebrating our LGBTIQA+ community, 45 years after the first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was held in 1978.
The newly elected Labor government has now confirmed almost four million dollars in funding to transform the old Darlinghurst Police Station into Sydney’s first-ever queer museum – Qtopia.
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In today’s episode of THIS ARVO IN SYDNEY, host Sacha Barbour Gatt spoke to Ian Roberts, Australia’s first and only Rugby League player to come out as gay, who is also a board member for Qtopia.
Mr Roberts said the idea of a Qtopia museum started three years ago with Qtopia chairman David Paulson, and it aimed to cover the entire history of the LGBTQ+ community in Sydney.
Speaking about the reason for choosing the old Darlinghurst cop shop as the location, Mr Roberts said it represented a “re-healing progress” for the community.
The building was the scene of brutal gay bashings, most notably in 1978 after the very first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
That building and what it represents to the Queer community has been quite devastating and does have a quite dark past. It’s almost like we are taking it and rebranding it,”
he said.
I understand why this would be such a sensitive issue for many elderly populations in the Queer Community. I am totally on board with that. We do believe taking ownership of this place again is a real chance of healing,”
he added.
Mr Roberts hoped that the museum would be open by the Mardi Gras next year to pay respects to the 78ers who were the victims of the homophobic attitudes of police.
Taking to twitter this morning was NSW Premier, Chris Minns who wrote:
A year ago, Ian Roberts came to me with an idea – to create Australia’s first Pride museum.”
Hosted by Sacha Barbour, This Arvo in Sydney is a 10 to 12 minute daily news podcast made just for Sydney! Listen now on the Listnr app.