SRC QUEER OFFICER’S REPORT

mat monti (they/them)

src queer officer

Happy Queer Dit my friends!

It’s been a privilege to serve as SRC Queer Officer this year. This year marked the 50th Anniversary of the Murder of Dr George Duncan, a University Law Lecturer who was drowned in the River Torrens by Police officers for one reason, he was a gay man. His death was the catalyst for significant queer law reform across Australia. It is because of Dr Duncan and the Queer folk of his generation that we live in the world we do. So this Queer Dit I’d like to offer my personal thanks and gratitude to the Elders of our community. The people who first marched the streets of Adelaide as openly proud gays and lesbians, the Trans folk who paved the way for us younger trans folk, and most importantly all the queer folk who have lost their lives in the fight for our rights.

I’d also like to offer one thing to you all that I believe our community needs to focus on now more than ever.

Solidarity.

We are an extremely diverse community. Not only in terms of the many letters of rainbow alphabet, but also the intersectionality of our community with others. Queer folk of colour, Queer folk with disabilities, Queer women, our community is extremely diverse and therefore has a huge diversity when it comes to our needs and priorities.

We often tell our non-queer friends and families to be “Allies”. We ask them to, despite not being queer themselves, fight alongside us and support our causes. Well maybe we should learn to be allies to the other people in our own community. Why shouldn’t a cisgender white gay man be standing alongside a Trans Woman of Colour when she is discriminated against? Why shouldn’t a wealthy Trans person, who can afford private Gender Confirmation surgery, be fighting alongside a poor Trans person to get Trans healthcare covered under Medicare? We should all be allies to one another.

So I’ll finish by making a promise, even as I now leave the position of Queer Officer I say to my fellow Queer folk, I stand with you. No matter what.

Solidarity Forever.

Yours in abundant Queerness, Mat Monti (They/Them) | SRC Queer Officer