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National queer activist network launched

Farida Iqbal, Canberra

14 October 2006

The annual Queerspace student conference held at the Australian National University on October 6-8 was attended by 40 students from Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Wollongong, Newcastle and Perth. The conference launched the national Queer Activist Network (QAN) for youth and students.

“There are many student queer collectives and activist groups around Australia and we hope the network will be able connect all these young activists and provide them with the motivation, skills and knowledge to run dynamic and successful campaigns”, Iain Finlayson from Melbourne University told Green Left Weekly. “Current campaigns are often only run at a campus or local community level; we hope the network will facilitate broader campaigns.”

Finlayson, along with Kobie Howe from Canberra University and Rob Grafkin from ANU, was elected a temporary QAN convener.

QAN’s draft charter, which was developed at the conference, states that the network will be a grassroots organisation for political activism. QAN aims to combat heterosexism and all forms of oppression, and its charter states that the network “supports refugees and the international struggle for the liberation of all peoples affected by war”.

The next meeting of QAN will be held at the G20 convergence in Melbourne. The network’s draft charter and constitution will be presented to the 2007 Queer Collaborations conference in Hobart, where conveners will be elected.

On the second day of the Queerspace conference, 30 delegates joined an action demanding that the University of Canberra students’ association provides a queer space. They made an impromptu queer space out of a cardboard box inscribed with the words, “We need a queer space, not this lousy box”.

The conference passed a resolution condemning possible changes to the National Union of Students’ constitution that would de-fund all NUS departments, including the queer department. Discussions also took place about campaigns for refugees’ rights, same-sex marriage, civil unions, transgender rights and queer spaces.