Rachel Evans

  • Habib launches NSW election campaign

    On February 2, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib launched his NSW state election campaign in the western Sydney seat of Auburn. The seat is currently held by the ALP’s Barbara Perry.

  • GSL bars gay newspapers from Villawood

    On January 11, SX News reported that the gay magazine had been barred from being provided to detainees at Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre.

  • Transgender hate crimes remembered

    On November 20, a meeting initiated by the NSW Greens marked Transgender Remembrance Day. Below is an abridged presentation by Rachel Evans, co-convener of Community Action Against Homophobia, National Union of Students female queer officer and NSW Socialist Alliance upper-house candidate.

  • Library backs down on anti-gay DVD

    On November 23, the SX News websire reported that Penrith City Library, in far western Sydney, had tentatively rejected a DVD promoting the “ex-gat movement” donated to its collection by the right-wing Christian Democratic Party.

  • US tightening Cuba blockade

    Cuban Consul-General Nelida Hernandez told supporters on October 24 that Cuba will again ask the United Nations General Assembly on November 8 to support a motion to lift the 45-year-long economic embargo imposed by the US government on Cuba.

  • Gay refugee released from Villawood

    The last issue of Green Left Weekly published the story of gay asylum seeker Mohatar Hussein. Hussein fled homophobic persecution in Bangladesh to seek refugee status in Australia, only to be locked up in Villawood detention centre for the last two years. The Refugee Review Tribunal twice knocked back Hussein’s applications, despite having ample evidence that he had suffered persecution as an openly gay man.

  • Bangladeshi gay man refused protection visa

    Motahar Hussein is a Bangladeshi man seeking asylum in Australia. He has been languishing in the Villawood refugee detention centre for two years because the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) has twice refused to accept that he will face homophobic persecution if he is forced back to Bangladesh. Green Left Weekly’s Rachel Evans spoke to Hussein in Villawood.

  • National protests for same-sex marriage rights

    On August 13, 1000 people marched in Sydney to demand the repeal of the federal government's same-sex marriage ban. Smaller rallies for same-sex marriage rights were also held in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Hobart. Photo by Rachel Evans.

  • Fighting the AIDS pandemic

    BY MAURICE FARRELL& RACHEL EVANS According to a UNAIDS/World Health Organisation report "AIDS Epidemic Update 2003", released on November 25, an estimated 40 million people are now infected with HIV. Three million died last year from AIDS. The

  • Socialist solidarity

    BY RACHEL EVANS & LINDA WALDRON MELBOURNE — With up to 10 picket lines across Melbourne and in Geelong over the past month, the Socialist Alliance has shown how it is possible to offer solidarity to fighting workers. The Geelong branch of the

  • Outworkers take corporate Australia to court

    MELBOURNE &#151 Braving wet and windy conditions on September 26, 45 people came to Melbourne's Federal Court to support the prosecution of 30 companies over alleged breaches of the outworker and contractor provisions of the

  • Refugee Assistance Centre opens

    MELBOURNE — In a sign of growing support for refugees' rights, the Dundas Street Centre in Thornbury — an offshoot of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray — has begun operation. The centres are not funded government