• Title
  Item 1: Betty Hounslow interview by Holly Zwalf
• Level of description
  item
• Date
  
  12 October 2022
• Type of material
  Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories
• Reference code
  9671023
• Physical Description
  3 audio files (2 hr., 24 min.) - digital, WAV, stereo (48 kHz, 24 bit)
  
• Scope and Content
  Betty Hounslow talks about her upbringing in a Catholic family in Brisbane, Queensland. In her late teens she briefly joined a convent but left to pursue activism. She was involved in the anti-freeway movement in Brisbane before moving to Sydney as a Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen “refugee”, where she worked in factories and was heavily involved in unionism.
  
  While living in a share house with a Catholic priest she fell in love with a woman, becoming involved in the LGBT+ and women’s movements. She describes the interconnectedness of these political struggles, detailing her work with the Gay Solidarity Group, women’s refuges, the NAMFs (Non-Aligned Marxist-Feminists), and the Queensland Solidarity Group. She describes attending the Drop the Charges marches in 1978 after the first Mardi Gras, demonstrations against Fred Nile and the Festival of Light, participating in the Gay Liberation Choir, her involvement in the 1980/81 moving of Mardi Gras from winter to summer, and the impact of the AIDS crisis on those around her. She also discusses the resurgence of butch/femme in the lesbian community, debates around BDSM and non-monogamy, and the first (and perhaps only ever) Sydney women’s bathhouse event.
  
  Betty was the founder of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force (GLITF) and she recounts the inception of the group, key people involved throughout the years, and the political milestones the group achieved in relation to same-sex couples being recognised for immigration purposes. She also describes the National Action neo-Nazi attacks on her and on GLITF. She draws correlations between GLITF’s cause and her later work with the Asylum Seekers Centre.
• Language
  English
• Copying Conditions
  In copyright:
  Copyright holder:: State Library of New South Wales
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Recorded at Forbes Street Studios, Woolloomooloo, New South Wales on 11 October 2022
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Hounslow, Betty, 1951-2023
  
• Subject
  Hounslow, Betty, 1951-2023--Interviews.
  LGBT activism--New South Wales.
  Gay activists--New South Wales.
  Social workers--New South Wales.
  Lesbians--New South Wales.
  Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras--History.
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE20553150

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