By Jack Gow for ABCQueer
The Oxford Hotel in Sydney. Photo: Supplied
Three well-known Sydney gay bars are being put forward for heritage status in recognition of their contribution to the city's queer history.
Spearheaded by the City of Sydney Council, they chose the Oxford Street venues after conducting a study to identify places important to the LGBTQ+ community and settled on the Oxford Hotel, Palms, and Universal, the nightclub formerly known as the Midnight Shift.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore AO says the venues are integral to the social and physical fabric of the area.
"We know how important it is to our LGBTIQA+ communities to protect, preserve and recognise the rich cultural history along Oxford Street," Moore says.
Garry Wotherspoon - historian and board member of Sydney's queer history museum, Qtopia - agrees that the area's historical significance should not be forgotten.
"Oxford Street is such an important part of our city's queer history and culture, and its venues - many of them long gone - were important places where our communities could develop their sense of identity in safety," he says.
"We used to refer to [Oxford Street] as 'the ghetto', and it did have some aspects of a ghetto - a place where a 'persecuted' minority with a commonality gathered."
As someone who marched in the very first Mardi Gras in 1978, Garry has had a connection to the strip for almost 50 years. He points out that male homosexual acts were illegal in NSW until 1984.
"So, from the early 1970s to the early 21st century, [Oxford Street] allowed our LGBTQI+ peoples to explore opportunities and be themselves.
"It was also an important hub during the HIV/AIDS era, a place where discussions were held in its various venues, and strategies were developed to spread the word about safe sex and other necessary knowledge."
Icons of Sydney's LGBTQ+ culture
Determining which venues to put forward for heritage listing was not a simple task for the City of Sydney, but the three venues kept popping up during consultation with the local queer community.
"Each of these venues has been strongly associated with the community since the late 1970s and early 1980s," Moore says.
"It's wonderful to be able to recognise and share the important role they have played in the lives of our diverse LGBTIQA+ communities for more than 40 years."
Garry agrees that these venues hold a special place in the queer community's heart.
"They were, and still are, important places for queers to socialise in," he says.
"They have an iconic status in our history and culture."
Beyond their broader meaning to the LGBTQ+ community, Garry has his own personal connections.
"It was at the Midnight Shift back in the early 2000s that I was first introduced to Steve Johnson, [who was] here to investigate his brother's death back in 1989," he says.
The murder of Scott Johnson was one of the cases that led to the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes in NSW.
"As for the Oxford Hotel," says Garry, "I can remember having a few drinks there with friends on the evening of 24 June 1978, before we set out on our parade down Oxford Street, the event that became the first Mardi Gras."
The Oxford Hotel in Sydney. Photo: Supplied
Oxford Hotel
The Oxford Hotel has been serving drinks to Sydney locals since 1905, although the venue has been operating as a pub under a variety of different names since 1859.
It wasn't until 1982 that it officially opened as a gay venue, promoting itself as "the latest gay pub on the [Oxford Street] strip."
As one of the oldest continually operating queer venues in Sydney, the Oxford Hotel has hosted many LGBTQ+ events over the years, including HIV+ charity Bobby Goldsmith Foundation's annual fundraiser, 'Boys Own Bake-off'.
Palms
Built in 1855 and once the site of the Catholic Women's Association, Palms opened as a gay club in 1977 as an underground cabaret venue.
Quickly establishing itself as a safe space for LGBTQ+ folks rejecting gender and sexual norms, the venue traded as Scooters Bar and Diner during the late 80s before reopening as Palms in 2000.
Universal, formerly Midnight Shift
In August 1978, the venue now known as Universal opened as a restaurant and gay disco, Tropicana. Two years later, it reopened as Club 85, a self-described 'man's disco', but was damaged by a fire a few months later.
In November 1980, the venue reopened again as the Midnight Shift and operated under this name until late 2017.
The closure of the Shift, as it was known to regulars, was attributed to a prolonged dip in attendance due to the Sydney lockout laws, which impacted many LGBTQ+ venues along Oxford Street.
After almost a year of closed doors, the nightclub reopened as Universal in September 2018.
Why heritage listings matter
While heritage listings have been hotly debated in recent years as possible impediments to social change, Garry maintains they serve a valuable purpose.
"Getting a heritage listing is such an important part of acknowledging aspects of a city's history," he says.
Heeding the lessons from history allows us to make a more diverse, inclusive society explains Garry.
"We live in challenging times," he says. "Sexual and gender diversity is under threat in so many places and the impact on individuals can be devastating and, in some cases, fatal."
He says that acknowledging history can be particularly important for persecuted minorities.
"History can teach us how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, history can be used [to remind us] that we are not alone … [and] our history of state persecution [can] be used to demand equalities that match those of other citizens," Garry says.
"That is so important these days. We are, and have long been, part of Sydney's vibrant multicultural society, and have played important roles in its creativity and its campaigns for equality and social cohesion."
The heritage listing proposal comes as the face of Oxford Street continues to change. Last week, beloved gay nightclub ARQ announced it would be closing its doors this month.
Gay Sydney News reports that the co-founder of straight Oxford Street nightclub Noir plans to take over the current ARQ space, rebranding the venue as Aura.
What happens next
City of Sydney councillors unanimously voted in favour of the proposal at the end of last year and the heritage listing is now with the NSW government for review. Once approved, the proposal will be open for public feedback.
At that same meeting, councillors also voted to investigate heritage listings for additional venues, including TRADE nightclub, formerly known as Ruby Reds, which was considered Sydney's first lesbian bar, and long-standing LGBTQ+ bookstore, The Bookshop Darlinghurst.
-ABC
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