Doug PollardIt's Quite Easy Being [Queer] Green
March with the Queer Greens at Pride, Midsumma
The Greens are holding a meeting this Saturday at 10-o’clock for anyone who wants to be part of the Green presence at Pride and Midsumma this year.
DOUG: This is Doug Pollard – good morning and I hope you’re enjoying the show. No-one could say the Greens aren’t gay-friendly. The national leader Bob Brown is gay, Adam Bandt. Senator Hanson-Young, they’ve all brought pro-gay measures into parliament so it comes as a bit of a surprise to find Queer Greens as a separate group seem to be struggling a little bit at the moment but we’re going to give them a hand now because we’re going to talk with one of them. His name is Dinesh Matthews and he’s looking for people to help-out during Midsumma. Good morning, Dinesh.
DINESH: Good morning, Doug. I think you’ve just outed a lot of politicians.
[laughs]
DOUG: Oh, I don’t this it was any great surprise. I’m sorry you couldn’t actually make it into the studio but of course, public transport is a big Greens’ issue.
[laughs]
DINESH: It is. But this was totally my fault [laughs]
DOUG: Well okay. We’ll let you off this occasion and maybe send you a new alarm clock for Christmas?
DINESH: [laughs] Yeah.
DOUG: So what’s happening with Queer Greens in Victoria?
DINESH: Well, it’s one of those things; there’re so many things going on and after the federal and state elections there’s a lot of fatigue so we’re trying to revive the brand of Queer Greens. Obviously I was involved about 10-years ago and so I’m back on board, trying to get a lot more people involved with the Queer Greens.
DOUG: Is this not just one of those simple cases where queer is so mainstream within the Greens there maybe isn’t a need for a Queer Greens group anymore?
DINESH: This is quite true, actually. We’ve always had a lot of non-gay people marching with us at Pride and lots of people are staffing the stall at Midsumma. So I don’t think we’ve ever had a problem. It’s just that we see the gay community as a very important one for us and it’s part of our stance with all these issues so we obviously want to have a good presence.
DOUG: M’mm. I guess in a way it can fall in-between two schools – because if you don’t have a specific queer group within the Greens then responsibility for taking part in Pride, taking part in Midsumma and all that can kind-of fall by the wayside. Because it can become forgotten, dealing with the general rush of mainstream issues.
DINESH: Let’s face it, it won’t be as fun.
[laughs]
DINESH: I still remember a couple of placards we did about four or 5-years ago.
DOUG: M’mm, m’mm.
DINESH: Where we had signs made up: Show us your Green bits. But the “Green” was written in pink.
DOUG: Yes.
DINESH: We really thought it was hilarious.
DOUG: So what are you looking for right now; this is for Carnival, right? 16th-of-January.
DINESH: That’s right. We’re looking for people to help-out on the day; we’ll have just about all the Green MPs from Victoria turning-up so: Sue Pennicuik who’s just been re-elected.
DOUG: Yes.
DINESH: Adam Bandt of course and senator-elect who is Richard Di Natale.
DOUG: It’ll be nice to have a big band of you down there, wouldn’t it?
DINESH: Yes and it would be good for people to meet some of these politicians and see how real power - - -
[laughs]
DOUG: Well if I can give you a bit of a tip – probably not a tip-off at all for you – but I do know the Liberals are planning to have a fair-old-presence at Midsumma this year: Clem Newton-Brown as usual will be having a stand.
DINESH: So they should.
DOUG: He’ll be bringing a fair number of his colleagues with him, I understand.
DINESH: Well, that would be wonderful because I think there’s a fair lot of them who need to be exposed to gay and lesbian issues, to understand equal rights are quite important.
DOUG: Yes indeed – what can people do if they want to become involved with Midsumma and the Queer Greens?
DINESH: They can email the Queer Greens at I think, it’s the queergreen@yahoo.groups.
DOUG: Yep – queergreen. Singular.
DINESH: Or on Facebook. Check us out: queergreensmelb.
DOUG: Right. What you’re looking for is to help people man your stall at Carnival on the 16th – people to march with you at Pride on the 6th and - - -
DINESH: Yes. We need 100-people.
DOUG: - - - yeah.
DINESH: You don’t have to be a member, just have to be a supporter - - -
DOUG: Or just want to come along and have fun, help-out some Queer Greens.
[laughs]
DINESH: That’s right.
DOUG: Now, you’re having a meeting to organise all this?
DINESH: Yeah. We’re having a meeting this Saturday at 10-o’clock at Crue Café (sic) [Coffee Lounge] in South Yarra.
DOUG: That’s Crue Coffee Lounge, 194 Toorak Road if you want to go along and find out how to give the Greens a hand over the gay festival season this summer.
DINESH: Yeah.
DOUG: Okay. Thanks for your time this morning, Dinesh.
DINESH: Thanks, Doug.
DOUG: Remember to send me your address and I’ll send you that alarm clock.
DINESH: [laughs]
DOUG: Have a good day.
DINESH: You too. ‘Bye.
DOUG: That was Dinesh Matthew from the Queer Greens group; don’t forget if you want to help-out over the festival season – be with them at Carnival, be with them at Pride – there’s a meeting Saturday 10a.m. – Crue Coffee Lounge, 194-Toorak Road South Yarra you can go along and dream-up some naughty banners and things for them to wave around and so on and so forth.
TRANSCRIPT ENDS.
