The musical opens with late-night talkback radio host Karen Hertz. It is the 8th of March 1985, and we cut to a radio news bulletin detailing the day’s top headlines. Leading the news is a story about MP Fran Wilde introducing the Homosexual Law Reform Bill into Parliament. This is followed closely by a group of queer activists holding a press conference in support of the legislation. Among them is activist Ali Way, determined to remind the media, and the country, that the fight for equality did not begin in 1985. It stretches back decades, carried forward by earlier generations who had already begun challenging discrimination and demanding change.
The home page for the musical can be found here. The human-authored lyrics and dramatic structure by Gareth Watkins are licensed under the CC BY 4.0 licence; reuse and adaptation with attribution are permitted and encouraged. See the full licensing statement.
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[Prelude]
Time to step back
And pay attention
Attention must be paid
Cause’ ‘85 ain’t the beginning
[Verse 1]
Back to the first attempt in 1974
They offered 21 as the age of consent
But we screamed
No way, it’s equality and nothing less!
And then Ngāhuia in ‘72
was labelled a deviant by the States
But instead of hiding, we screamed right back
“Let’s all be deviants!”
[Chorus]
It didn’t start in ‘85
It’s Queer History 101
Pay attention to your ancestors
They’re gifting you a possibility
[Verse 2]
Back to June ‘69
And in New York City, Stonewall exploded
And the anger grew, and the anger spread
And swept across the world
And what was a call for tolerance
Became a scream for
Queer Liberation!
[Chorus]
It didn’t start in 1985
It’s Queer History 101
Pay attention to your ancestors
They’re gifting you a possibility
[Instrumental break]
[Verse 3]
Back to 1967
And the Law Reform Society
A time to quietly organise
A time to start petitioning
It was the Queers with
their allies, and their friends
All demanding change
There needs to be a change
[Verse 4]
Because in January ‘64
The murder of a gay man
Showed the injustice of justice
And a fire was sparked
And our outrage grew
And here we are
Here we still are!
[Final Chorus]
It’s Queer History 101
And it’s 1985
And our ancestors
They’re gifting us a possibility
It’s Queer History 101
And it’s 1985
And we will not
We will not throw away this dream!
We will not throw away our dream!
Voices