Throwback: The emotional impact of the Australian Quilt on World AIDS Day 1992

Sydney Star Observer, November 27 and December 11, 1992

AS a way to remember and celebrate the lives of those who had passed away from AIDS-related illnesses, the 450 panels that made up the Australian Quilt were put on display at Sydney’s Darling Harbour for World AIDS Day in 1992.

[showads ad=MREC] The day closed with an emotional ceremony where NSW Law Society president John Marsden delivered an impassioned speech as the guest speaker.

“It’s easy in an Anglo-Saxon society to throw it away as a gay disease,” he said.

“It’s easy in Africa to throw it away as a disease of a poor underprivileged black nation. But it’s not. It’s a disease that it touching everyone.” (Scroll down for full speech.)

The Quilt had been on display a week prior, where school children were taken to see it as part of a community education program.

** The Sydney Star Observer is what the Star Observer was known as in 1992.

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PREVIOUS ‘THROWBACK’ STORIES:

WHEN THE OLYMPIC TORCH CAME TO SYDNEY’S OXFORD ST

WHEN PATRICK BROOKES WAS CROWNED MR LEATHER AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER, FRIDAY JUNE 26, 1987

A HIGHLIGHT IN NSW’S DECRIMINALISATION OF HOMOSEXUALITY CAMPAIGN

ONE YEAR SINCE NEW ZEALAND ENACTED GAY MARRIAGE

AUSTRALIA MARKS GAY PRIDE WEEK

JULY 1979: A STAR IS BORN

THE STAR OBSERVER IN 1979

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: WHEN TASMANIA DECRIMINALISED HOMOSEXUALITY

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**This article was first published in the December edition of the Star Observer, which is available now. To obtain a copy, click here to find out where you can grab one in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and select regional/coastal areas. 

Read the December edition of the Star Observer in digital format:

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