More than 50 older LGBTI people share their stories and images - of first love and family, of struggle and defiance and resistance and pride. They include prominent Australian activists including Bob Brown, Sally Goldner and the Hon. Michael Kirby. Many of the stories are by ordinary and extraordinary people who may be Indigenous, born overseas, or live in cities or small towns across Australia, New Zealand, UK, US and Ireland. David Hardy presents diverse stories to unsilence lives and put them in print. They add to the history of the LGBTI movement by adding in the power of the personal; life stories that make their mark. 'I hope this book helps people understand who LGBTI people are and who we are not, ' says David. 'We are not invisible. This collection of stories celebrates the myriad ways we identify as LGBTI people. I hope these stories will stir and agitate, comfort and caress, and make you mad and cry and laugh out loud.


Contents: On BOLD / David Hardy -- Courage / Michael Kirby. Ours is the world of love (A long search for 'short' people / Miriam Saphira ; A love story / John Ebert, John Stafford ; The incredibly true adventure of Queer Girl and Tumor Boy / Linda Englert Kennedy ; 1976 / Bob Brown ; You shall leave everything you love most dearly / Adrienne Fleming ; The only gay pub in town / Steve Jebb, Peter Haines ; The weekend / Roisin O'Hagan ; The spy who came out from the cold / Erica & Joan ; Back then ... / Heather McPherson ; This photo makes me think of my lesbian friends / Basia Sokoowska ; The company of womyn / Jean Taylor ; Anniversary (Summer vacation) / Kate Lilley ; Examining these bones / Allison Browning ; Karen Pini / Melissa Hardie) People of courage (Proud black lesbian woman / Fay June Ball, Kathrine Clark ; Gay bar / Rob Wallis ; Phyllis & Francesca / Belinda Raposo ; My gay life / Christopher Hartland ; The joy of a bad crowd / Dave Urquhart ; Happy in my skin / Connie Morgan ; Barbara Bryce / Heather Faulkner ; Bankstown memories / Helmut Bakaitis ; Impulse love song / Mary Jane Carpenter ; The one red egg / Timorell ; From kamp to lesbian . Alison J. Laurie ; The checkout / Tiny Healy) The days of exclusion are numbered (Growing up gay in Papua New Guinea / Garth Wong ; Dancing with the Grim Reaper / Stephen Colwell ; That's what I am -- I'm a lesbian! / Lois Cox ; Gay is good / Philip Rescorla, Martin Edwardes ; Banning lesbians / Bob Brown ; Causes / Geoff Davis ; Ageing, activism & self-determination / Jo Harrison ; A quarter century of queer choruses / Kathleen McGuire ; Robert, a 55-year-old XXY intersex man / Joe Ray Latham, Catherine Barrett ; Bad birds and little birds / Pascalle Burton ; The long engagement / Leigh Neighbour ; Outliving myself / Robert Levithan ; Ascend / Darryl Butler ; For services to human rights / Trevor Robinson) Nothing is impossible (A life in five acts / Bart Hosking ; They will know her by her shoes / Linda Englert Kennedy ; Eros denied / David Menadue ; Our spirit runs free / Dawn Daylight ; Transiting to a new self / Rosslyn Prossler ; Top and tail / Rowland Thomson, Crusader Hillis ; Good onya, sweetheart / Kelly Bowie ; ABBA, Doctor Who & men / Michael Young ; Queering the air / Lia Incognita, Pham Phu Thanh Hang, Arjun Rajkhowa ; Rainbow across generations / Sally Goldner ; 'Those women at Mary Who? -- you know, they're lesbians' / Sue Cole, Kerry McIlroy ; Finding Dad / Tina Healy ; Fragments & rumopurs / Jill Livestre ; Lives lived with purpose / Graham Willett)