As we celebrate our 150th issue we asked our current and some former editors of OUTinPerth to share their favourite stories from their time at the helm of the magazine and memorable moments from behind the scenes.
What was in the first edition of OUTinPerth?
It all began 11 years ago; back in June 2002 the first edition of OUTinPerth hit the streets. It was the latest incarnation of gay press in Perth following in the footsteps of The Westside Observer, shOUT and Qwest.
Sydney DJ Kate Munroe was on the cover, promoting her upcoming show at The Globe Nightclub, does anyone remember where The Globe was? Ivan King and Ruth Wykes wrote columns, in the music section there was a focus on trance, and a review of Moby’s new album ‘18’ and the radio show on RTRfm was ‘sheer queer’ and the publication was on newspaper print with only the cover and centre spread being printed in colour.
Who Have We Met in 150 issues?
Chita Rivera, Olivia Newton John, Nicki Minaj, K D Lang, Josh Thomas, Hannah Gadsby, Pam Ann, Kim Wilde, Amistead Maupin, Chris Crocker, Colton Ford, Tame Impala, Davey Wavey, Tyler Oakley, Brent Corrigan, Ruby Rose, Boy George, Peter Paige and Thea Gill from Queer as Folk, Bob Downe, Roisin Murphy, Julian Clary, Courtney Act, Sharon Needles, Belinda Carlisle, Nik Kershaw, Dan Choi, Jake Shears, Kate Ceberano, Matthew Bourne, Missy Higgins, Melissa Manchester, Tina Arena, Lisa McCune, Angela Lansbury, Daniella Sea from the L Word, Anthony Callea, Tegan And Sara, Sir Ian McKellen, Sia, Patricia Quinn, Louis Spence, Aurellio Costerella, Georgi Kay, Natalie Basingthwaite, Rufus Wainwright, Max Richter, Melissa T’kautz,Patrick Wolf, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Margaret Cho, Annie Lennox, Beth Ditto, Cazwell, Caroline O’Connor, Amanda Lepore, Christine Anu, Le1f, Julia and Angus Stone, Carson Kressley, Helen Reddy, Martha Wash, Michael Kirby and the late great Donna Summer and so many others.
Paul Bluett – Founding Editor
Politically, our most important early series of articles were about ‘gay’ law reform in Western Australia. Thanks to the efforts of many members and supporters of our GLBTIQ community we saw a series of amendments to WA law following the equalisation of age of consent in 2001. These included legislative changes to equal opportunity law, to include sexual orientation, and improved rights with regard to personal and ‘de facto’ partnership decisions about health, children, property, wills, and more.
Personally, I always felt that the paper’s contributor’s provided many of the best ‘stories’ in the paper. To name only two of many great columns, Ruth Wykes’ column Ruthless often caused a ruckus amongst readers, who didn’t appreciate the incisive commentary Ruth offered (or understand the whole point of the column). And of course Gillette’s scene/gossip column, Media Slut, was always outrageous.
Being based in Highgate certainly provided many memorable events. It was terribly sad to see so many instances of violence and abuse faced by the sex workers who were on the streets outside the office, with the pimps and ‘johns’ being the biggest problem. On the (slightly) funny side, I sometimes had to use the garden hose, or threaten it, to force ‘couples’ to move their business elsewhere. It’s very hard to write an editorial with the fence creaking, and other noises, coming from right outside your window!
Scott Patrick Mitchell
As an editor, the whole experience of producing those few issues was memorable. I did, however, feel particularly proud that OUTinPerth was the first of only three papers to shoot inside the newly arrived Spiegeltent, which resulted in the amazing February cover, shot inside the incredible Fringe World venue by Tobey Black and featuring Strykermeyer and Ash Baroque.
The most memorable office experience would have been teaching legendary then journalist Benn Dorrington the cultural gay importance of Carol Channing, whom we interviewed for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
Graeme Watson (Current Editor)
There are many sides to creating OutinPerth, chatting to actress Patricia Quinn, singer Martha Wash and three interviews with Tina Arena are certainly highlights. Our interview with Nicki Minaj was exciting as it took so long to put together, but was worth the effort as it ran in LGBTI newspapers across Australia and New Zealand.
Last year when chatting on the phone to Belinda Carlisle I suddenly got so nervous when I suddenly realised I was actually speaking to The GoGo’s lead singer, after all she was on my bedroom wall once upon a time.
Equally as memorable is sitting and having a cup of tea with PFLAG parents, shooting covers on hot summer days and putting glitter on a Pride float in the middle of the night. I can report that running in front of marriage equality rallies trying to get a good photo is a very vigorous form of exercise and that nobody looks good in a photo taken in a club after 1am.
Amy Henderson
One of the most harrowing stories was covering the murder trial of Gerardus Heijne. The atmosphere in the court was tense and I was acutely aware of how the mainstream media would report back on it. Heijne actually asked to speak to OIP and give us an interview but his lawyers would not allow it for obvious reasons.
Of course you get to meet a lot of fascinating people working at OIP and I guess one of my all time highlights would have to be Sir Ian McKellen. He is such a warm and genuine man who was very generous with his time. I also got to meet one of my all time favourite camp icons, Julian Clary, although he was much more interested in our super gorgeous sales manager than me.
One of the most fun things in the office was The Ninja File! With the amount of photos we generated from events, there were always a few hideous ones of staff members floating around. Our good office friend Ryan started compiling all the worst photos of us in a secret ‘Ninja File’, which he would then print to use as birthday cards, posters or as blackmail material. Hilarity always ensued.
Megan Smith
150, Hot damn. Girl, you still look good enough to pick up on a street corner any day of the week. And how I have looked forward to picking you up, again and again. From Gay Adoption in WA to the 2008 U.S. election, from interviewing Clare Bowditch – with my fly down – to talking to Margaret Cho about anal bleaching, from the sleep-induced madness of deadline to the clinquant nights on the town, you have never failed to be memorable. And no matter how gruelling the hours or brutal the deadlines, it was always worth it to see another edition working the streets of our town, documenting our community, and telling the stories we live.
Zoe Carter
At times exhilarating, at times exhausting, OUTinPerth was quite a ride.
Setting out, we tried to bring together as many voices and opinions from different areas of the community as we could. While it meant the styles and opinions varied widely across the publication, it was great getting to know so many people and appreciating the diversity of LGBTI experience.
LGBTI news and politics were (and are) crucial aspects of OUTinPerth, however, most important to me personally were the health promotion and community development aspects of the paper. I particularly enjoyed working with community organisations such as WA AIDS Council, GLCS, Freedom Centre, Northbridge History Project, Perth Bears, Club West and the Health promotion unit at Curtin Uni.
Also exciting was the opportunity to work with the arts community – from conversations with partying virtuosi regarding the sex life of Haydn and his chef, to grumpy world-famous authors bitching about the time in San Francisco to fan-girling incoherently over L-Word (remember that?) stars, there were some pretty interesting conversations with interesting people. DJs were not amongst these interesting people – maybe it’s the late nights, or possibly the repertoire of other people’s tunes but we soon discovered that no matter how open ended the question, a DJ prefers a grunt to actual words.
During the time I was involved, the media was undergoing a rapid transition with the emergence of digital and social media. I remember clearly colleague Megan Smith introducing us to this new thing she’d been using at Harvard called Facebook. Didn’t really get the point of it but it seemed like fun… These media are ubiquitous now, but at the time it was a whole new world of gathering and reporting news.
As time went on LGBTI issues also became better reported in mainstream media, and LGBTI characters and themes became much more common. There have certainly been great advances made; unfortunately it seems to have come at a cost to ‘niche’ publications. In recent years many print based LGBTI print publications have closed. Maybe as a community we’re more mainstream or maybe it’s just a sign of the homogenisation of media in Australia, I’m not too sure.
What did I learn from my time at OUTinPerth? Community can support or stifle, getting stuck in a lift can be the start of a beautiful friendship and most importantly: don’t assume that readers won’t ring your Mum when you write about your family in a newspaper..
Former editor Samantha Dowling was not available for comment.
Paul Bluett is a Director at Anglestan Pty Ltd, the company that owns OUTinPerth. Paul edited over 50 edition of OUTinPerth starting with it’s launch in 2002. He was previously involved in previous LGBT publications in Western Australia.
