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 Joseph Chetcuti pays tribute to Lance Gowland, a committed gay activist, who helped organise the first Mardi Gras.
I last saw Lance some three weeks ago, on 11 September 2008, when I was visiting Sydney. My plane touched down at around 1.45pm and I headed straight for the Sacred Heart Hospice where Lance had been a patient since March this year. I found Lance fast asleep and I decided not to wake him up. Lance didn’t miss a beat. He soon opened his eyes and saw me sitting not far from his bed: “Next time wake me up. I am always sleeping.” I was not sure whether there would be a next time.
Steve Warren, a long time friend of Lance who that day had returned from Thailand, soon joined us. We made our way to the ground floor gardens to admire the trees and shrubbery and the statues of the Virgin Mary in various poses and guises, strange environment for a Communist but one that Lance enjoyed. Steve pushed Lance’s wheelchair. I tended to the luggage, a camera and a tripod.
At one stage, I looked at Lance and Steve and said: “Let’s do the beat!” (The Sacred Heart Hospice is in the heart of Green Park, a famous beat of the 1970s.) There was little prospect of us “doing the beat” at that time of day (4pm) and in the state that we were all in. So we lingered at the entrance of the Hospice for a few minutes: Lance in his white dressing gown, sitting on a wheelchair, Steve in blue denim jeans and a brown t-shirt and yours truly in a black leather jacket bought in Penguin Island, lugging suitcases. So “we did the beat”, however symbolically, and thought of the good old days when we hopped from one Oxford Street bar to another before heading towards Kings Cross, always through Green Park to meet friends, of course. And we thought of the police cars that used to drive past in the 1970s and our defiant selves, exercising our right to walk in public places.
Lance was a gay activist and a communist. An amiable communist, not one of the Communist-Manifesto-thumping variety. But he is best known as the driver of the sound truck, the only float at the first gay Mardi Gras. Police tried to take over the truck but Lance argued and resisted. He then calmly wound up the windows of the truck and pretended he could not hear the police although there were no prizes for guessing what they were saying. Somewhere near Hyde Park, not far from College Street, the police confiscated the truck. Some reports have Lance leaving the truck, being arrested, released by the crowd and then surrounded by lesbians who quickly changed his clothes in an effort to fool the police.
Lance was born in Melbourne. He attended Westmead High School during the early 1950s when he was also involved with the Eureka Youth League and the anti-apartheid and peace movements. Gowland’s parents, being communists, frequently suffered discrimination and were often forced to move houses because of this. At age 20, Gowland travelled to Europe, the USA and Israel. He was in Washington to hear Martin Luther deliver his famous speech. Upon his return to Australia, he worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme where he met his wife. He subsequently joined the public service.
In 1969, Gowland became involved in a gay social group. After coming out as a gay man, he left his position as secretary to the Goulburn Trades and Labour Council and the Progress Association. He then took up a job with the Quarantine Service in Sydney. He joined CAMP NSW, Gay Liberation and the Socialist Lesbians and Male Homosexuals. In 1972, he and Dennis Freney successfully lobbied the Communist Party of Australia to support gay and lesbian rights. With Ron Austin, he approached the Gay Solidarity Group with a proposal to organize a Mardi Gras and he helped secure the relevant permits. Gowland helped arrange the 1979 Mardi Gras and lobbied against the involvement of commercial and gay venues. In 1984, his team was unable to secure any positions on the Mardi Gras board and subsequently Gowland became less involved in gay politics. In 2004, he sailed his yacht to Nauru as part of the Flotillas of Hope to protest against federal government policy of detaining asylum seekers.
Lance was a tireless activist. He shared his passion for justice with others whatever their political views, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Within the gays and lesbian movement, he was a passionate advocate for the rights of lesbians. Some years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the prognosis was not good. When we last met, he was speaking of recovery and resuming his life, sadly an unlikely prospect. He died on 6 October 2008, at approximately 12.40pm, not inappropriately on Labour Day. He died in the company of his son (Christopher), his sister Vanessa, his brother Geoff and Margaret, one of his very close friends. With his death, we have lost a friend and a courageous gay activist who helped shape the life we all enjoy today. As his friend wrote to me in an email, Lance is “probably at some big demo or organising a Mardi Gras activity in the other world!” May he rest in peace!
Joseph Carmel Chetcuti is a barrister and solicitor and a 78-er.
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Farewell, Lance Gowland
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