On LGBTIQ+, Politics & Religion
This Public Feeling: Intimacy and technologies: a pre-history, Bent Street 4.1, August 2020
From camp to gay to queer: David McDiarmid and HIV/ AIDS art The Conversation, August 26, 2014
In 1992 Sydney artist David McDiarmid designed a huge sprawling multi-coloured skeletal puppet figure as the centrepiece for the HIV Living group’s Mardi Gras float. It drew on Latin American traditions of Day of the Dead and it was at once monstrous, perverse, gauche, fragile, daring and beautiful.
John Paul is no saint – his canonisation is political theatre The Conversation, May 1, 2014
The week after Easter, Pope Francis presided over the canonisation ceremony which declared his two most famous contemporary predecessors, John Paul II and John XXIII, were now “saints”. This is an important marker in his papacy, a transparently political act which seeks to balance the canonisation of the deeply conservative John Paul II with a simultaneous nod to John XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and unleashed the progressive reforms of Vatican II.
Online and onwards: it gets better for gay and lesbian media, The Conversation, March 27, 2014
Last week’s announcement that Australia’s oldest and most respected lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) weekly newspaper, Sydney Star Observer (SSO), will change to a monthly print format and a reinvigorated web presence does not come as a surprise given the global state of newspapers.
A cool change, but what has Pope Francis actually achieved? The Conversation, February 11, 2014
A year ago this week, the ageing, doctrinaire and aristocratic Pope, Benedict XVI, shocked keen Vatican watchers and the public alike by his sudden resignation. Few were prepared for the shockwaves that would follow.
From the archive
I worked as a journalist and editor from the early 1990s until the mid-2000s I wrote widely about visual art, architecture, film, health, religion, politics and gay and lesbian issues. From 1999-2006 I was Editor in Chief of SSO Media a small alternative media company which publishes Sydney Star Observer Australia’s oldest and largest circulation gay and lesbian weekly newspaper. Before that I was editor of OutRage a national gay lifestyle monthly. The articles below are a small sample of articles that are still available online.
Gay Media and Politics
Sydney Star Observer – Issue 741 – Published 25/11/2004
To celebrate the Star’s 25th anniversary, editor Marcus O’Donnell takes a look back at the way it chronicled and shaped Sydney’s gay and lesbian culture
Sydney Star Observer- Issue 687 -Published 6/11/2003
The same-sex marriage debate is not going to go away and it might get ugly.
A SHARED LIFE OF BREAKING TABOOS
Sydney Star Observer- Issue 634 -Published 31/10/2002
Kerryn Phelps and Jackie Stricker have been lesbian role models since they came out nearly five years ago. Marcus O’Donnell talks to the couple about their new biography.
Religion
Reportage – Posted April 11 2005
As the world’s media go into rhetorical overdrive about the reign of Pope John Paul, Marcus O’Donnell asks: Was he a uniter or a divider?
Sydney Star Observer– Issue 609 -Published 9/05/2002
The controversial Catholic gay and lesbian rights group The Rainbow Sash is set for a launch in Sydney this month. Marcus O’Donnell takes a look at their philosophy and impact.
Sydney Star Observer – Issue 761 – Published 21/04/2005
The man on Tuesday elected pope, German cardinal Josef Ratzinger, was the chief architect of the Vatican’s war on homosexuality.
Sydney Star Observer- Issue 650 -Published 20/02/2003
Marcus O’Donnell talks to Chris McGillion, editor of a new book on the state of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Sydney Star Observer- Issue 604 -Published 4/04/2002
This Easter, American churches were addressing the death and resurrection… of their own organisation. Marcus O’Donnell takes a look at the sex scandal that is tearing the church apart.