North of the Border

Book excerpt: I love this state-do not get me wrong. I love Queensland to bits. I don't want to live anywhere else in the world. But at that time we were four million years behind everything else, everyone else.--Lyn Fraser *** Since the end of the Joh Bjelke-Petersen State government, conditions for LGBTIQ identified Queenslanders have improved but remain a tenuous arrangement. As the struggle for rights continues, North of the Border uses documentary photography and first-person narratives to tell the intimate stories of eight lesbians who found themselves existing outside of the 'norm, ' and how that experience informs how they identify as Queenslanders today. North of the Border explores the ways in which state politics and culture impacted negatively upon the lives of LGBTIQ women in Queensland. It gives voice to a group of marginalized women during a moment of renewed interest in sexual politics and identity, and systemic discrimination. This book is the culmination of Heather Faulkner's A Matter of Time project. [Subject: Non-Fiction, Photography, Cultural History, Sociology, Gender Studies, LGBTIQ Studies, Politics