Jude Munro AO, 68
Chair of the Victorian Pride Centre Board
Cis female, Lesbian
She/her
Sitting in a Salvation Army seminar for young people in the mid 1960s, 14-year-old Jude listened to an elder expounding on the evils of homosexuality.
“It was the first time I had really heard that, and I realised that he was talking about me, and if that’s what they think, then I’m not going to have anything more to do with them.”
By the time she enrolled in her first year at the University of Melbourne, Jude had also developed a keen passion in homosexual law reform. Unable to join some LGBTIQ organisations because she was under 21, Jude took matters into her own hands.
“It was around October of 1972. I wrote a pamphlet and I went to the Salvation Army in South Melbourne and typed it out on a stencil and printed about 200 copies on a Gestetner machine. I persuaded two friends to come along and we handed out these pamphlets on homosexual law reform at Flinders Street Station, underneath the clocks,” Jude remembers fondly.
In the wake of the Stone Wall riots, the moratorium rallies against the Vietnam war and the rise of the gay liberation movement in Sydney, Jude and four friends formed the Melbourne Gay Liberation Front.
“I chaired our very first meeting at the university and we had about 40 people come to it… and that was really the start of Melbourne Gay Liberation Front. We pushed for homosexual law reform, we developed consciousness raising awareness groups, and we organised a whole range of events; picnics at the Botanic Gardens, film nights, dance nights... It was a real combination of the social and the political, and lot of us developed relationships with each other at the time,” says Jude who has been with her partner Louise for over 35 years.
At 68, Jude remains active in the community chairing the board of the Victorian Pride Centre and the Victorian Planning Authority, among many other commitments.
When I ask if she’s going to slow down, Jude quickly replies, “Ah, not really, probably in a few years. I still get asked to do a few things, and while I’m still asked, I’ll still do things!”
Photo notes:
Jude and I revisited the steps of Flinders Street Station where 48 years ago she handed out home-made pamphlets on gay law reforms to anyone who would take them. Her eyes lit up as she pointed out the spot where she stood, taking note of what had changed around the station and what remained the same. For a moment, we both stood silently taking in the sight of the city before us.