I am a lesbian [Bonds t-shirt]

’I am a lesbian’ – the Making of a T-Shirt

By Andrea (Andy) Malone

Friday 10 January 2025

Sometime in 1974, the ABC decided to produce its weekly political interview programme, ’Monday Conference’, from its Adelaide studios.  Monday Conference on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online. The programme format focused on bringing together a representative from two opposing sides of a particular political issue of the day and Adelaide scored the programme on feminism.

The Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM) was asked to provide a representative to be interviewed on the programme, with the oddly named group ’Women Who Want to be Women’(WWWW)  - (or as we dismissively referred to them – Women Who Want to be Doormats), asked to provide a representative from their side. The programme was oppositional in nature and set up to court controversy.

We in the WLM chose Marilyn Doley who, at the time, was a married teacher with hair so long she could sit on it.  In our choice of representative we were looking to deprive the programme of an obvious stereotype. Marilyn was the perfect choice, the epitome of an ordinary, attractive, articulate woman with strong feminist credentials.

Each opposing side was allowed to bring a certain number of supporters to be part of the live audience. I was one of those supporters.  Our supporters group decided to push the boundaries, so we had a small batch of t-shirts screen printed with the words, ’I am a lesbian’. At the time, lesbians had a somewhat uncomfortable position in the WLM, as some in the movement felt that we were a marginal group that rather lowered the tone.  The word ’lesbian’ was not really in common use then, and was generally only to be heard when angry men tried to smear feminists with the epithet that we were all ’hairy legged lesbians’. We in the supporters group thought it high time to make a more positive statement and rehabilitate the word. The plan was for all of us to turn up in the audience as part of a silent protest/comment with our t-shirts on full display. 

We had little time to organise, so some-one arranged to have the t-shirts printed and delivered to the WLM headquarters, housed a large rundown warehouse in Bloor Court in the city. We supporters were each to pick up our own t-shirt during the day and to meet and convene at the ABC Collinswood studios that night.

The big night arrived and I turned up as arranged, wearing my t-shirt.  I looked around for my friends and other members of the support group.  When I found them in the throng, no-one else was wearing the t-shirt! I felt like a general leading her troops from the front, only to turn around and see that they had all melted away.

Of course, in the way of these things, everyone else was delighted to see me wearing my t-shirt and immediately rallied to importune me to ask a question from the audience so that I would be picked up by the cameras and be broadcast wearing my t-shirt.  And that is exactly what I did.  I asked a question which has long since been lost to the mists of time and I was duly broadcast nationally around Australia. My mother in Melbourne was quite surprised to see me suddenly appear on her tv.  Many other friends and acquaintances also saw the programme that night and I’m pleased to say that I subsequently received a great deal of positive feedback from all over the country. The t-shirt had done its job.