As you may know the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA) has started a name change consultation process as announced at our 2018 AGM. As part of this process we are inviting members and supporters to share their views and suggestions.
In late July 2019 we hope to hold a few focus groups and a community forum to further discuss the possibilities. If you would like to be involved in these please email us your interest at mail@alga.org.au (please use 'ALGA name change' in the subject heading)
Here is the link to the ALGA name change survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8F559DC
Background to the name change
Here is a little bit of history for you about our name:
In 1978, when the Archives was founded, it was named the Australian Gay Archives.
In 1991 the name was changed to the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA). The 1991 change was felt to be more reflective of the identities within the community.
In the last few years It has been suggested by some members and supporters that the name – ‘Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives’ (often referred to as ALGA) needs to be more inclusive of the broader LGBTIQ+ communities.
Why now? Well, in 2018 ALGA celebrated its 40th Anniversary - a fantastic achievement and as a community archive that actively collects materials from the broad diversity of our LGBTIQ+ communities the time is right. Our holdings have included bisexual and transgender material since our foundation, and we are increasingly receiving intersex, non-binary, brotherboy, sistergirl, and third gender multicultural material. However, few people are aware of these diverse holdings, and we regularly receive commentary from the community and members about the dissonance between our holdings, our collecting aims and our name.
2019 is the right time to enter into this name consultation and check in with people about how they feel about the name of this organisation and whether or not it accurately reflects both who we are also the communities we represent.
ALGA will be engaging with members, supporters, volunteers and wider community in the coming months to hear their thoughts, suggestions and concerns about a potential name change. Any outcome of this consultation will then be taken to an AGM for consideration. Please note that at the end of this process ALGA may decide not to change the name. Or, we may decide to change our name. We really won’t know until the end of this process. To be clear - the outcome has not been decided as it will be based on the feedback that we get during this consultation process.
Thanks so much for being part of this process and your on-going support of the Archives.
Replies
we're changing the name: Stay tuned for more details in early 2020: https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/community-news/australian-lesb...