Brimbank's LGBTQIA+ History Exhibition mapped and celebrated the history of local LGBTQIA+ community, revealing the people, movements and creative forces that have shaped Brimbank's vibrant queer heritage. It brought together stories of activists such as Ali Hogg and Gordon Doak, alongside creative champions including Keigh bowery, Ana Kokkinos and Kween Kong, tracing networks of resistance, visibility and cultural change. The exhibition was brought together by the Australian Queer Archives. The Brimbank Council has a formal adopted action plan (2024–2028) that commits the municipality to improving health, safety, inclusion, empowerment, and organisational leadership for LGBTQIA+ residents. This action plan policy is built around the City of Brimbank's LGBTQIA+ Action Plan 2024–2028, that was adopted in November 2023. It was the council’s first formal LGBTQIA+ policy and is now the governing document for all inclusion, safety, and community‑support work. LGBTQIA+ is an inclusive acronym that represents diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer / questioning, intersex, asexual, and others.Brimbank LGBTQIA History Exhibitionlgbtqia+, ali hogg, gordon doak, leigh bowery, ana kokkinos, kween kong, city of brimbank

This photograph was the hero image from artist Ayman Kaake’s commissioned exhibition at Eltham Library Community Gallery ‘In their names’ which was Nillumbik Shire’s first collaboration with Midsumma Festival. The work is a self-portrait of the artist at Half Moon Bay in which he is covered by and hugs a Prayer Rug. The backdrop is the sea, a significant border between countries. Kaake born Tripoli, Lebanon arrived in Australia 2011. Ayman’s initial works were made without an artist community. As a young queer man in a country where he did not speak the language, he used his camera to photograph mainly himself. Ayman knows the experience of what it is to feel oneself a foreigner & be conflicted in ones identification with home. His works evoke borders - those of governance, culture, sexuality - through water, sand, & objects of ritual. AYMAN KAAKE (he/him) is an award-winning Lebanon-born Australian photo-media visual artist currently based in Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs. He explores diasporic melancholy and the agony of exile through contemplative portraiture and sculptural, styled poses. Ayman Kaake arrived in Australia as a telecommunications engineer graduate in 2011. Enamored by the camera, he lied to his family to pursue his artistic journey – enrolling in secret in visual arts in Melbourne. His many accomplishments include being a finalist at the National Photographic Portrait Prize in 2022 and 2023, a featured artist for PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography for the outdoor program, the winner of Midsumma and Australia Post Award 2022, the winner of the Small Work Art Prize at Brunswick Street Gallery 2022, and recipient of Room to Create residency at Collingwood Yards 2020. A book of Ayman’s artworks has been recently published by Tall Poppy Press. Photographic print on textilelgbtqia+, queer, half moon bay, midsumma, lgbtqia+ politics, migration, criminalisation of homosexuality

Gordon William Doak, was one of Sunshine's early known gay activist. He was a linesman, a builder and a Glengala Road Sunshine West resident. He built his two-story home himself including a gymnasium. Soon after his 1973 'coming out', he sold up and purchased a property in Moor St, Fitzroy, digging underground and setting up his own personal gym under the house for himself and his friends, Most people remember, even decades later, was the arrival of Gordon Doak at the Gay demonstration in the City Square, Melbourne. He decided, on hearing about the demonstration, that he wanted to be there. But not for him anything as mundane as catching a train. Rather he decided to run in to the city, and to carry a banner that he made for himself – 2 foot square, black letters on green canvas that read 'I am proud of my homosexuality. Please change the repression against homosexuals and let us live in peace'. As he ran the eight miles through the streets of Sunshine, Tottenham and Footscray, he was cheered on and waved at by pedestrians and jeered at only twice!In 2019, the City of Melbourne Council installed this historic 1973 photo of Gordon in the “Yes” room in the Melbourne Town Hall for his historic role in campaigning for LGBTI acceptance.gordon william doak, lgbtqia+, glengala road, sunshine west, st. marks amateur athletic club