QUEER MEDITERRANEAN MEMORIES - JOSEPH CARMEL CHETCUTI

JOSEPH CARMEL CHETCUTI

Profession - Barrister and Solicitor.

Areas of Practice - Immigration, criminal, family and same-sex law.

Qualifications - Master of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from the University of New South Wales, Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and Licentiate in Theology from CSR Surrey (UK). Chetcuti was awarded a Commonwealth Postgraduate (Research) Scholarship in 1980 and a Writers Project Assistance Grant in 1989.

Previous Employment - Public Servant and Lecturer at the Footscray and Philip Institutes of Technology and the Ascot Vale campus of the Institute of Catholic Education, all in Victoria.

Membership of Committees - Chetcuti was Vice-President of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of Maltese (1983), member of the Review of the Commonwealth Multicultural Education Program, a Report to the Commonwealth Schools Commission (1984), chair to the Victorian Association of Multicultural Writers (1985-1987), member of the Overseas Committee, Institute of Catholic Education (now the Australian Catholic University) (1989-1990), member of Pride Board (Victoria) (2000-2002) and a Convenor (2004) and Interim President of the Australian Gay Multicultural Conference (2007).

Publications - His contributions, in English, have appeared in, amongst others, Edge City on Two Different Plans (1983), Being Different (1986), Love and Death (1987), The Australian People - An Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and Their Origins (1988, 2001), Gay Perspectives - Essays in Australian Gay Culture (1992), Gay Perspectives II - More Essays in Australian Gay Culture (1994), Gay and Lesbian Perspectives III (1996), Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History - From Antiquity to World War II (2001) and Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History - From World War II to the Present Day (2001). He was a contributor to Homosexuals Report Back (1974), an in-house publication of CAMP NSW and a retort to the Report on Homosexuality (n.d.), a report of the Ethics and Social Questions Committee to the Synod of the Church of England Diocese of Sydney. Chetcuti is listed in Michael Hurley's A Guide to Gay and Lesbian Writing in Australia (1996) and Professor Maurice N Cauchi's A Who's Who of Maltese-Background Persons in Australia and New Zealand (2008).

Books - Chetcuti wrote Il-Ktieb Roza: Dnub, Dizordni u Delitt? (The Pink Book: A Sin, Disorder and Crime?), the first book on homosexuality in the Maltese language. The book, launched on 18 February 1997 on radio station Live FM by Evarist Bartolo, then Minister of Education and National Culture, had its gay launching at Floriana's Lizard Lounge (Tom Bar) on 16 February 2007.

The book sparked off a debate that brought homosexuality back on Malta's national agenda. In April 2007, the Maltese Community Council of Victoria banned Chetcuti from delivering a talk, at its Parkville centre, on the tenth anniversary of the publication of the book on the ground that the talk would offend Maltese religious sentiments and beliefs. No member of the Council made any attempt to discover the contents of the lecture.

Radio/TV Interviews - In Malta, Chetcuti appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including Pjazza Tlieta, Xarabank, Fil-Mira, Voice of the Mediterranean, Boomerang, Sibtijiet Flimkien, Live FM and Calypso Radio.

Actvism - Chetcuti came out, as a gay man, in 1973. During the 1970s, he participated in street marches and demonstrations including (briefly) Sydney's first gay lib demonstration of 15 September 1973 and Sydney's first Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (as it was later styled) of 24 June 1978. He was a member of CAMP NSW and was involved with several Sydney gay groups, during their formative years, including Catholic group Acceptance and the Metropolitan Community Church.

Some recent newspaper articles and mentions

http://www.maltagayrights.net/node/70