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Radio hosts behind Big Gay Out fears
11.00PM: The Big Gay Out is looking secure again as one of the people behind
the surprise and secretive bid to legally grab Auckland's Big Gay Out name
has acknowledged her identity and defended her actions, which left the
organisers of the Big Gay Out stunned and fearful of a major legal battle for
the rights to stage the community event.
Initially describing a query as to whether she might be behind the move as
"offensive" Lexie Matheson, the transgender co-host of Auckland's
weekly glbt G&T Radio show, then acknowledged that she and co-host Ross
Stevenson made the application to legally assume ownership of the Big Gay Out
name and concept. The name has traditionally been accepted to informally be
the property of the Hero Charitable Trust.
Matheson admitted to having no time for the Hero organisation. "I have
no interest in supporting Hero whatsoever," she said this afternoon,
dismissing the HCT as a secretive organisation which had broken promises in
the past. Matheson was chair of a community group which convened as the
first, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rescue Hero from crippling
financial debts in 2001/02. "The reason for [our] application to own
that name is that we know that Hero is hassling the Big Gay Out organiser
[the NZAF and its staff] and we wanted to free up the Big Gay Out from this
conflict." Matheson could not clearly explain how trying to take
ownership of the Big Gay Out concept would diffuse any such tensions, given
the minimum three month period the Intellectual Property Office says is
needed before an application, if approved, can be actioned.
After discussing the recent history and operation of the Hero Charitable
Trust with GayNZ.com this evening Matheson ventured that the organisation was
possibly in better heart than she suspected and downplayed her earlier
dismissal of the organisation.
Both Hero and the NZAF say they in fact have a good working relationship.
Though she says she respects the AIDS Foundation and only wants to help it,
it is understood that there have been for some time personal tensions between
Matheson and the NZAF. Matheson has for the best part of a year been a dogged
inquisitor into the operation of the NZAF, particularly relating to
staff/workplace relations and events and fundraising.
The affair is complicated by Matheson's additional claim that she and
Stevenson had come to realise that no one had formally registered the Big Gay
Out name and concept and they wanted to test that ownership. She says her
research clearly indicates that the Big Gay Out actually emerged in 1993 and
in an initial interview with GayNZ.com expressed a belief that the Big Gay
Out concept could therefore not belong to either Hero or the NZAF as it pre-dated
their involvement.
The Trade Mark application, which was lodged in the name of The Company of
Angels, used a North Shore residential address. However, when GayNZ.com was
able to speak with the house's occupants they were at first were baffled by their
address being used, which this afternoon briefly added to community concerns
that some non-glbt organisation might be making a grab for the Big Gay Out.
This was reinforced by the wording of the Trade Mark application which sought
"sole ownership of the concept, planning, execution, staging,
evaluation, in any venue, in any place, and at any time along with any other
facet of an event entitled The Big Gay Out."
GayNZ.com investigations revealed that the residents at the address were
related to Matheson, though they appeared to have no idea of Matheson and
Stevenson's moves. Matheson says that she did not want to use her own address
for family reasons, and that the 'Company of Angels' entity is one she has
used in the past as a theatre producer.
Both Hero and the NZAF say they have taken legal advice and both now believe
the Big Gay Out concept is in no real danger of falling into Matheson and
Stevenson's hands, though both organisations were clearly rattled when the
application was revealed today. They are seeking to reassure Hero
Festival-goers that this situation will not affect the running of the Big Gay
Out on Sunday 11th February.
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