The Same Same 25 is an annual celebration of the 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians.
About The Same Same 25 The Same Same 25 is an annual celebration of the 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians. They are publicly nominated, and chosen by a panel of community leaders. For the past two years, the announcement of the 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians has attracted widespread national media attention and focused on the achievements and influence of a varied and inspirational group of people.
The Judges - The Same Same 25 judges are drawn from a wide cross-section of the community, representing a broad field of influence and experience in their chosen professions. Andrew Creagh (Editor, DNA Magazine), Cec Busby (Editor, LOTL Magazine), Rachel Cook (Editor, Cherrie Magazine), Christian Taylor (Editor, SameSame.com.au), David Wilkins (ACON), Kevin Golding (Business Analyst), Peter Walton (Publisher, Evolution), Libby Clark (Co-founder, Sound Alliance), Tim Duggan (Co-founder, SameSame.com.au)
The Process - The Same Same 25 is publicly nominated, and chosen by a panel of community leaders. Anyone in Australia can nominate someone for the Same Same 25.

Vicki Harding

Activist & Author

Lesbian activist Vicki Harding is used to being in the eye of a storm. Harding and her family have been at the centre of two of the largest gay and lesbian controversies to hit the mainstream media over the past few years, nicknamed by the tabloids as “Gay School” and “Gaycare” respectively.

The first started innocently enough, when a friend of Harding and her partner Jackie Braw asked if they wanted to spend a day at theme park Australia’s Wonderland with their daughter Brenna in front of some cameras. Brenna and a friend spent the day on the rides with her parents. The footage went to air on the ABC children’s show Playschool six months after it was filmed, and nothing happened. Then it went to air again a few months later - but this time the wife of a cadet journalist was watching the show, told her husband and, in the words of Harding “it just totally blew up”. From the Prime Minister to the front pages of the national newspapers, the “Gay School” controversy brought same-sex parenting crashing into the headlines.

How did it feel to be at the centre of a storm? “It was pretty exciting, I must say. Brenna was thrilled, absolutely thrilled. I’ll tell you what she said – and it’s kinda funny now – she said ‘I’m going to be as famous as Britney Spears’”. Harding laughs at the irony. “We had to explain to her that it’s come from a pretty bad place, from people who don’t think that we should be a family. But I think it has built up her confidence around this issue that she’s really confident about it at the moment, and hopefully we can hold onto that for a few years.”

After the “Gay School” controversy died down, it wasn’t long before Harding was back in the news. In 2006, the tabloids again picked up on the ground-breaking series of “Learn To Include” children’s books that Harding had co-written with her daughter that featured same-sex parents. The books were born out of necessity, says Harding.

“When Brenna was learning to read I went to a teacher and asked if they had any books that challenged gender stereotypes. I couldn’t find anything with same-sex parents, I just found stupid books about mum in the kitchen baking cakes and dad in the garage fixing the car.” The Daily Telegraph labeled the books “perverted rot”, politicians became involved and Harding and her family were featured everywhere from Today Tonight to 60 Minutes. Just last week, the books were read out in NSW Parliament where the reverberations are still being felt. 

Harding is a born activist, having been involved in many boundary-pushing issues at various stages of her life. She founded the Women’s Library in Sydney’s Newtown, started a Single Lesbian Mums’ Group before she met her current partner, and was instrumental in getting Mardi Gras’ KidZone off the ground. “I don’t like just sitting back and doing nothing,” she says.

As an activist and as a mother, Vicki Harding is helping to forge a path that is, thankfully, getting a little less lonely with every step.

By Tim Duggan