Interrogating queer silence in the archive: A multiversal approach to archival justice

Representation of queer expression through traditional and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) media can be reflective of efforts to stigmatise sexual difference and a way to challenge negative stereotypes. In a renewed era of censure and erasure of difference through digital media, the conundrum of the relative merits of inclusion of LGBTQ+ representation and LGBTQ+ invisibility has come into sharper focus. This article considers this dilemma through analysis of an eclectic personal archive of news clippings, ephemera, travel diaries, and autobiographical writing collated in Newcastle, Australia, by social justice activists Merv and Janet Copley. Despite their reformist stance on other socially progressive issues, the Copley's silence around queer narratives reflects the prevailing societal norms and political constraints of post-Second World War Australia that shaped even radical activists. This article critically reflects on how media framing of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity intersects with archival selection processes, and the ambiguities therein for queer (in)visibility.