welcome to the gay and lesbian kingdom
of the coral sea islands
try saying that five times fast gay and
lesbian kingdom of the coral islands
gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
you'd think they could have you know
maybe abbreviated it
somehow we like our abbreviations after
all
hello beautiful people have you ever
wondered what it would be like to live
in an
entire lgbtq plus country
i certainly have especially after some
biphobic comments i got today
christ i would love to just live on an
island full of queer people
nobody else around that sounds great
today we're going to talk about a
micronation that was founded in 2004
exclusively for the lgbtq plus community
the gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands was founded as a response to the
australian government's refusal to
recognize same-sex marriage
it was founded on australia's overseas
external territory called
the coral sea islands which is a group
of uninhabited islands just a little
ways east of the great barrier reef
this external territory is north east of
queensland australia and it covers about
000 square kilometers of land well most
of it
isn't land actually most of its ocean
but there are some islands in there in
between as well
the tallest point of the territory is
cato island which is where the capital
of the gay and lesbian kingdom of the
coral islands was
founded the initiative for the founding
of an entire lgbtq plus
kingdom was taken by a guy named matthew
briggs who was a part of the brisbane
gay and lesbian pride festival in 2003.
lgbtq post activists were upset with the
australia government's plan
to amend the marriage act not to
recognize queer marriages that happened
overseas
based on the law of unjust enrichment
whereas if something is unjustly taken
compensation must be made
and in conjunction with international
law which states that oppressed people
have the right to self-determination and
self-governance this group of lgbt
keepers activists claimed territorial
compensation
and thus set out to start their own
kingdom
on june 14 2004 this group of lgbtq plus
activists set out on
the gay flower
yes that is a pun on the mayflower
to go and found their own lgbtq plus
kingdom
they raised the rainbow flag on cato
island and they declared
this territory an independent state a
memorial plaque on the northeastern tip
of cato island commemorates this amazing
moment in queer history and it reads
on the 14th day of june 2004 at this
highest point in the coral sea
emperor dale parker anderson raised the
gay rainbow flag and claimed the islands
of the coral sea in his name
as homeland for the gay and lesbian
peoples of the world
god save our king now i don't know where
uh trans and bisexual and other members
of the community fit in
under gay and lesbian but to be frank i
don't have the time in this video to
give that particular issue the time that
it deserves
what i will say is that this was in 2004
and a lot of times terms like gay and
lesbian were used to be inclusive of the
entire community
i know a lot of bisexual folks did not
identify as bisexual especially
throughout the 80s and 90s and while
2004 is a little bit later than that
i do understand that potentially they
were using language like gay and lesbian
as an all-inclusive term like lgbtq plus
and while i personally don't agree with
that i don't want to assume that these
people were trans exclusionary or
biphobic because really i don't know
what their story is i couldn't find
anything on this online and again
i don't have the time to give this the
energy and the time that it deserves
but just know that like i'm not
condoning an exclusive gay and lesbian
island i hope that these people weren't
gatekeeping i hope this was an inclusive
lgbtq plus kingdom
that's what i hope and that's the
narrative we're sticking with for the
rest of this video but if i'm wrong
i do not condone this kingdom and i am
not affiliated in any way shape or form
the founders then drafted a declaration
of independence in the style of the
united states declaration of
independence which i will read now
homosexual people have honestly
endeavored everywhere to merge ourselves
in the social life of surrounding
communities and to be treated equally
we are not permitted to do so in vain we
are loyal patriots
our loyalty in some places running into
extremes in vain do we make the same
sacrifices of life and property as our
fellow citizens
in vain do we strive to increase the
fame of our native land and science and
art
or her wealth by trade and commerce in
countries where we have lived for
centuries where i still cried down as
strangers
in the world as it is now and for an
indefinite period i think we should not
be left in peace they then set up a
campsite on kato island which they named
heaven after the famous london gay bar
which i have myself spent many nights in
uh
for better or for worse that's another
video
also get this you get citizenship in
this kingdom just from being lgbtq plus
which i think is pretty rad
they released their first stamps in 2006
which you can see here
with the aim of creating a high and
distinctive society of philatelic
fraternity
on the 13th of september 2004
the gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands officially
declared war on the country of australia
unfortunately australia ended up using
this against them
they declared that the rainbow flag was
actually the flag of a hostile nation
and thus banned the rainbow flag for
being hung in any government buildings
which frankly is a bit ridiculous so i
don't know about you guys but i
absolutely love the idea of being a
citizen of an lgbtq plus kingdom
this kingdom sounds so cool like the
coral sea islands living on a little
island with a bunch of queer people
sounds kind of like my dream now you may
be asking yourself
where can i buy flights to this country
it sounds great where do i get
citizenship where do i sign up when can
i move
well sadly not a lot came of this
kingdom
it had a long time running population of
zero there were no buildings
and like a lot of micro nations it
wasn't recognized by any other sovereign
body so at the end of the day most
countries did not really see
the gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands as a legitimate country
so the gay and lesbian kingdom of the
core islands is what we call a
micronation and you may be wondering
what
is a micronation well let me explain
micronations are political entities
whose members claim to belong to
independent or sovereign states that
don't have legal recognition
elsewhere for example from the united
nations or other sovereign states
now i happen to be a little bit of a
micronation nerd myself
i fell down the macronation rabbit hole
when a new country emerged called
liberland which exists on a very small
piece of territory in between
serbia and croatia liberland is in a
disputed set of territory and the owners
established it and went there and
actually got arrested
but they had these really grand
ambitions for liberland
as you can see here their ambitions for
this micro nation were enormous this
utopic city
it was a really beautiful idea well is a
really beautiful idea they're still
working on it
it was an interesting thing to jump into
because liberland offers citizenship if
you make donations a lot of these micro
micronations have ways to get involved
in these countries
and the promise to an outsider is that
if this micro nation does become
developed or you know a truly realized
entity then you could potentially jump
ship and have
you know become a starting founding
member of that nation become a citizen
move potentially be a part of a new
utopia a new world
we're always looking for something new
and exciting as humans and the idea that
anybody can claim a piece of dirt and
call it a country
really fascinates me one of the most
famous micronations out there is a
micronation called sea land which exists
about 12 kilometers off of the coast of
sussex in the united kingdom formerly
known as rust tower
sealant is an offshore platform that was
created as an anti-aircraft gun platform
by the british in world war ii
it later was taken over by pirate radio
broadcasters and then finally was taken
over by the founder of sealand who
planned to start his own station there
himself
to this day you can purchase titles of
sealand but you can become a lord and
lady of sealand you become a duchess or
a dutch of sealand city land still
exists as an entity and it still exists
as a physical territory there is a
building there
unlike other micro nations sea land has
some established reputation and presence
you can technically go there i'm not
sure exactly how
probably by boat and i'm not sure how
permission works in that regard
but ceylon does exist although it's kind
of dwindled into disuse and irrelevance
in recent years but it's funny because
these instagram ads to purchase titles
of sea lens still pop up on my instagram
feed all the time and i find it really
fascinating now micronations exist
all over the world some of them have
established presences and have some
small amount of influence while others
are really just somebody's backyard well
actually there's quite a few that are
just somebody's backyard
at the end of the day anybody can claim
a micronation into existence
but that doesn't necessarily mean that
it's going to have any power influence
in the real world or that it'll be
recognized by sovereign powers the
sovereign state
so will micro nations ever become truly
recognized countries
maybe but in the meantime they are a
fascinating exploration of national
identity on a micro scale
on the 17th of november 2017 one day
before my birthday
the self-proclaimed emperor of the gay
and lesbian kingdom of the coral islands
declared the nation
dissolved the decision was made after
the parliament of australia enacted
same-sex marriage
and the kingdom decided that its purpose
had been fulfilled so sadly the gay and
lesbian kingdom of the coral islands had
a lifespan of a mere
13 years which is a tad disappointing
the gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands was not the first attempt at
queer nationalism
there have actually been several groups
and movements and attempts throughout
history to establish an lgbtq plus
nation of itself in 1969 a gay activist
named don jackson proposed taking over
alpine county california as part of a
project known as stonewall nation
although unsuccessful there have been
other groups with micronation
aspirations such as the gay homeland
federation which is ongoing and still
attempting to find territory
and the gay parallel republic of which i
could find no information about at all
online but apparently it existed
the gay and lesbian kingdom of the coral
islands however was the first actual
attempt to seize territory
and the first successful attempt at
establishing a micronation identity that
was
in some regards more or less successful
so what do you think about this lgbtq
plus nation
would you be jumping up a bit to get
citizenship or do you think such ideas
belong in the realm of fantasy
i would love to hear your thoughts on
lgbtq plus nations and this one in
particular down below
hopefully you learned something new
today i hope you enjoyed this video
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up down below that would be fantastic
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doing on this channel to talk about
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and as always remember that the world's
a noisy place so make your words count
and i will see you in my next video
let's see where this song
might lead
