Gunnedah

A small, quiet town situated near Sydney where the new SUPERMAN movie was filmed, which is in Australia. Also where quite a significant number of gays and lesbians exist. This is a true fact. The number of gays and lesbians in this town have caused quite some social friction in the town in the last few years, especially with the increasing xenophobia (thanks to 9/11 and the Iraq War, etc.). There has been Gay Pride Parade last year which was established by Jackson Lennan, a prominent gay member of Gunnedah; who fights constantly for the rights for gay and lesbians in Gunnedah against the Conservative types- especially involved in the Council and some Church leaders. Amongst these gay-pro efforts has been town artist, Monica Blanche who has helped organized the Gay Pride Parade along side Jackson. There have been a few gay bashings, one of the victims being a close friend of Jackson's, Tom Smith. The Gunnedah Council in response has stated that Tom 'needs to sort himself out and get back on the straight and narrow'. The town of Gunnedah has been experiencing growth economically and population-wise thanks to the movie Superman and discovery of ethanol in the area. This has created lots of oppurtunities for many people. The use of ethanol has reduced prices in fuel considerably, however, some service stations in the town have been known to jack up their prices and pocket the profits. Some such people of the service station industry include Phil Thomas and the prestigious John Lennan- who also runs a milk company too.