my interest in "the stars" was sparked in childhood during family camping trips to pristine Moreton Island (off the east coast of Australia) where we slept on beaches under livid but brilliant night skies. The constellations and planètes-étoiles simply fascinated me more than anything else in nature. However, indications of my destiny had already been handed to me. I was born with a star in the centre of each palm (a five-pointed asterisk in the right hand & a seven-pointed one in the left one). These stars are located on my "life lines" between my "head lines" and "heart lines." Interpreting the meanings of the stars has thus become an enduring passion...

astrodata collector
While mostly self-taught as an Astrologer, I was very fortunate to have been mentored by well-known American Astrologer, data collector, & writer, Lois Rodden (1928-2003), during her last few years. Her books had partly inspired me to become a data collector in the first place. My area of specialty is, of course, charts for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) folk. Yet I also collect the birth data to make astrology charts for well-known Australians & New Zealanders, etc. My data has been published in Lois Rodden's CD software and in Frank Clifford's British Entertainers: The Astrological Profiles books, and also in other collections.

When first surfing the WWW in 1996, I found little information on the subject of Astrology for GLBT folk, and subsequently set up my Astroqueer website at Geocities at the end of that year. However, GeoCities was rather American-centric so I began Astroqueer's Stars in late 1997 at the Tripod domain. My website is a global portal for all things of astrological interest to GLBT folk, including my Rainbow Charts collection, a growing compilation of astro~charts and astro-biographies (for noted GLBT people and events). The largest collection of its type, the Rainbow Charts are freely available for astrological research or for the general interest of the public.

I became a 'professional astrologer' in 2000. From November of that year to September 2001, I wrote the "Star-Lust" column in the weekly Sydney Star Observer (Australia's leading gay & lesbian periodical). Although certainly not the first Astrology column by an 'out' astrologer to appear regularly in a major gay publication, it broke new ground with its lusty astrological assessments and features such as planetary digests & celebrity profiles (that went way beyond the usual Sun Sign format).

odd occupations, > 1990

A somewhat stereotypical middle child, I was an over-achiever at school, becoming a prefect at primary level, and dux during my first two years of high school. I started working at 16, spending two years as a shop assistant in a bookshop. During this time I completed my high school certificate at night schools there in Brisbane and later on the Gold Coast. At age 20 (1984) I moved to Sydney where I worked in a railway kiosk and cleaning high-rise office suites (with fabulous evening views over the harbour, bridge, & Opera House), saving to travel overseas. Failing to get into Art school, I instead did various creative writing, visual, and fine art courses. In 1988, I left Sydney to travel through China for 6 months, landing by boat in Hong Kong where I worked (until 1990) as a catwalk & tailor's model, film actor, and English teacher & Language Consultant for both local & Japanese companies. I've also had various stints as a child carer, house minder, fruit picker, waiter, etc.

University Studies, 1991-

Being openly-gay and of mixed racial ancestry (including a Chinese-Australian grandmother, Jewish grandmother, and a grandfather who was raised on a Pacific island), I've dedicated much of my time between jobs to academic research in the field of Cultural Studies, particularly in areas of interest that stem from my (Austral-Asian) ethnicity and (queer-homo) sexuality.

After returning to Brisbane from Hong Kong in late 1990, I completed a B.A. (in Modern Asian Studies, 1994), with Honours (in Lesbian & Gay/Gender Studies, 1997) at Griffith University. In the first degree I undertook a Mandarin language component as part of a double Major in Chinese Studies and Anthropology, while in the latter I examined imagery of erogenous zones in (not only gay & lesbian post-) modern visual art. At Griffith University in 1995 I was the first male to enrol in a subject within the Master of Arts in Women's Studies programme, probably becoming one of the first men to complete a subject in feminist studies at this level in Australia.

Queer Gravity & other collaborations

During the early 1990s I was elected by my queer student peers to the voluntary position of co-convenor of the LGBT student group at Griffith University. In 1993, I joined with the leaders of other local LGBT student groups to take a bid to the annual conference of the national students group, Queer Collaborations, requesting that we host the event the following year in Brisbane. This occurred in 1994, with the conference moving away from its Sydney base for the first time.

For the conference I compiled and edited Queer Gravity (under the pseudonym, 'Simon-Alice'). To my knowledge this was the first Australian magazine produced for and by LGBT students to be distributed across the country. The magazine included the first reproduction in print of the lesbian safe sex poster, Dam Dykes, which would later be banned from the Brisbane City Council Art Gallery.

More recently, some of my scholarly writing (including Queer Studies articles & reviews of film and visual art works) has been published in M/C (an on-line media-culture journal). For examples, please see my curriculum vitae.

travels

I have travelled widely throughout my home-base of Eastern Australia, Asia (where I lived for 3 years), and the west coast of the USA & Canada, a favourite holiday destination. Adventurous treks have taken me through the mountains and lakes of Tibet & Tasmania, the jungles of Borneo & Far North Queensland, and the coastal and river systems of China & Oregon. Apart from the wilderness & rural breaks, I live the urban life, having resided in the "global mega-cities" of Beijing, Hong Kong and Sydney; the medium size "lifestyle" cities of Brisbane and Newcastle, and the "trashy tourist towns" of Cairns and the Gold Coast.

I currently split my time between Brisbane and Sydney, including regular stints on a community farm near Byron Bay.

what's in my future ?

At present, I am writing up a research Master of Philosophy dissertation (in Queer Studies) through the School of English, Media Studies & Art History at the University of Queensland. An extension of my interest in the queerness of everyday representations of the body, my thesis explores the currency and significance of (homo)sexual imagery of the straight male body and gay male body in post-1980s political cartoons.

Another ongoing project is a book on Queer Astrology. My ground-breaking study will present an analysis of at least one thousand star charts of well-known GLBT folk (& events), and other prominent people who have contributed to GLBT culture!