Video store too gay for Oxford Street

By Susan Merrell
The owner of an Oxford Street video store that specialises in gay and lesbian films claims he has been the victim of intimidation and anti-gay rhetoric.

Gregory Franks of Rainbow Video says a campaign waged against him by neighbours Millk Studios initially focussed on his signage, which included the word ‘gay’.

‘It started with Rainbow Video’s sign,’ said Franks. ‘They [Millk Studios] objected to the word ‘gay’. It really stunned me. I thought this was the one place this wouldn’t be an issue.’

The disagreement has escalated to the point where both sides have interim apprehended violence orders against each other. Simon Barnes and Peter Laburn of Millk Studios and Franks will have these heard before a magistrate in August.

Mr Laburn declined to comment citing the upcoming court hearing as the impediment but in a submission against Franks’ initial development application to the City of Sydney, Millk Studios demanded the video store’s front door remain closed due to the films playing on the television.

Their submission stated: ‘Women at times come with children [to the spa] and men who most often are not gay’While he rents videos with ratings reaching to the R category of gay and lesbian orientation, this makes his business approximate that of an X-rated business and thus should be located’away from business which deals with the ordinary public.’

Franks, who received approval for his DA, has also lodged a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Board against Joe Joseph of Ray White Carlingford, the real estate agent for Millk Studios. He alleges Joseph made anti-gay slurs in April outside the Administrative Decisions Tribunal where Franks eventually won a decision to prevent landlord Telis Papantoniou (also landlord for Millk Studios) evicting him from the premises at 177 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

Papantoniou said he was tired of the fighting. ‘If he [Franks] is not happy why doesn’t he find another place”

But Franks said he liked the location and was determined to stay put, despite having also faced an unsuccessful theft charge based on evidence obtained by a surveillance camera in the common corridor. It recorded the ‘theft’ of business cards left outside Millk Studios for the public to take.

Franks said: ‘When they [Millk Studios] leave the cards outside near the stairs, often they are kicked over.  I was picking them up and relocating them.’
The court dismissed the charges against Franks.