NSW Premier Chris Minns has formally apologised on behalf of the government to people convicted of homosexual acts, 40 years after the state decriminalised gay sex.
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Police abused ‘loophole’
The police were given powers to arrest anyone committing what was deemed an “indecent act,” even if it was consensual.
“Some men reported at the time that police used entrapment tactics pretending to be seeking sex and then arresting people if they expressed any interest,” Mr Daley said.
“No apology will make up for all the hurt and pain and humiliation of the past.”
Attorney General Michael Daley has paid tribute to the activists known as the 78ers, for so strongly agitating for change.
The 78ers were integral in the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade on the 24th of June, 1978.
They were also part of the historic protests at Darlinghurst and Central Police Stations on the 25th of June, 1978, and another protest at Central Court Sydney on the 26th of June, 1978.
Mr Speakman concludes with a message of hope.
“For all the pain, the hurt the trauma caused by these laws. And we acknowledge the discrimination, stigmatisation and pain suffered by LGBTQI+ people on behalf of the opposition for those who suffered as a result of these bad laws.
“I hope that today’s apology helps you heal.”
Mr Speakman has pointed to the gay hate inquiry his government, led by former premier Dominic Perrottet, set up in 2018.
It was tasked with looking at 88 unsolved murders committed against gay men from 1970 to 2010.
“No-one should have to suffer the distress of not knowing what happened to someone they love.”
Mark Speakman has apologised for laws that said “gays and lesbians were lesser people”.
“For those gays and lesbians were to stay in the shadows instead of being embraced as part of a diverse community.
“Given the freedoms we enjoy across our state today, it’s hard to contemplate now that men in our state were charged, prosecuted and convicted for engaging in consenting sexual relationships.”
He said the law change signalled the “rightful removal of shame”.
Mr Minns said the change was important, but there was still some way to go.
“We know that we’re not there yet.
“There will still be kids today who feel that they’ve got something to hide either from themselves or their schoolmates, maybe from their sporting teams, certainly from potentially family and friends, and maybe even from themselves.”
Mr Minns has acknowledged former premier of NSW, Neville Wran, who set the chain of motion in parliament to change the law 40-years-ago.
“It was a great day a day this parliament could rightly and justifiably be proud of.
“But for at least 15 years before that moment, activists and allies have been fighting for these changes, risking their careers and their safety in the process.
“It began in 1970 with the campaign against moral persecution.”
While the laws targeted men, the discrimination persecuted women too.
A female librarian from Sydney said it was “hard to express the bewilderment, the conflict and the anxiety that overshadowed my late adolescence, as I realised how different, how unacceptable was my own pattern of loving, and yet how real it was to me,” Mr Minns said.
Mr Minns has painted a grim picture for people convicted under the laws.
“Many also accepted the so-called court endorsed treatments that included, shamefully, electro shock therapy, where a voltage was pumped through a patient’s body while they were shown pictures of naked men.
“Others were given drugs designed to bring on nausea and vomiting.
But he said none of it worked.
“You can’t shock someone out of who they love, and you can’t rewire their basic humanity.”
Mr Minns said someone told him he was still anxious “that family members would discover his convictions, 40 years on”.
“They recalled the sense of danger that surrounded every interaction with authorities.”
The premier said, on behalf of the state, he apologised unreservedly to those convicted under the discriminatory laws and “recognises and regrets this parliament’s role in enacting laws and endorsing policies of successive governments’ decisions that criminalised, persecuted and harmed people based on their sexuality and gender”.
Mr Minns also acknowledged “there is still much more work to do to ensure the equal rights of all members of the LGBTQIA+ community”.
Mr Minns said the NSW government, as a parliament and a state, was here to “apologise for every life that was damaged or diminished or destroyed by these unjust laws”.
“To those who survived these terrible years, and to those who never made it through, we are truly sorry.
“We’re sorry for every person convicted under legislation that should never have existed. For every person that experienced fear as a result of that legislation.
“Everyone who lost a job, who lost their future, or who lost the love of family and friends. We are very sorry for every person, convicted or otherwise, who were made to live a smaller life because of these laws.”
NSW decriminalised gay sex 40 years ago.(ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Wran legislation changed laws
On 18 May, 1984, the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1984, introduced by Labor premier Neville Wran as a private member’s bill, passed parliament.
The legislation removed a section of the Crimes Act 1900 entitled “Unnatural offences”, which punished anyone who committed the “abominable crime of buggery … with mankind” with at least five years in jail.
NSW was the fifth state or territory to decriminalise homosexual activity, following South Australia in 1975, the ACT in 1976, Victoria in 1980, and the NT in 1983.
In November 2014, the Baird government changed the law to enable historical homosexual offences to be extinguished.
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The amendments to the Criminal Records Act 1991 allowed those convicted of eligible offences to apply to the Secretary of the Department of Communities and Justice to have those convictions struck from the record.
NSW is the last state to issue an apology, with Victoria and South Australian apologising in 2016 ahead of apologies by Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania in 2017.
‘Rightful removal of shame’
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has apologised for laws that said “gays and lesbians were lesser people”.
“For those gays and lesbians were to stay in the shadows instead of being embraced as part of a diverse community,” he said.
“Given the freedoms we enjoy across our state today, it’s hard to contemplate now that men in our state were charged, prosecuted and convicted for engaging in consenting sexual relationships.”
He said the law change signalled the “rightful removal of shame”.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, who is the only openly gay member of the NSW Legislative Assembly, said he hoped the government would back up the apology with action.
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said he hoped action from the Minns government would come after the apology.(ABC News: Keana Naughton)
Mr Greenwich has put forth a wide-ranging “equality bill”, which includes prohibiting religious schools from firing LGBTQ+ teachers and preventing students from being expelled for coming out as gay.
The legislation, which has passed the committee review stage, would also allow transgender people to register a change of sex without the requirement to undergo a gender affirmation procedure.
“Forty years ago, NSW decriminalised homosexuality. 40 years later, we are still the last in the nation when it comes to LGBTQ rights,” Mr Greenwich said.
