Key Points
- NSW Premier Chris Minns has issued an "unreserved" apology to NSW's LGBTIQ+ community.
- "Homosexual acts" were illegal in the state from 1901 until 1984.
- LGBTIQ+ organisations have both welcomed the apology and called on MPs to resolve "unfinished business" in NSW.
Robert French recalls the time he begged police to arrest him.
It was a stunt, as part of his activism as co-convener of the Gay Rights Lobby in the 1980s, which eventually led to the NSW government decriminalising homosexuality in 1984.
"I have a photo of (deceased gay activist) Lex Watson and myself signing statutory declarations declaring that we'd committed all these acts and were guilty under the Crimes Act," French told SBS News.
"Lex and I fronted up to the fire squad and demanded the law squad arrest us.
"They didn't do so, but in fact, it was part of a campaign. We were the first two of what were 28 people who actually did that, who confronted the police."
A performance at the 1980 Sydney Gay Mardi Gras parade, taken by Robert French who has welcomed the NSW government's intention to apologise for formerly criminalising homosexuality. Source: Supplied / Robert French
Minns moved for the house to "recognises the trauma people of diverse sexualities, their families and loved ones have endured and continue to live with and lastly, acknowledges there's still much more work to do to ensure the equal rights of all members of the LGBTIQ+ community".
"We are very sorry for every person convicted or otherwise who were made to live a smaller life because of these laws.
"People who reached the end of their days without ever voicing who they really were, without ever experiencing the greatest of human joys, which is the joy of love. We are sorry", he said.
A statement signed by 29 LGBTIQ+ community organisations was tabled in parliament alongside the apology, calling on MPs to resolve the "unfinished business of our times".
"Nothing can ever make up for the shame inflicted on people, the jobs they couldn’t apply for or the anguish of having to hide criminal records from family and friends," said Equality Australia legal director Ghassan Kassisieh, welcoming the apology.
"People were hated and hunted just for being who they are, under threat of imprisonment by their government and condemned by their community."
NSW laws on homosexuality
The 1979 Sydney Mardi Gras march was held a year after the first. Prisoners labelled as gay in Nazi concentration camps were forced to wear a pink triangle on their clothing. The triangle was later reclaimed as a symbol of protest against homophobia. Source: Supplied / Robert French
Sex between two men was criminalised under the 1900 Crimes Act, though there was a 'loophole' if it was consensual.
That provision was removed in the 1950s and police had powers to arrest anyone committing what was deemed an "indecent act" even if it was consensual.
Some men have alleged police used entrapment tactics, pretending to want sex and then arresting people if they expressed any interest.
French says that, while he welcomes the apology: "It seems to me quite extraordinary that it's now taken 40 years since the passage of the actual act for the government itself to apologise for the harm that the laws actually inflicted and the way that they blighted the lives of some young gay men."
"Reputations were destroyed, jobs were lost, and men were subject to things like judicial torture where the judiciary, the courts agreed that they would be subjected to all sorts of psychological experimentation such as aversion therapy or chemical castration."
A United Nations independent expert has described so-called conversion therapy as "deeply harmful interventions that rely on the medically false idea that LGBT and other gender diverse persons are sick, inflicting severe pain and suffering, and resulting in long-lasting psychological and physical damage".
In a 2020 report, it wrote: "A recurrent method used is aversion (electric shocks, nausea-inducing or paralysis-inducing drugs) through which a person is subjected to a negative, painful or otherwise distressing sensation while being exposed to a certain stimulus connected to their sexual orientation."
French said that, because the situation was so "awful", it became critical to see the campaign through to fruition and ensure homosexuality was decriminalised.
He said in the early 1980s, there was not enough support in parliament for decriminalising homosexuality so activists went to lengths to "sell their cause to the community".
A core group of around two dozen activists led protests and marches in attempts to drum up community support. When homosexuality was finally decriminalised in 1984, French said it was a huge moment of relief and people were able to live as themselves.
He said he saw Minns' apology as finally closing off the work done in the 1980s.
Gay rights activists and police outside the Darlinghurst police station following the charging of participants in the 1978 Sydney gay rights parade. Source: Supplied / Robert French
Sydney MP Alex Greenwich is planning to introduce an Equality Bill to NSW parliament that would outlaw gay conversion practices and close loopholes that allow religious organisations to discriminate on the basis of sexuality.
In April, 80 organisations signed a letter to Minns calling on him to support the Equality Bill, including the Australian Services Union, NSW Council of Social Service, Women's Health NSW, Women's Electoral Lobby, Pitt Street Uniting Church, the Black Dog Institute and Rainbow Families.
