Dr Sue Wills, A Trailblazer For Gay and Women’s Rights Dies Aged 78
Image: Photo: Australian Queer Archives/Facebook
Dr Sue Wills, a prominent activist who spearheaded Australia’s gay and women’s liberation movements, has passed away.
Over the weekend, the Australian Queer Archives (AQA) announced the academic’s passing in a lengthy tribute, honouring the “historian who spent her life in service to a vision of social equality.”
Born in 1944, Dr Wills was known for her role in the Women’s Liberation Movement and LGBTQI rights. Graduating from the University of Sydney with a degree in social psychology in 1971, Wills moved onto becoming an academic.
Wills and her then-partner Gaby Antolovich appeared on the ABC current affairs program, Four Corners. AQA wrote that the pair spoke “eloquently”, helping to shape early attitudes towards the queer community.
Defender Against Abuse Of Gay People By Psychiatric Community
She also challenged the psychiatric community’s views and treatment of homosexuality, later co-founding the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) with Christabel Poll, John Ware and Lex Watson in late 1971.
Wills argued that homosexuality was not an illness that needed to be cured. AQA highlighted this in their Facebook post, citing that “she was one of the first to draw attention to, and to campaign against the abuse of gay people by the psychiatric profession, including its use of ‘aversion therapy’, in articles and interviews that still resonate today.”
Wills later resigned from CAMP due to sexism and a shift that focused on welfarism rather than political engagement. AQA outlined Wills’s struggles “against sexism in the organisation and the movement.”
“She turned her attention to the women’s movement and remained active for the rest of her life, working both as a lesbian and a woman,” AQA wrote.
Women’s Rights Pioneer
A historian, Wills completed her PhD with her thesis titled The Politics of Women’s Liberation, which explored the links between the women’s movement, the gay movement and social movements of the early 1970’s.
“She drew upon her own participation in the movements to draw out their inner depths,” AQA wrote.
Her role in activism had been acknowledged in the publication Who’s Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, along with her participation in a conference that marked the 40th anniversary of CAMP back in 2009.
Wills was named a Community Hero at ACON’s Honour Awards in 2010. AQA ended its tribute by saying that they share “the sadness of her many friends and colleagues but joins with them in celebrating her life and work.”
