NSW Delivers Formal Apology To LGBT Community For Criminalised Homosexuality
Image: NSW Premier Chris Minns Delivers LGBT Apology. Image: Legislative Assembly webcast
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has officially delivered a formal apology in NSW Parliament to the LGBTQI+ community for the criminal history of homosexuality, particularly those who were convicted under these laws prior to 1984.
Premier Minns addressed the lower house at 12:30pm on 6 June 2024, to “unreservedly” apologise to all those who suffered under homosexuality being a criminal act.
Minns’ apology acknowledged the role of NSW parliament in “enacting laws and endorsing policies of successive governments decisions that criminalised, persecuted and harmed people based on their sexuality and gender”.
Minns’ historic speech also recognised “the trauma people of diverse sexualities, their families and loved ones have endured and continue to live with,” and acknowledged “that there is still much more work to do to ensure the equal rights of all members of the LGBTQIA+ community”.
“40 years ago, New South Wales ended the legal criminalisation of homosexuality in this state. And here today, as a Parliament and a state, as people that want to make good, we are here to apologise for every life that was damaged, or diminished, or destroyed by these unjust laws,” said Minns.
“To those who survived these terrible years, and to those who never made it through, we are truly sorry. We are sorry for every person convicted under legislation that should never have existed.”
The apology spoke to the trauma experienced by the LGBTQI+ community, as well as their families and their loved ones.
Attorney General, the Hon. Michael Daley, acknowledged the enormous amounts of convictions, fines and prison sentences that criminalised homosexuality caused. He also thanked activists for their indefatigable work in making change – in particular, the 78ers.
The Attorney General acknowledged that police often used to trap gay and bisexual men, such as entrapment tactics at gay beats.
“Sex between two men was criminalised under the Crimes Act 1900 – though there was a loophole, a so-called loophole, if it was consensual. That provision was removed in the 50s,” said Daley. “But the police were given powers to arrest anyone committing was deemed an ‘indecent act’, even if it WAS consensual.”
“Nobody should be told they are broken for liking – or even worse, loving – someone of the same sex, or identifying as a certain gender… No one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. It should not happen today, and it should not have happened 40 years ago, or 50 years ago, or 100 years ago.”
NSW is the last state to issue an apology for the trauma experienced by our community when homosexuality was a criminal act. Both Victoria and South Australia parliaments formally apologised to their respective LGBTQI+ communities in 2016.
The Hon. Penny Sharpe MLC – who is the first lesbian to serve in NSW parliament, and can be seen on the cover of Star Observer’s June issue, will deliver a formal apology in the Legislative Council at 2pm.
Criminalised homosexuality affected everyone in LGBTQI+ community
40 years on, people still live with the trauma and harm these laws created.
Star Observer spoke to First Mardi Gras co-chair Ken Davis for this month’s feature story on the NSW apology, who said:
“The consequences for being arrested… were enormous in terms of your family, lost jobs and scholarships, even mandated psychiatric intervention,”says Davis.
“And a lot of situations where people were facing prosecution or psychiatric intervention, or the social cost of their family, career, education, or just their overall social standing were simply too great. And people killed themselves.”
And while criminalised homosexuality legally only extended to homosexual acts between men, all in the LGBTQI+ community were targeted via countless legal loopholes and government-backed discrimination. For example, using ‘public indecency’ entrapments at beats or in toilets, public space laws being used to punish any same-sex attracted people for showing one another affection.
“Criminalisation gave a free pass to institutions and the community to discriminate against members of the LGBTIQ+ community,” Sharpe told Star Observer.
Read the NSW apology for those convicted under criminalisation of homosexuality in full
You can read the full transcript of the apology here, or watch the apology here.
About time! I hope Patricia Bergin and James Woods will now apologise for their persecution, vilification and slandering of gay identities, gay clubs and the wider gay community during the Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service. The focus of that inquiry too readily became about vilifying John Marsden and the gay community in general. It was frightening and disgusting to observe at the time and remains seared in my memory. It wasn’t only bashings and murders that were used to keep us down. Lawyers and judges have a lot to answer for too.
In the interests of historical accuracy, this apology should have been delivered to Gay and Bisexual men because lesbians and the “TQI+” people were not subject to that part of the Criminal Code. I joined CAMP in 1974 and for the next 50 years have been deeply involved in the Gay Rights Movement – among other activities, at one time I was one of the owners/publishers of The Star Observer, took part in the founding of the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras (now Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras) and was a “history cardinal” leading the Sisters’ Sydney Gay Walks every Mardi Gras week. I think it unfair that others, not part of the gay men’s fight for freedom from criminal laws should take any credit for our achievements when they suffered none of the harm. Of course, lesbians were persecuted, but when they were, it was not because of the anti-gay section of the Crimes Act – as Queen Victoria correctly knew, to prove sodomy, you had to prove penetration and ejaculation.