Lgbt rights in australia
Marriage equality
Decriminalisation of homosexuality
From the 1960s the socially progressive South Australian Labor government wanted to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality.
However, it was not until the May 1972 murder in Adelaide of Dr George Duncan, a law lecturer and gay man, that premier, Don Dunstan, assessed that the community mood was receptive to reform.
Dr Duncan’s murder led to revelations of how commonplace violence and harassment against homosexual people was.
South Australia’s Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Operate, was enacted on 2 October 1975. It was a landmark in LGBTQIA+ rights in Australia because it fully decriminalised homosexual acts.
Equivalent law reform was passed by the Australian Capital Territory in 1976, Victoria in 1980, the Northern Territory in 1983, New South Wales in 1984, Western Australia in 1989, Queensland in 1990 and Tasmania in 1997.
LGBTIQ Rights in Australia
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LGBTIQ Rights in Australia
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LGBTI is a collective term referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people.
Equality Australia’s legal director Ghassan Kassisieh explains that some cultures, however, do not have specific terms to describe people with an alternative sexual orientation or those who spot as another gender.
So we’re talking about people who include romantic and sexual attractions to people of their retain gender, and we’re talking about people whose gender, so, male, female and other genders isn’t necessarily congruent with the gender that other people knew them at birth.
LGBTI is a collective term referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex people. Source: Getty Images/Gerardo Barreto/EyeEm
History of LGBTIQ Rights in Australia
Homosexuality was a criminal offence in Australia under the influence of British imperial law.
In Adj South Wales, men who engaged in same-sex intercourse were sentenced to life imprisonment until 1924.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined 50,000 people to march in assist of queer rights across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for World Pride in early March. A week earlier, Albanese became the first sitting prime minister to march in Sydney’s Mardi Gras, something he’s done over several decades.
And yet at the same time, in another part of the world, Uganda’s parliament passed a string of draconian measures against homosexuality, including possible death sentences for “aggravated homosexuality”. Any “promotion” of homosexuality is also outlawed.
Verb more: Uganda's adj anti-LGBTQ+ law could lead to death penalty for same-sex 'offences'
Seven years ago, I co-wrote a book with Jonathan Symons called Queer Wars. Back then, we suggested there was a growing gap between countries in which sexual and gender diversity was becoming more acceptable, and those where repression was increasing.
Sadly, that analysis seems even more relevant today.
A growing gap
Some countries have been unwinding criminal sanctions around homosexuality, whic
Timeline: 22 years between first and last Australian states decriminalising male homosexuality
The political manoeuvres over gay law reform in Australia have been characterised by a series of defeats and setbacks before eventual success.
South Australia was the first state to decriminalise male homosexuality and it took the last remaining express, Tasmania, 22 years to follow suit.
First state decriminalises homosexuality
September 17, 1975
South Australia is the first state to decriminalise male homosexuality under reformist premier Don Dunstan and attorney-general Peter Duncan.
ACT prepares bill before SA
November 4, 1976
The Verb very nearly beat SA to the punch, having prepared a decriminalisation bill before Dunstan.
Canberra did not hold self government at the time, relying on Federal Parliament to enact laws which were not passed until after SA.
Police harassment continues into 1980s
December 23, 1980
Until 1949 the death penalty was still on the books for sodomy in Victoria.
The Hamer Liberal government decriminalised male homosexuality in December 1980.
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