LGBTQ history in Australia
Anthropologists Bill Stanner, Norman Tindale, A. P. Elkin and Ralph Piddington found evidence of polygamy[2] and other non-binary behaviours, but not of homosexuality as such.
[6] Some historians have suggested that anti-sodomy rhetoric was utilised effectively against the practice of transportation, contributing to its eventual conclusion in the 1840s, although the emergence of gold mining also led to an increase in free migration and settlement.
In a secret dispatch of 1843 the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land stated that women in the Hobart female factory have "their Fancy-women, or lovers, to who they are attached with as much ardour as they would be to the opposite sex, and practice onanism to the greatest extent".
[9] In 1932, an Australian tabloid, The Arrow, described the growth of the "pervert population" of Brisbane, largely men aged 18 to 25, whose activities presented "a scandal of evil almost unprecedented".
Ten years later there was little comment from any Australian public figure (state or federal) when Britain finally decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales.
This was apparent when activists John Ware and Christobell Poll announced its formation in an article on the front page of the magazine section of The Australian newspaper on 19 September 1970.
CAMP was officially launched on 6 February 1971, at the first public gathering of gay women and men in Australia, which took place in a church hall in Balmain.
[12] Within 12 months local CAMP groups had formed in each capital city, creating an informal gay rights network around Australia.
CAMP's first demonstration took place in October 1971 outside the Liberal Party of Australia headquarters in Sydney when a right-wing Christian fundamentalist stood against Tom Hughes for pre-selection.
Tom Hughes was the federal Liberal Attorney-General and had spoken out in favour of limited homosexual law reform, so CAMP mounted a demonstration.
Reform of Australia's tough censorship rules by then Minister for Customs and Excise, Don Chipp, meant that by the early 1970s gay and lesbian content was no longer automatically censored.
While in October 1970 ABC TV's This Day Tonight broadcast an interview with a lesbian couple featuring the first same-sex kiss seen on Australian television.
In 1972, in response to public outrage at the murder of University of Adelaide academic Dr George Duncan, the Dunstan Labor government introduced a consenting adults in private type reform bill.
[citation needed] In 1973 the Pink Bans were carried out by the Builders Laborers Federation to protest discrimination against gay people by universities in Sydney.
[citation needed] Law reform and the emergence of visible gay and lesbian communities did not however lead to the end of police harassment of individuals, which would continue into the 1990s.
[23] Since the beginning of his term as prime minister of Australia in 1996, John Howard made his position clear on the gay rights issue.
"[citation needed] In July 1996 the Howard government reduced the number of interdependency visas, making migration for same-sex couples more difficult.
[citation needed] The passage of the legislation was made possible because the Australian Labor Party supported the Howard government's proposed ban on same-sex marriages at the time.
[36] Following the public outcry over Howard's move to kill the ACT bill, in April the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) began a six-month inquiry to hear from Australians about the federal government's treatment of gays.
[39] Following a request for the certificate the following statement was received: Following the advice of the Australian Attorney-General's Department we herewith certify that Australian law does not allow the issue of a Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage to persons wishing to enter into a same-sex marriage.In June 2006, the ACT's civil union legislation was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly however the law was subsequently disallowed by the Governor General on instruction from the Howard government.
In 2005, the city of Sydney, in New South Wales, created a Relationship Declaration Program offering limited legal recognition for same-sex couples.
[citation needed] By the late 2000s and early 2010s, support for LGBT rights in Australia generally grew, and a number of significant legal achievements were made.
The decade was also marked by the implementation of expungement schemes in many states and territories, which allowed men who had been charged with anti-homosexuality laws to apply to have their convictions removed from the record.
The Federal Parliament's reforms of de facto recognition in 2008/09, spearheaded by the Rudd government, would amend 85 pieces of Commonwealth legislation to allow same-sex couples equal access to a range of areas including taxation, superannuation, health, social security, aged care and child support, immigration, citizenship and veterans' affairs.
[51][52] In 2017, the Turnbull Liberal/National government, having been denied the opportunity to hold a plebiscite, succeeded in conducting a voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage, which resulted in a 61.6% "Yes" vote in favour of legalisation.
