![Melbourne Rally for Marriage Equality](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Melbourne_Rally_for_Marriage_Equality.jpg)
This article details the history of the
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
movement in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, from the colonial era to the present day.
The Indigenous experience
Whilst identifying as
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
is not uncommon amongst
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
today there is no record of it being a phenomenon in pre-colonial Australian societies. Anthropologists
Bill Stanner
William Edward Hanley Stanner CMG (24 November 19058 October 1981), often cited as W.E.H. Stanner, was an Australian anthropologist who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians. Stanner had a varied career that also included journalism in ...
,
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.
Life
Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
,
A. P. Elkin and
Ralph Piddington found evidence of
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
and other non-binary behaviours, but not of homosexuality as such.
While there is no evidence of these cultures on
mainland Australia
Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealt ...
, this may not confirm that homosexual and other queer behaviours and identities were absent from mainland
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
culture.
An exception is in the
Tiwi Islands
The Tiwi Islands ( tiw, Ratuati Irara meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Bathurst Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands, wi ...
. While there is not a lot of evidence that there were formal structures and formal roles within mainland Aboriginal communities in the Tiwi Islands, language that names sexual and gender diversity exists, and there is evidence that there were roles that were quite set out.
Colonial period to 1951
Early laws in Australia were based on then-current laws in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
, which were inherited upon
colonisation
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
in 1788.
Lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
ism was never illegal in Britain nor its colonies, including Australia.
Sodomy
Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sodo ...
laws, however, were part of Australian law, from 1788 through to 1994 under ''Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994''. The punishment for "buggery" (sodomy) was reduced from execution to life in prison in 1899.
[The Development Of Homosexuality](_blank)
Throughout the
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
period there was a severe imbalance between the sexes, convict and free, and large numbers of convicts were kept in relative or complete isolation from the other sex. Homosexual behaviour was prevalent among Europeans in colonial Australia; Historian
Robert Aldrich
Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include '' Vera Cruz'' (1954), ''Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955), ''The Big Knife'' (1955), '' Autumn L ...
suggests that sodomy became more common in the 1820s and 1830s.
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 1796 Francis Wilkinson became the first man to be charged with buggery (but acquitted). Class differences appear to have been involved in tolerance and indulgence of gay sex amongst convicts, with little attention paid by working-class convicts, but condemnation from middle-class or upwardly mobile transportees.
Babette Smith
Babette Alison Smith (2 April 1942 – 22 November 2021) was an Australian colonial historian, mediator and business executive. She wrote books about the convicts transported to Australia.
Early life
Born 2 April 1942, Babette Alison Smith ...
: Australia's Birthstain: The Startling Legacy of the Convict Era: Sydney Allen and Unwin: 2008
In 1822 an official inquiry into the sexual scandal that resulted from the movement of thirty female prisoners to the male prison farm at
Emu Plains
Emu Plains is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 58 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith and is part of the Greater Western Sydney re ...
reported the rumour that the women had been placed there to prevent "unnatural crimes" on the part of the men.
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".
Select committees of the
British Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
inquiring into racism in 1832 and 1837 heard much evidence of the prevalence of scandalism. Major James Mudie testified that the prisoners called each other "sods" and that at
Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney boy prisoners went by names such as Kitty and Nancy.
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". It called for police action to suppress and end their gatherings. It reported clandestine weddings between gay men there: "In the last two weeks there have been two 'weddings'—ghastly, horrifying spectacles of painted men and primping lads united in a sacrilegious blasphemy that they call the 'bonds of matrimony'."
In 1951, the
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
Crimes Act was amended to ensure that "buggery" remained a criminal act "with or without the consent of the person", removing legal loophole of consent. The government of
J.J. Cahill increased arrests of male homosexuals and reopened a prison at
Cooma
Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega with the Riverina.
At the , Cooma had a po ...
exclusively for gay prisoners in 1957.
20th century gay rights movement
While Britain's influence on Australian political culture was still strong in the fifties there was no local appetite for a political response to the
Wolfenden Committee
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (better known as the Wolfenden report, after Sir John Wolfenden, the chairman of the committee) was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a suc ...
, which recommended the
decriminalisation
Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This refor ...
of male homosexuality in Britain in 1957. Ten years later there was little comment from any Australian public figure (state or federal) when Britain finally decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales. Some historians have attributed this to the association of homosexuality with the 'convict stain'.
However, it was in the wake of decriminalisation in Britain that the first Australian gay and lesbian rights groups were organised. The ACT Homosexual Law Reform Society, a
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
-based organisation formed in mid 1969; and an Australian arm of the
Daughters of Bilitis
The Daughters of Bilitis , also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was conceived as a social alternative to lesb ...
, formed in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
in January 1970, are considered Australia's first
gay rights organisations. Although, it was a
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
organisation, the
Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), founded in 1970, that was to gain the most public attention.
CAMP set out to publicly campaign for political and social change, rather than focusing on law reform. 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
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' 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.
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
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Au ...
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. In January 1971, the Melbourne-based gay rights organisation
Society Five was formed, inspired by CAMP, and was to become the largest gay organisation in Australia during the 1970s.
The emergence of this movement in the early 1970s was aided by the growing visibility of the gay and lesbian community in the Australian media. Reform of Australia's tough censorship rules by then Minister for Customs and Excise,
Don Chipp
Donald Leslie Chipp, AO (21 August 192528 August 2006) was an Australian politician who was the inaugural leader of the Australian Democrats, leading the party from 1977 to 1986. He began his career as a member of the Liberal Party, winning el ...
, meant that by the early 1970s gay and lesbian content was no longer automatically censored. In February 1970 the first gay themed Australian film
The Set was released. While in October 1970 ABC TV's ''
This Day Tonight
''This Day Tonight'' (TDT) was an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) evening current affairs program from 1967 to 1978.
Founding
When ''TDT'' premiered in 1967 it was the first regular nightly current affairs program on Australian TV, an ...
'' broadcast an interview with a lesbian couple featuring the first same-sex kiss seen on Australian television. Further exposure occurred when another ABC TV's ''Chequerboard'' program broadcast an interview with a gay couple in February 1972 and Australian TV soap opera ''
Number 96
96 (ninety-six) is the natural number following 95 and preceding 97. It is a number that appears the same when turned upside down.
In mathematics
96 is:
* an octagonal number.
* a refactorable number.
* an untouchable number.
* a semiperfe ...
'' introduced the first sympathetic gay character, Don Finlayson, to local audiences.
This visibility and increasing publicity around the emergence of gay and lesbian groups in major Australian cities soon encouraged more groups to form. Additional gay and lesbian rights organisations included The Gay Teachers Group, and The Homosexual Law Reform Coalition, all gay rights organisations which started in the late 1970s. In May 1973 Australia's first LGBTI focused social service
Phone-a-Friend was established in Sydney, which in 1978 saw the launch of Australia's first gay focused news publications
The Sydney Star Observer.
However, homosexual law reform first occurred in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, not
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
or
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. In 1972, in response to public outrage at the murder of
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
academic
Dr George Duncan
George Ian Ogilvie Duncan (20 July 1930 – 10 May 1972) was an Australian law lecturer at the University of Adelaide who drowned in 1972 after being thrown into the River Torrens by a group of men believed to be police officers. Public outrage ...
, the
Dunstan
Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restor ...
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
government introduced a ''consenting adults in private'' type reform bill. This led to a later more comprehensive reform bill introduced by Murray Hill, father of former defence minister
Robert Hill. In 1975, South Australia became the first Australian state to legalise sexual conduct between consenting adult males. This action prompted other Australian jurisdictions to debate law reform for the first time, with the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...
following the South Australian lead in 1976.
In October 1973 the
Australian Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...
passed a motion in favour of the decriminialization of homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. While at the same time, the
Australian Medical Association
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is an Australian public company by guarantee formed as a professional association for Australian doctors and medical students. The association is not run by the Australian Government and does not regul ...
removed homosexuality from its list of illnesses and disorders, two months before the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...
did the same. Following in the wake of South Australia and the ACT the other Australian states and territories reformed their laws between 1976 and 1991. The exception was
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, which retained its laws until the
federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
forced their repeal in 1997.
It was in this context that an estimated 500 people marched to and rallied in
Martin Place
Martin Place is a pedestrian mall in the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. Martin Place has been described as the "civic heart" of Sydney. in Sydney on 24 June 1978. Organisers said the march and rally were part of "international homosexual solidarity day" to demonstrate against
sexual repression
Sexual repression is a state in which a person is prevented from expressing their own sexuality. Sexual repression is often linked with feelings of guilt or shame being associated with sexual impulses. Defining characteristics and practices asso ...
in Australia and other countries. Police attacked a late night street party or Mardi Gras that night and arrested 53 revelers. This response, coupled with the publication of the names of the activists arrested in the local press over the next few days, attracted considerable public sympathy and led to this event becoming an annual community event, the
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest such festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the ...
, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008. It also inspired similar events in other cities like
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
and
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
.
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. The last gay man was arrested on 14 December 1984 in
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, Tasmania, when he was found engaging in sexual conduct with another man on the side of the road in a car. He was sentenced to eight months jail.
In 1991, after consistent pressure from Gay and Lesbian Immigration Task Force (GLITF), the ''Migration Amendment Act (No. 2) 1991 (Cth)'' was passed, amending the ''
Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
The ''Migration Act 1958'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and pres ...
'' to allow Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents to sponsor their same-sex partners to Australia through a new Interdependency Visa.
In 1994, the Commonwealth passed the ''Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 – Section 4'',
legalising sexual activity between consenting adults (in private) throughout Australia. It was not until 1997 however when the law in Tasmania prohibiting gay male sexual conduct was repealed. The ban on gay male sexual conduct was overturned in the courts in 1996 following ''
Toonen v. Australia
''Toonen v. Australia'' was a landmark human rights complaint brought before the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) by Tasmanian resident Nicholas Toonen in 1994. The case resulted in the repeal of Australia's last sodomy laws w ...
'' that gay male sexual conduct became formally legal in all Australian states and territories when the federal government passed the ''Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994''.
Howard government
Since the beginning of his term as
prime minister of Australia
The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...
in 1996,
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
made his position clear on the gay rights issue.
In January 1997, Howard refused to offer a message of support to Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and said on the TV program ''
A Current Affair
''A Current Affair'' may refer to:
* ''A Current Affair'' (Australian TV program), 1971–present Australian current affairs program that airs on Nine Network
* ''A Current Affair'' (American TV program), a 1986–1998 American television news ...
'' that he would be "disappointed" if one of his children were to tell him they were gay or lesbian. In August 2001 when asked in a
Triple J
Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...
interview where he placed himself on a scale of acceptance of homosexuality, one end being total acceptance and the other total rejection, Howard replied, "Oh I'd place myself somewhere in the middle. I certainly don't think you should give the same status to homosexual liaisons as you give to marriage, I don't."
In July 1996 the
Howard government reduced the number of interdependency visas, making migration for same-sex couples more difficult.
Reported in 2003, the government was pushed into permitting passports with an 'X' sex marker by
Alex MacFarlane
Alex MacFarlane is an intersex person born with XXY sex chromosomes in Victoria, Australia. MacFarlane is believed to be the first holder of an indeterminate birth certificate and passport.
Birth certificate and passport
MacFarlane is believ ...
. This was stated by the West Australian to be on the basis of a challenge by MacFarlane, using an "indeterminate" birth certificate issued by the State of Victoria.
["X marks the spot for intersex Alex"](_blank)
, West Australian, via bodieslikeours.org. 11 January 2003
Sydney Morning Herald. 27 June 2010 Australian government policy between 2003 and 2011 was to issue passports with an 'X' marker only to people who could "present a birth certificate that notes their sex as indeterminate".
[Ten years of 'X' passports, and no protection from discrimination](_blank)
Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia, 19 January 2013[On Australian passports and "X" for sex](_blank)
Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia, 9 October 2011
The UN Human Rights Commission declared Australia's federal government in violation of equality and privacy rights under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights in September 2003 after it had denied a man a de facto spouse veteran's pension based on his 38-year same-sex relationship. The request from the UN that Australia take steps to treat same sex couples equally was ignored. When directly questioned, Attorney General
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire.
Ruddock is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and currently the state president of the party's New South W ...
said that the government is not bound by the ruling.
In March 2004, Howard condemned Australia's first laws which would allow gay couples to adopt children in the ACT as part of a new ACT Bill of Rights. Howard said, "I think the idea of the ACT having a bill of rights is ridiculous. I'm against gay adoption, just as I'm against gay marriage."
The Commonwealth, however, did not overturn the legislation.
On 27 May 2004, approximately two months after Tony Blair's Labour Government in Britain proposed its ''
Civil Partnership Act 2004
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced by the Labour government, which grants civil partnerships in the United Kingdom the rights and responsibilities very similar to those in civil ...
'', federal Attorney-General
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire.
Ruddock is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and currently the state president of the party's New South W ...
introduced the ''Marriage Legislation Amendment Bill'' to prevent any possible court rulings allowing same-sex marriages or civil unions. In August 2004, same-sex marriage was officially prohibited when the ''
Marriage Act 1961'' and the ''Family Law Act'' were amended in order to define marriage as a "union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life". Amendments were also made to prevent the recognition in Australia of marriages conducted in other countries between a man and another man or a woman and another woman.
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.
State and territory initiatives
In March 2006, after the ACT government announced plans to create civil unions within the territory, the federal government vowed to block it. 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.
The Howard government banned its departments from making submissions to the inquiry into financial discrimination experienced by same-sex couples.
In May 2006, Attorney General Philip Ruddock blocked a gay Australian man from marrying in Europe. Ruddock refused to grant a gay man living in the Netherlands a '
Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage
Marriage law refers to the legal requirements that determine the validity of a marriage, and which vary considerably among countries. See also Marriage Act.
Summary table
Rights and obligations
A marriage, by definition, bestows ...
' document required by some European countries before marriage, to prove foreigners are in fact single. Under Ruddock's instructions, no such documents were to be released to gay and lesbians individuals intending to marry overseas.
Following a request for the certificate the following statement was received:
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. A second attempt to legislate for civil unions for same-sex couples in 2007 was again disallowed.
In 2007, following the successful same-sex adoption of a boy in Western Australia by two gay men the Howard government made plans to introduce a federal bill, The Family Law (Same Sex Adoption) Bill, which sought to prevent same-sex couples from adopting. The idea was taken off the legislative agenda after the 2007 election, which Coalition government lost.
Despite the reluctance of the federal government, individual states and territories were continuing to make inroads towards same-sex marriage.
Since 2001, Victoria has amended 60 Acts to advance same-sex marriage. In 2002,
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
removed all remaining legislative discrimination toward sexual orientation (including adoption) by adding the new definition of "de facto partner", and
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
created a new, non-discriminatory definition of "de facto partner" within 61 pieces of legislation. In 2003,
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
became the first state to create a relationship registry for same sex couples, giving same-sex couples nearly equal rights to married couples, excluding adoption. In 2004, the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
removed legislative discrimination against same-sex couples in most areas of territory law, and the ACT began allowing same-sex couples to adopt. In 2005, the city of Sydney, in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, created a Relationship Declaration Program offering limited legal recognition for same-sex couples. In 2006,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, the last state to recognise same-sex couples, amended 97 Acts, dispensing with the term "de facto" and categorising couples as "domestic partners". The city of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, in Victoria, provided a "Relationship Declaration Register" for all relationships and carers starting in 2007, which was followed in December with Victoria introducing a statewide registry and amending 69 pieces of legislation to include couples who are in registered relationships.
Major reforms in the 2010s
![Pro-marriage equality wall in Redfern, New South Wales](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Pro-marriage_equality_wall_in_Redfern%2C_New_South_Wales.jpg)
By the late 2000s and early 2010s, support for LGBT rights in Australia generally grew, and a number of significant legal achievements were made. Nationwide equalisation with respect to the
age of consent
The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...
laws was achieved when
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
amended the law in 2016. The decade was also marked by the implementation of
expungement
In the common law legal system, an expungement proceeding is a type of lawsuit in which a first time offender of a prior criminal conviction seeks that the records of that earlier process be sealed or destroyed, making the records nonexistent o ...
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. As of November 2018, all of the eight states and territories have passed expungement laws.
States and territories, with the exception of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, also abolished the use of the
gay panic defence
The gay panic defense or homosexual advance defence is a legal strategy in which a defendant claims to have acted in a state of violent, temporary insanity, committing assault or murder, because of unwanted same-sex sexual advances, usually bet ...
in common law and the first nationwide
anti-discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
law was passed by the
Federal Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the governor-gen ...
in the form of the ''Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Act 2013'', the provisions of which extended to
intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
people. Significantly,
adoption laws were amended in six states and territories (
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
2010;
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
2013;
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
2015;
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
2016;
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
2017;
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
2018) to allow same-sex couples the right to adopt children. South Australia's amendment of
assisted reproduction
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) includes medical procedures used primarily to address infertility. This subject involves procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), cryopreservation of gametes ...
laws in 2016 ensured same-sex couples had equal access to these methods in all jurisdictions. By 2018, all states and territories, with the exception of
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
and the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
, had implemented a relationships registration scheme, which allowed couples to demonstrate proof of the existence of a ''de facto'' relationship for the purpose of federal law. Some of these laws included the option for a couple to have a formal, state-sanctioned ceremony. Queensland made history in this regard by legislating for
civil unions
A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...
twice in the decade, once in 2011 and again in 2016 after the intervening
Newman LNP Government had repealed the legislation in 2012.
Transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
people in the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...
, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia also benefited from landmark reforms which allowed them to change their gender marker on their
birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
, irrespective of whether or not they had undergone
sexual reassignment surgery
Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...
, though this was rejected by the
Victorian Parliament
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and ...
in 2016. Arguably the most significant reform in the transgender space was a November 2017 ruling from the
Family Court of Australia
The Family Court of Australia was a superior Australian federal court of record which deals with family law matters, such as divorce applications, parenting disputes, and the division of property when a couple separate. Together with the Fede ...
which allowed transgender children to access
cross-sex hormone treatment (known as "stage 2 treatment") without court approval needing to be sought, in cases where there is no dispute between a child, their parents, and their treating doctors, hormone treatment can be prescribed without court permission.
In the relationships recognition space, federal law would be critical. The
Federal Parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the governor-gen ...
's reforms of ''de facto'' recognition in 2008/09, spearheaded by the
Rudd government
Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments:
* Rudd government (2007–10)
Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments:
* Rudd government (2007–10)
Rudd Government may refer to the following Aust ...
, 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.
In time however, glaring examples of deficiencies between ''de facto'' relationships and
marriages
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
would be identified, enhancing the momentum for
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
.
Same-sex marriage legislation would fail 22 times in the Federal Parliament between 2004 and 2017,
most notably in September 2012 when legislation was rejected by large majorities in both houses of Parliament, despite the
Gillard Labor government agreeing to a
conscience vote
A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are allowed to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. In a parliamenta ...
on the issue.
In 2017, the
Turnbull Liberal/National government, having been denied the opportunity to hold a
plebiscite
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
, succeeded in conducting a
voluntary postal survey on same-sex marriage, which resulted in a 61.6% "Yes" vote in favour of legalisation.
Consequently, the Federal Parliament passed a law amending the ''
Marriage Act 1961'' to allow same-sex couples to marry in December 2017.
In sport
In 1982, the first LGBTQI football team, the Adelaide Armpits, played their first season in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, and continued to play in
South Australian
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
competitions for 30 years.
See also
*
Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in e ...
*
LGBT rights in Australia
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Australia have advanced over the latter half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century to make Australia one of the most LGBT-accepting countries in the world, with opinion ...
References
External links
*
Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives
The Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) (formerly the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives - ALGA) is a community-based non-profit organisation committed to the collection, preservation and celebration of material reflecting the lives and experienc ...
is the largest repository of library, archive and museum material relating to Australian LGBT history, and international LGBT history in Australia.
Museum of Brisbane: Prejudice and Pride Exhibition Material 1980-2010 State Library Queensland
{{LGBT in Australia