Tasmanian gay activist Rodney Croome arrested at Salamanca Market 1988. Photograph copyright Tasmanian Times. Used with their kind permission.

Tasmania was one of the most deeply homophobic of Australia’s states. It was in Tasmania, for example, that the last man to hang for sodomy in the British Empire was executed, in 1867.

Whilst the severity of the punishments lessened over the next hundred years or so, the mentality behind them certainly didn’t. And so it was that in 1988, some years after the majority of Australian states had decriminalised homosexuality, Tasmania continued to punish not only homosexuals but also those seeking homosexual law reform.

One particular setting for this was the Salamanca Markets in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart. This Saturday market featured the usual mix of craft, food, political and community stalls. One of these community stalls was that of the Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group. As the name indicates, the Group sought law reform and, in pursuit of that, the stall contained information leaflets and a petition.

This was too much for Hobart’s City Council, however, who decided that ‘there was no place for homosexuals in their family market’. In consequence, in 1988, they banned the stall.

Given the absurdity (and, most likely, illegality) of the ban, members of the Gay Law Reform Group continued to run their stall. In response the Council, so deeply entrenched in its homophobia, called in the police and had the Group’s members arrested for trespass. In order to facilitate the arrests the Council set up a yellow line at the market, delineating the point at which trespass would occur. Any activists crossing the line were promptly arrested.

But such was the zeal of the Council in undertaking their ‘cleansing’ of the market they also instructed police to arrest anyone in possession of a petition or carrying a banner or wearing a badge that included the words ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ or displayed the pink triangle. It has also been suggested that police were under instructions to arrest anyone known to be homosexual.

The activists remained defiant and over the following seven weekends more than 130 people were arrested: the police wore rubber gloves while making the arrests. Arrestees were held in police cells for long periods of time, banned for life from the market and threatened with immediate arrest when they left their homes on the morning of the market.

One activist, Rodney Croome, described one of his experiences:

“A burly sergeant approaches me: “Under the authority of the Hobart City Council, as manager of this market, I ask that you leave the market at once.  If you refuse you will be placed under arrest.”

I refuse and as he arrests me he grabs the gay law reform petition in my hand. He looks down the list of signatories and then rips the sheet into tiny pieces.”

In December 1988 the City Council finally realised that it would not defeat the spirit of the activists and withdrew its ban. Shortly thereafter the trespass charges laid against the activists were found to be legally dubious and the charges were dropped.

The battle was won but the war continued: Tasmania did not decriminalise homosexuality until 1997, making it the last Australian state to do so.