The state of Queensland is to Australia what the Deep South is to the USA – the home of a deeply entrenched bigotry. Institutionalized racism towards indigenous Australians has matched that of apartheid South Africa, whilst extensive government resources were devoted to attacking the LGBT community from the 70’s onwards.

By the 1980’s the far-right State government was promoting itself as the last bastion of good Christian values in a country that was going into steep moral decline. In other words, it was way out of touch with the social progress that was occurring in every other Australian state and used everything in its power to deny the rights of those who opposed it.

For the LGBT community the oppression was manifested in a series of attacks throughout the decade.  The government had already banned protest marches, public demonstrations and the sale of gay publications, thus denying a voice to the community.

By 1984, Education Minister Lyn Powell’s statement that openly gay teachers in state schools would be fired immediately was merely confirmation of a campaign they had waged for several years. Indeed, not only was there an active policy to prevent the employment of homosexual teachers but the establishment of support groups for gay and lesbian students was also prohibited.

In that same year gay and lesbian activists from across Australia sought to hold the 10th National Conference of Lesbians and Homosexual Men at the University of Queensland. This was in part an attempt to raise the profile of LGBT issues but also a practical gesture to LGBT Queenslanders, since the Education Minister would not allow teachers to attend conferences outside the State!

As soon as the conference plans were announced in 1983 the government went into overdrive to stop it. One government MP declared that the conference “posed a threat to social order”. Angus Innes, the Deputy Leader of the Queensland Liberal Party saw it as “clearly part of a world-wide movement to impose homosexual views on others”.

And when the University of Queensland refused to ban the event the government stepped up the pressure by reiterating the old ‘all gays are paedophiles’ myth. It probably wasn’t helped by the organisers’ decision to hold a discussion on paedophilia, although various events before and after made it clear that there was a clear government strategy of equating the two.

Fr example, the Minister for Welfare Services told the State Parliament that, “homosexuals do not reproduce; they recruit and they usually recruit children and young people, not middle-aged men and mothers with children.”

The conference did take place – although without the planned session on paedophilia – prompting the Minister for Lands, Forestry and Police to tell parliament that, “police will keep a close watch on the Tenth National Conference of Lesbians and Homosexual Men…”

And the government maintained its efforts to promote the paedophilia myth as demonstrated by anther incident in 1984. The Queensland press had alleged that three men – including a police officer – had regularly engaged in sex with young boys at an illegal brothel. They further alleged that this was just the tip of the iceberg and that a wider paedophile ring ran illegal brothels in the state.

In fact the real issue, as revealed by a television documentary in 1987, was widespread police and government corruption – right up to senior levels. However, this was not public knowledge in 1984: had it been, there may well have been much closer examination of the motives and findings of a government inquiry into the brothel allegations.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Des Sturgess, was asked to undertake the inquiry and his ‘findings’ proved remarkably consistent with the government’s line of that time. Having started with the statement that, “there is a modern phenomena linking homosexuality, drugs and the corruption of children,” his report went on to declare:

“While it is a myth to say that all homosexuals are paedophiles, I believe it to be a fact that male homosexuals are more attracted to youth than heterosexuals and will remain so for much of their lives. Also, I am satisfied children can be made homosexuals as the result of homosexual experience.”

In effect, Sturgess presented his opinion as fact – and ‘fact’ that conveniently supported the government line of the day.

Thankfully, the government’s days were finally running out as their crimes were to be revealed in an explosive TV documentary – The Moonlight State – in 1987. But the war against Queensland’s lesbians and gays continued relentlessly up to and beyond that time.

Acknowledgement:

This and my next post on this subject were informed by the article “Homophobia as Party Politics: The Construction of the ‘Homosexual Deviant’ in Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s Queensland” by Shirleene Robinson, published in the Queensland Review, Number 17, No.1.