1980’s. Queensland’s war on homosexuals. Part Two.
Given the sustained government attacks on the LGBT community throughout the 70’s and 80’s, the State’s response to the emergence of HIV/AIDS will come as no surprise.
So firmly entrenched in fundamentalist Christian beliefs, the government responded in purely moralistic terms. As far as they were concerned, it was merely evidence of the national moral decline that they had been fighting against. And, of course, an ideal opportunity for a bit more gay-bashing.
The perfect opportunity presented itself in November 1984 when the State Minister for Health announced that three babies had died from AIDS after receiving blood transfusions from a 27-year old gay man. As usual, no concern was show for the health of the donor: the issue was, instead, turned around to imply a deliberate contamination of the blood supply rather than the act of social responsibility that it had been.
The Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen had already called gays “insulting evil animals” and attacked the Labor Premier of neighbouring New South Wales, saying he “should hang his head in shame for legalising homosexuality in New South Wales”. His government’s legislative response merely reinforced the association between homosexuality and HIV/AIDS.
Amendments were made to the Transplantation and Anatomy Act introducing a $10,000 fine or two years imprisonment for anyone who knowingly gave false information in respect of bodily tissue used for transplant or transfusion. Implicit in this was the notion that homosexuals were knowingly contaminating the blood supply. In case there was any doubt, the Health Minister introduced the amendments by declaring that the babies who had died…
“appear to be the innocent victims of the permissive society Australia is becoming. It distresses the Queensland government to see how some other states and Canberra support legalised homosexuality.”
Unlike every other state in Australia, the Queensland government refused to work with the LGBT community. Publicly-funded AIDS Councils were set up in every state to develop and deliver education, prevention and support services – apart from Queensland.
They, instead, took their moralistic line to the extreme. They refused to fund testing and treatment facilities and blocked the installation of condom vending machines in public facilities. There was a long-standing ban on sex education in schools that, initially, the emergence of HIV/AIDS failed to change.
In the end they relented – although in a way that only they could come up with. While announcing that HIV/AIDS could be discussed in high schools, Health Minister Austin insisted:
“Young adults should be told that AIDS is a result of abnormal behaviour. There was quite a lot of pressure on them to accept abnormal behaviour until AIDS came along.”
Yet again, the focus wasn’t to be on objective consideration of transmission and prevention, it was to be on preaching a limited moral code.
But some of the government’s proposals were so bizarre – even for Queensland – that they came unstuck. One such measure was the proposal to make it an offence to serve lesbians and gay men in bars and hotels. When the proposals were tabled in Parliament a spokesman for the goverment’s coalition partner, the Liberal Party, stated:
“Queensland should give a national lead in combating this modern scourge of promiscuous homosexuality and its associated disease AIDS by specifically forbidding the maintenance of places of regular congregation of homosexual people in licensed premises.”
In case that wasn’t clear enough, the Attorney General and Justice Minister Neville Harper explained…
“…that the amendment as drafted will allow action to be taken to ensure that these sexual perverts, these deviants, these gay bars, will not be allowed to prosper, will not be allowed to continue.”
It was a sentiment that wouldn’t have been out of place in Nazi Germany.
The proposals would have been laughable had they not been so entrenched in mindless but dangerous bigotry. Indeed, one response to the plan was the production of a T-shirt that read, “I am a homosexual. Please buy me a drink!”
Of course bigots will always have their followers and so it was that one ‘proud’ publican declared:
“If people were being obviously gay or causing a disturbance they would probably not be allowed into this tavern.”
Thankfully he represented a minority of publicans: the Queensland Hotels Association, which represented the State’s publicans came out strongly against the plans. Admittedly this was on the grounds that publicans ‘would be unable to spot a deviant in a crowded hotel’ – but this is Queensland after all!
The proposals were abandoned but the State government maintained its hostility towards the LGBT community. This only came to an end after a TV documentary – The Moonshine State – revealed widespread government corruption and triggered a full and damning public inquiry (the Fitzgerald Inquiry). This, in turn. led to the election of a reformist Labour government and a more progressive approach in the following years.
Sadly, this has not been sustained. A right-wing coalition government was elected in 2012 and they have wasted no time in implementing a new homophobic agenda. Immediately prior to the election Queensland was due to introduce civil partnerships; this has now been watered-down to a ‘partnership register’ by the new Premier, who makes no secret of his admiration for the disgraced former Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
It would appear that bigotry is even blinder and more resilient than we could ever have imagined!
Acknowledgement:
This and my previous post on this subject was 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.
Impressive. I was born in 1983 and had absolutely no awareness of this history. We need to educate people, especially youth, about these kinds of things, lest they become complacent and take their freedom for granted. Especially considering the 80s wasn’t that long ago – living memory for most of us, in fact!
Thanks Alex. Yes, I absolutely agree, we need to be aware of our history. Things have changed relatively quickly over the past few decades: in most cases that’s been change for the better but, as we can see in Eastern Europe at the minute, things can just as easily change for the worse – and pretty rapidly too. The signs in Australia aren’t too brilliant at the moment either, with a Prime Minister who seems to see bigotry as something to be proud of. Fingers crossed we don’t have a repeat of the Queensland situation.
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