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It's only 25 years since being gay stopped being illegal in Australia
When Tasmania decriminalised homosexuality on 1 May 1997, it became the last Australian state to do so. Today, LGBTIQ+ advocates there say there’s still work to be done, particularly to protect Australians who are transgender and intersex.
Published 1 May 2022 7:34am
Updated 1 May 2022 8:09am
By Sarah Maunder
Source: SBS News
Image: Police lead gay rights activist Rodney Croome away from protests at Salamanca Market in 1988. (Supplied / Roger Lovell, The Mercury (supplied by Rodney Croome).)
The late 1980s were tough for Rodney Croome. Aged in his 20s and not long after coming out as gay, he decided to become an LGBTIQ+ advocate in his home state of Tasmania.
“I discovered then, that because I was gay, I lived in a police state,” he says.
He recalls going to a gay community meeting and learning not to use his surname as police informants could be hidden within the group. He was also told police could be waiting outside to add attendees’ car registration plates to their so-called “pink list”.
Tasmania's state law at the time still criminalised homosexuality, meaning sex between men was punishable by more than 20 years in prison. The rest of Australia had decriminalised it.
Police attending a gay law reform stall at Hobart's Salamanca Markets in 1988. Source: AAP / Roger Lovell
The last time a person was charged with homosexuality offences in Tasmania was the mid-1980s, Mr Croome says, but the law “was still used as a justification by the government and others to discriminate”.
The worst example came in 1988 when he and a small group of advocates set up a stall at Hobart’s iconic Salamanca Markets. They were armed with nothing but a table and a petition and were asking people to sign in support of decriminalising homosexuality.
“When the Hobart City Council found out we were there, they called the police and had us all arrested,” Mr Croome says.
“There were more than 130 people arrested over seven weeks … the biggest act of gay rights civil disobedience in Australian history.”
Police lead gay rights activist Rodney Croome away from protests at Salamanca Market in 1988. Source: Supplied / Roger Lovell, The Mercury (supplied by Rodney Croome).
Richard Hale, a founding member of the Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group, was arrested twice during that time.
“We never knew from week to week exactly what would happen … and some people were treated quite roughly,” he says.
“When you’re in the paddy wagon by yourself … or you were held in a police cell for a long time and you didn’t know what was going to happen next, those things were quite scary.”
There were more than 130 people arrested over seven weeks … the biggest act of gay rights civil disobedience in Australian history.Rodney Croome
Anti-gay rallies continued into the 1990s in Tasmania, Mr Croome says. He attended some in Ulverstone, a town on the state’s north coast, to counter demonstrate.
“Hundreds of people would go along and listen to hatred and bile about us. I remember hearing those people shouting, ‘Kill them! Kill them!’”
“Ulverstone was labelled as ‘Australia’s most homophobic town’ in the international press.”
In the early 1990s, Tasmania’s upper house rejected legislation to decriminalise homosexuality, so Mr Croome took the battle to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
“It was the first such case from Australia and the first case about decriminalisation brought to the UN from anywhere in the world,” he says.
In April 1994, the UN ruled in Mr Croome’s favour, but the battle wasn’t over; he’d need to convince Canberra.
Gay activists protesting in Hobart in August 1988. Source: AAP / Roger Lovell
“We asked the federal government to use its powers under the federal constitution, particularly in terms of observing international treaties, to enact a law that would override the Tasmanian law,” he says.
“But that didn’t invalidate the Tasmanian laws completely, the only body that could do that was the High Court, so after the federal law was passed, we went to the High Court.
“After that, the Tasmanian government knew the game was up. The Liberal government at the time allowed a conscience vote, and the law was changed.”
Rodney Croome, centre, at a 1997 press conference following the successful passage of gay law reform in Tasmania's upper house. Source: Facebook / Evolution Publishing, AQuA Australian Queer Archives
“We went out and spoke to every group that would listen to us: service clubs, union branches, school groups, sporting groups; we went across Tasmania and made our case.”
Mr Hale was at the Legislative Council when the final vote happened on 1 May 1997.
“It was in the evening, and it was the end of a nine-year campaign,” he says.
“There was great relief. I’m a bit shivery just thinking about it.”
It passed by just one vote.
Lynn Jarvis is the CEO of Working It Out, Tasmania’s only dedicated LGBTIQ+ service and education provider. It was established as a direct result of the law change to decriminalise homosexuality.
Dr Jarvis says younger people in Tasmania’s LQBTIQ+ community are often surprised when they learn about the state’s history.
Rodney Croome at Salamanca Markets in 2004. Source: AAP / Libby Sutherland
“If you’re a young person now, I’m sure 25 years ago sounds like another lifetime ago.
“What people went through to get that reform was horrific … they had to change the views of a whole community.”
Now, she says, “we have as a result some of the most progressive legislation and protections in place of any state or territory in Australia, and sometimes in the world”.
In 2017, 63.6 per cent of people in Tasmania voted ‘yes’ in , above the national total of 61.6 per cent.
The following year, Tasmanians were given the right to apply to have historical convictions for homosexual acts removed from their criminal records.
Positive change has also come for Tasmania’s wider LGBTIQ+ community, transgender woman and advocate Martine Delaney says.
In 2004, she began meeting with successive Tasmanian attorneys-general, calling for changes in the state’s birth certificate legislation.
Martine Delaney has fought for the rights of transgender Australians. Source: Supplied
“15 years later, it resulted in probably the world’s best and most inclusive birth certificate laws,” she says.
Tasmania now makes gender on birth certificates optional and removes the requirement for transgender people to have surgery in order to have their gender recognised.
Despite the wins, those working with the LGBTIQ+ community agree there’s still more to be done.
Mr Croome, who was named Tasmanian of the Year in 2015, would now like to see the state ban gay conversion practices.
Advocates also agree more needs to be done to support transgender and intersex people in the state.
“A lot of young people still feel distressed about living as their true selves in our community,” Dr Jarvis says.
LGBTIQ+ people are still used as a “political wedge” in national debate too, she adds, referencing recent arguments about .
“The lives of LGBTIQ+ people are still frequently debated in the public domain and I would just like to remind everybody that that has really serious consequences ... on the health and wellbeing of the community.”
Mr Croome agrees.
Rodney Croome today. He says more work needs to be done to protect Australia's transgender and gender diverse community. Source: SBS News / Sarah Maunder
“Of course, we’re in the midst of an election campaign, where the lives of sexual and gender minorities are again being attacked, particularly trans and gender diverse people,” he says.
“I think it’s important that we recall the campaign [to decriminalise homosexuality] in Tasmania, and the success of that campaign, in turning Tasmania around, to give us hope and inspiration for doing the same thing again into the future.”
Simone-Lisa Anderson is the Tasmanian representative for Intersex Peer Support Australia and wants further legal reforms to support those whose sex characteristics do not conform to female or male stereotypes.
“To stop non-consensual surgeries on infants, young people, and people that haven’t been given enough information about what the surgeries are and what they do to their bodies,” she says.
Merran Newman is the chairperson of PFLAG Tasmania (parents, families and friends of lesbians and gays), and says there are still needs in the community going unmet. The organisation supports people living in rural parts of the state.
“Some people are not just LGBTIQ+, some people also have a disability, or they have mental health distress, or they’re lonely. We have to support those people somehow. We have to know where they are, and we don’t always know.”
In 2008, Hobart City Council officially apologised for the arrests that began at Salamanca Markets, resolving “that actions such as these will never happen again”.
Tasmania Police acknowledges on its website “Tasmania was the last state to decriminalise male-to-male relationships,” and says “this has left a legacy of stigma and discrimination that Tasmania Police seeks to address”.
The force now employs LGBTI liaison officers, has encouraged officers in uniform to take part in the TasPride Parade since 2015, and says it has “a strong commitment towards human rights and diversity in our community”.
The Yellow Line memorial at Salamanca Markets pays tribute to the 130 people arrested in 1988. Source: SBS News / Sarah Maunder
The Tasmanian Government officially apologised for laws criminalising homosexual activity and their impact in 2017.
"Many Tasmanians have continued to suffer from distress and disadvantage as a result of the criminalisation of conduct that is now accepted as lawful,” then-premier Will Hodgman said.
There is hope in the community that under newly-appointed state premier Jeremy Rockliff, things can only improve.
Mr Rockliff voted for marriage equality and has been a supporter of other pro-LGBTIQ+ laws. Last year, while minister for community services and development, he announced grants to support the community, saying “all Tasmanians should be treated with dignity and respect – regardless of their relationship status, sexuality, gender identity or intersex characteristics”.
Mr Croome says he’s proud of how far the state has come since his work began.
Recently, in Ulverstone, once labelled ‘Australia’s most homophobic town’ and where those anti-gay rallies were held, he attended a rainbow flag raising.
“It was awful, and yet now in Ulverstone, they raise the rainbow flag. How can anyone not be proud of that?”
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