Advocates welcome move to erase gay criminal records

BILL WILL “REMOVE STIGMA” & COMES AHEAD OF 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF DECRIMINALISATION

Tasmanian gay rights advocates have welcomed the State Government’s tabling of legislation to erase the criminal records of men convicted of sex with other men.

The move comes ahead of the 20th anniversary on May 1st of the repeal of Tasmania’s laws banning gay sex which were the last, most severe and most bitterly contested in Australia.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said,

“Sex between men should never have been a crime and I welcome the State Government’s move to erase the stigma of criminality that still casts a shadows over the lives of many gay Tasmanians.”

“Men convicted under our old laws will now be able to apply for jobs and volunteer positions without the stigma of a conviction on their record.”

“It is fitting that this legislation has been introduced ahead of the 20th anniversary of the repeal of Australia’s last, most severe and most bitterly contested legal ban on male-to-male relationships.”

Mr Croome said he looks forward to Premier Will Hodgman’s apology to those who were convicted under the state’s former laws.

Mr Hodgman was the first Australian political leader to commit to making such an apology, back in 2015.

“An apology will help heal the deep wounds of the past and allow not only the LGBTI community, but the whole of Tasmanian society to move on from one of the worst periods in our history.

Sections 122 (a) and (c) and 123 of the Tasmanian Criminal Code criminalised all sexual activity between men, including consenting, adult men in private, with a maximum penalty of 21 years in gaol.

The decade-long campaign to repeal these provisions involved the largest acts of gay rights civil disobedience in Australian history, as well as the largest and angriest anti-gay rallies. The campaign drew in Amnesty International, the United Nations, the Federal Government and the High Court, setting new legal precedents for LGBTI rights across the nation and the world.

After the old laws were repealed Tasmania went on to adopt the most progressive and inclusive anti-discrimination and relationship laws in Australia.
Rodney Croome, just.equal