Ground News - Cooma jail: Prison that was once 'world's only jail for gay men'

Contents:

• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• COOMA JAIL'S DARK PAST CLUS BEG WORLD'S ONLY 'GAY PRISON', PODST REVEALS
• NSW REGNAL TOWN OF COOMA WAS HOME TO ‘WORLD’S ONLY GAY PRISON’
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• INSI COOMA JAIL: THE ATRALIAN FACILY THAT OPERATED AS A ‘GAY PRISON’
• COOMA 'GAY PRISON' PODSTERS LL FOR ERNMENT APOLOGY FOR ENTRAPMENT, PERSECUTN OF HOMOSEXUAL MEN

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

Image source, The Greatt MenaceImage ptn, Cooma jail was once ed exclively to imprison gay menSet one of the lst and wdit small towns Atralia, Cooma prison holds a dark only was reopened 1957 wh the specific purpose of rceratg men for "homosexual offenc", was also said to be ed as a human ttg ground wh the ultimate goal of eraditg homosexualy om 's jail is believed to have been the only known homosexual prison the world, acrdg to a new now, even some prison staff say they didn't know the real reason gay prisoners were segregated Strzelecki, 66, started as a ctodial servic officer at the prison 1979, and later set up the Corrective Servic Mm Cooma. We'd red stamp homosexual prisoners wh 'N/A': non-associatn wh mastream prisons, " he tells the BBC.

"You wouldn't bunk two together… that was one of our biggt problems - keepg an eye on them, " says Mr New, now source, Thomas McCoyImage ptn, L Strzelecki (left) worked at the jail before settg up the lol Corrective Servic MmHistoril documents suggt New South Wal (NSW) Jtice Mister Reg Downg took cred for tablishg the reportedly exprsed "pri" at his pet project, tellg the Sydney Morng Herald 1957: "Nowhere Europe or Ameri did I fd any prisons where homosexuals were separated om other prisoners. " A 1958 prs statement om Mr Downg nam Cooma prison as "the only penal stutn the world, so far as is known, voted specifilly to the tentn of homosexual offenrs".

Prisoners at Cooma were rcerated for beg gay, or crim related to beg gay; homosexualy wasn't crimalised NSW until dranian state laws 1955 had cracked down on homosexualy. "The legislative chang were very wi-rangg their asslt on the civil liberti of men thought to have homoerotic sir.

COOMA JAIL'S DARK PAST CLUS BEG WORLD'S ONLY 'GAY PRISON', PODST REVEALS

Attempted buggery rried five years, and a harsher crackdown, a clse was add statg "wh or whout the nsent of such person" source, State Library of NSWImage ptn, Reg Downg exprsed pri separatg gay prisoners om othersBoth Mr Wotherspoon and the podst ce evince of police actg as "agents provotrs" to ce men to m homosexual acts.

NSW REGNAL TOWN OF COOMA WAS HOME TO ‘WORLD’S ONLY GAY PRISON’

"They'd e hunky policemen to entrap gay men by enticg them to have sex, ually public toilets, " Mr Wotherspoon 1958, the NSW ernment announced a mtee of quiry to the "e and treatment of homosexualy". It nam Cooma prison as "a special stutn for nvicted homosexual offenrs" which will "facilate the vtigatn" a "scientific evaluatn of the problem and possible solutn" has been found, Mr Downg is quoted as sayg, "the ernment nsirs that the problem mt be attacked wh vigour". ' and nclud that 'overmotherg' was "a major e of homosexualy, " says podst creator and journalist Patrick Abboud, who has spent years rearchg the prison.

"We know they failed their missn to eradite homosexualy bee our podst reveals gay men havg ongog relatnships the prison.

"The elive report has never been found - somethg Mr Abboud says amounts to a "ver up" source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Cooma is a town of about 7, 000 peopleIt's unclear when homosexual prisoners were no longer sent to Cooma. Corrective Servic NSW and the NSW Department of Communi and Jtice cled to ment on the allegatns, cg their "historil nature" Abboud believ gay prisoners may have been sent there until the early 1980s, cg a 1982 statement om the rrective servic mister claimg the policy still stood. Sex offenrs were also sent to Cooma and this further stigmatised gay prisoners, says Mr Wotherspoon says, wh recent parliamentary bate of a Relig Discrimatn Bill threateng to allow discrimatn based on sexual orientatn, such recent history rri a soberg warng.

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

You may also be terted :Media ptn, How Atralia's first gay imam is 'savg liv'. As celebratns ramp up ahead of Sydney's annual Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras this week, a dark part of Atralia's LGBTQI+ history is beg explored by a new pots:The Greatt Menace podst explor the dark past of Cooma's jailThe se reopened the 1950s as a "gay jail"Podst maker says was the world's only "gay prison"Podst The Greatt Menace has unearthed the tth behd the world's only "gay prison, " which operated the regnal New South Wal town of Cooma om 1957 to hoe men nvicted of homosexual historic jail and one-time asylum closed the early 1900s before s reopeng.

"When someone tells you that there was a gay prison signed to rcerate gay men that self was shockg enough. (Supplied: Patrick Abboud)The Amazon podst spends eight episos explorg the history of the Cooma Correctnal Centre as a "gay prison" the mid to late 1900s and clus terviews wh mat om that time.

"I'd walked past that prison multiple tim as a teenager gog through my own stggle wh my homosexualy, " he said. (Supplied)"I n't help but sometim feel like 's still the 50s and 60s when the NSW ernment was tryg to eradite homosexualy om the face of the earth, " he said. On the night Patrick Abboud celebrated the historic cisn to legalise gay marriage Atralia he did not expect to be nonted by an even bigger story – the exposé of the “world's only gay prison” – a ty regnal town where he spent holidays as a child.

EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON

In an Audible podst The Greatt Menace, which the pany is allowg non-subscribers to listen to for ee for six months, Abboud explor a time when homosexual men were arrted by handsome young ps actg as “ba” and nvicted of acts of cent asslt, even for nsensual activi. It was a time when then-New South Wal police missner Col Delaney 1958, scribed homosexualy as the “greatt menace” facg Atralia. ”However, the revelatn that sent Abboud reelg at a party to celebrate the ‘Y’ vote 2017, was beg told the NSW Government had at one stage operated what was touted as the “world’s only gay prison”.

He believ the aim of the jail was the fd the and treatments for homosexualy.

COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'

“They tablished a prison specifilly to rcerate gay men, specifilly to rcerate homosexuals and they had an tentn behd that, ” Abboud said.

Abboud said the vice squad formed to crack down on homosexual offenc was sentially “trappg” men orr to create a sample populatn to be sent to a prison.

INSI COOMA JAIL: THE ATRALIAN FACILY THAT OPERATED AS A ‘GAY PRISON’

”He went through thoands of pag of urt transcripts to track what happened to homosexuals durg this time.

COOMA 'GAY PRISON' PODSTERS LL FOR ERNMENT APOLOGY FOR ENTRAPMENT, PERSECUTN OF HOMOSEXUAL MEN

”On his podst, Abboud terviews a former police officer who assisted the vice squad, as well as a man lled Terry who says he was charged wh an act of cency after a good-lookg man at the beach approached says the NSW Police has nied entrapment was ed to arrt gay Terry said he was approached by a man and asked to take the man’s penis out of his swimsu. The episo was so trmatic, he still n’t remember many tails of what was fortunate to avoid jail time but others were not so said the gay prison Cooma was operatnal by 1958 and he believ was nng for a number of s but ’s unclear how long was ed to hold mat for homosexualy. Abboud said he had spoken to many lols and most of them had no ia was a homosexual prison.

Some knew sex offenrs were sent there but another damagg aspect of the way homosexualy was treated at the time, was that was often nflated wh said thori set up a rearch mtee to n the prison “so was all very tentnal”.