NSW regnal town of Cooma was home to ‘world’s only gay prison’ | — Atralia’s leadg news se

Contents:

• EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON
• 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’
• HOW ATRALIA HID THE EXISTENCE OF A GAY PRISON OM HISTORY SAVAS ABADSIDIS DECEMBER 23, 2022SHARE COOMA IS SMALL TOWN THE SOUTH EAST PROVCE OF NEW SOUTH WAL ATRALIA. IT IS HOME TO THE WORLD’S ONLY PRISON THAT  BEGNG 1957 OPERATED AS SPECIFILLY FOR TAG MEN NVICTED OF HOMOSEXUAL OFFENS.IT IS THE SUBJECT OF JOURNALIST PATRICK ABBOD’S LATT AUDIBLE PODST THE GREATT MENACE: INSI THE GAY PRISON EXPERIMENT.THE BBC:REOPENED 1957 WH THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE OF RCERATG MEN FOR “HOMOSEXUAL OFFENS,” WAS ALSO SAID TO BE ED AS A HUMAN TTG GROUND WH THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF ERADITG HOMOSEXUALY OM SOCIETY.COOMA’S JAIL IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN THE ONLY KNOWN HOMOSEXUAL PRISON THE WORLD, ACRDG TO A NEW PODST.ACRDG TO THE BBC, UNTIL NOW, EVEN SOME PRISON STAFF SAY THEY DIDN’T KNOW THE REAL REASON GAY PRISONERS WERE SEGREGATED THERE.L STRZELECKI, 66, STARTED AS A CTODIAL SERVIC OFFICER AT THE PRISON 1979, AND LATER SET UP THE CORRECTIVE SERVIC MM COOMA. HE BELIEVED MAT WERE SENT THERE FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY. “COOMA WAS A PROTECTIVE STUTN. WE’D RED STAMP HOMOSEXUAL PRISONERS WH ‘N/A’: NON-ASSOCIATN WH MASTREAM PRISONS,” HE TELLS THE BBC. “THEY WERE AT RISK OF VLENCE AT BIGGER PRISONS LIKE LONG BAY [ SYDNEY].”BUT ANOTHER FORMER EMPLOYEE, CLIFF NEW, CLAIMS WAS FOR LS PASSNATE REASONS. HE TOLD AUDIBLE’S PODST SERI THE GREATT MENACE THAT PSYCHOLOGISTS AND PSYCHIATRISTS WERE “G ALL THE TIME” AFTER THE JAIL REOPENED 1957. HE UNRSTOOD THE AS ATTEMPTS TO NVERT THEM: “THEY WERE TRYG TO GET THEM ON THE ‘RIGHT’ TRACK… THEY RECKONED THEY ULD CURE THEM.”IT’S ALSO WHY PRISONERS WERE SGLE CELLS, HE SAID. “YOU WOULDN’T BUNK TWO TOGETHER… THAT WAS ONE OF OUR BIGGT PROBLEMS – KEEPG AN EYE ON THEM,” SAYS MR NEW, NOW 94.HISTORIL DOCUMENTS SUGGT NEW SOUTH WAL (NSW) JTICE MISTER REG DOWNG TOOK CRED FOR TABLISHG THE PRISON. HE 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 CRIMALIZED NSW UNTIL 1984.REG DOWNG EXPRSED PRI SEPARATG GAY PRISONERS OM OTHERSNEW DRANIAN STATE LAWS 1955 HAD CRACKED DOWN ON HOMOSEXUALY. THEY FOLLOWED PRSURE OM THE STATE’S POLICE MISSNER, COL DELANEY, WHO, ACRDG TO THE THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL, FELT “THAT REMEDIAL LEGISLATN [WAS] AN URGENT NECSY TO BAT THE EVIL”.“NEW CLS CLUD ‘SOLICG’ – A MAN ULD BE ARRTED FOR SIMPLY CHATTG UP ANOTHER MAN,” HISTORIAN GARRY WOTHERSPOON TELLS THE BBC. “THE LEGISLATIVE CHANG WERE VERY WI-RANGG THEIR ASSLT ON THE CIVIL LIBERTI OF MEN THOUGHT TO HAVE HOMOEROTIC SIR.”THE CRIME OF BUGGERY RRIED A 14-YEAR SENTENCE. ATTEMPTED BUGGERY RRIED FIVE YEARS, AND A HARSHER CRACKDOWN, A CLSE WAS ADD STATG “WH OR WHOUT THE NSENT OF SUCH PERSON.”“DISVERG WHAT SOME OF THOSE MEN WENT THROUGH THE PROCS OF BEG TRAPPED AND CHARGED, ’S HORRIFYG. IT REALLY IS,” ABBOUD TOLD  EARLIER THIS YEAR. “THEIR LIV WERE STROYED, AND THEY’RE STILL REELG OM .”WHAT PRISONERS EXPERIENCED THE COOMA FACILY WAS CHILLG. BUT AT THE HEART OF THE GREATT MENACE REMAS A MYSTERY. “THEY TABLISHED A PRISON SPECIFILLY TO RCERATE GAY MEN, SPECIFILLY TO RCERATE HOMOSEXUALS AND THEY HAD AN TENTN BEHD THAT,” ABBOUD SAID. “WE UNVERED THE TENTN. AND THEN WHAT ME OF THAT TENTN? AND THAT’S THE PART THAT REALLY NIGGL AT ME THE WHOLE TIME. WHERE’S THE REPORT? WHERE’S THE FDGS OF WHAT HAPPENED? MY STCT IS THAT THEY DIDN’T WANT TO BE WILY KNOWN.”
• EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON
• A TE CRIME POD ABOUT ATRALIA’S ‘GAY ONLY’ PRISON IS HERE AND WE’RE ALREADY FKN HOOKED
• ‘INSI THE GAY PRISON EXPERIMENT’ — A ‘QUEER SERIAL’ AUDIBLE PODST — IS AN OBSSED QUT FOR INFO ABOUT THE ANTI-GAY ATRALIAN GOVT. CAMPAIGN VS. “THE GREATT MENACE TO SOCIETY: HOMOSEXUALY”
• INSI THE GREATT MENACE, THE PODST THAT EXPOSED ATRALIA’S ‘GAY PRISON’ EXPERIMENT
• ATRALIA HAD A PRISON FOR CURG GAY MEN, NOW PODSTERS WHO TOLD THE STORY WANT AN APOLOGY

EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON

The gay marriage bate Atralia had boiled over, and while he was verg an anti-gay marriage prott, the openly gay journalist was mobbed and the SBS work Christmas party, he was unwdg wh a uple of drks, then planned to h the dancefloor before gog home and takg a break om reportg for a while. Journalist Patrick Abboud has created a podst about the world’s only gay Rohan ThomsonThat was exactly when his iend and -worker Simon Cunich walked up to him to say he’d received an trigug story tip.

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

“Simon said a iend of an acquatance had told him that there had once been a prison somewhere NSW that was set up to rcerate gay men, ” says Abboud.

’”Abboud, wh Cunich as -producer, voted the next three years of his life to fdg out about , and the rult is The Greatt Menace, an eight-part Audible Origal lotn of the jail NSW shocked Patrick Rohan ThomsonIt sounds like somethg out of Rsia or East Germany or the US ep south, but happened Cooma, the small town an hour-and-a-half drive south of Canberra known as the gateway to the Snowy 1957, the town’s jail, which had been closed the early 1900s, was re-opened wh a new rem – was to be a prison for homosexuals. Abboud disvered that the prison was a ordated effort between ernment and police to provi a pool of subjects for study and experimentatn to disver a “cure” for homosexualy.

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

As Abboud searched for throughout the seri, he felt that “they eher didn’t disver what they wanted, and uldn’t cure homosexualy, so they need to bury the report, or the thgs they did were so horrific that they never wanted anyone to see the tail. ”Homosexualy was a crime NSW until 1984.

Abboud terviews gay men now their 70s and 80s who tell raw and revealg stori of beg targeted, entrapped and arrted by unrver police at gay beats such as public toilets, parks and beach. And here Atralia, the seeds of were planted that gay prison Cooma.

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.

HOW ATRALIA HID THE EXISTENCE OF A GAY PRISON OM HISTORY SAVAS ABADSIDIS DECEMBER 23, 2022SHARE COOMA IS SMALL TOWN THE SOUTH EAST PROVCE OF NEW SOUTH WAL ATRALIA. IT IS HOME TO THE WORLD’S ONLY PRISON THAT  BEGNG 1957 OPERATED AS SPECIFILLY FOR TAG MEN NVICTED OF HOMOSEXUAL OFFENS.IT IS THE SUBJECT OF JOURNALIST PATRICK ABBOD’S LATT AUDIBLE PODST THE GREATT MENACE: INSI THE GAY PRISON EXPERIMENT.THE BBC:REOPENED 1957 WH THE SPECIFIC PURPOSE OF RCERATG MEN FOR “HOMOSEXUAL OFFENS,” WAS ALSO SAID TO BE ED AS A HUMAN TTG GROUND WH THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF ERADITG HOMOSEXUALY OM SOCIETY.COOMA’S JAIL IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN THE ONLY KNOWN HOMOSEXUAL PRISON THE WORLD, ACRDG TO A NEW PODST.ACRDG TO THE BBC, UNTIL NOW, EVEN SOME PRISON STAFF SAY THEY DIDN’T KNOW THE REAL REASON GAY PRISONERS WERE SEGREGATED THERE.L STRZELECKI, 66, STARTED AS A CTODIAL SERVIC OFFICER AT THE PRISON 1979, AND LATER SET UP THE CORRECTIVE SERVIC MM COOMA. HE BELIEVED MAT WERE SENT THERE FOR THEIR OWN SAFETY. “COOMA WAS A PROTECTIVE STUTN. WE’D RED STAMP HOMOSEXUAL PRISONERS WH ‘N/A’: NON-ASSOCIATN WH MASTREAM PRISONS,” HE TELLS THE BBC. “THEY WERE AT RISK OF VLENCE AT BIGGER PRISONS LIKE LONG BAY [ SYDNEY].”BUT ANOTHER FORMER EMPLOYEE, CLIFF NEW, CLAIMS WAS FOR LS PASSNATE REASONS. HE TOLD AUDIBLE’S PODST SERI THE GREATT MENACE THAT PSYCHOLOGISTS AND PSYCHIATRISTS WERE “G ALL THE TIME” AFTER THE JAIL REOPENED 1957. HE UNRSTOOD THE AS ATTEMPTS TO NVERT THEM: “THEY WERE TRYG TO GET THEM ON THE ‘RIGHT’ TRACK… THEY RECKONED THEY ULD CURE THEM.”IT’S ALSO WHY PRISONERS WERE SGLE CELLS, HE SAID. “YOU WOULDN’T BUNK TWO TOGETHER… THAT WAS ONE OF OUR BIGGT PROBLEMS – KEEPG AN EYE ON THEM,” SAYS MR NEW, NOW 94.HISTORIL DOCUMENTS SUGGT NEW SOUTH WAL (NSW) JTICE MISTER REG DOWNG TOOK CRED FOR TABLISHG THE PRISON. HE 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 CRIMALIZED NSW UNTIL 1984.REG DOWNG EXPRSED PRI SEPARATG GAY PRISONERS OM OTHERSNEW DRANIAN STATE LAWS 1955 HAD CRACKED DOWN ON HOMOSEXUALY. THEY FOLLOWED PRSURE OM THE STATE’S POLICE MISSNER, COL DELANEY, WHO, ACRDG TO THE THEN ATTORNEY GENERAL, FELT “THAT REMEDIAL LEGISLATN [WAS] AN URGENT NECSY TO BAT THE EVIL”.“NEW CLS CLUD ‘SOLICG’ – A MAN ULD BE ARRTED FOR SIMPLY CHATTG UP ANOTHER MAN,” HISTORIAN GARRY WOTHERSPOON TELLS THE BBC. “THE LEGISLATIVE CHANG WERE VERY WI-RANGG THEIR ASSLT ON THE CIVIL LIBERTI OF MEN THOUGHT TO HAVE HOMOEROTIC SIR.”THE CRIME OF BUGGERY RRIED A 14-YEAR SENTENCE. ATTEMPTED BUGGERY RRIED FIVE YEARS, AND A HARSHER CRACKDOWN, A CLSE WAS ADD STATG “WH OR WHOUT THE NSENT OF SUCH PERSON.”“DISVERG WHAT SOME OF THOSE MEN WENT THROUGH THE PROCS OF BEG TRAPPED AND CHARGED, ’S HORRIFYG. IT REALLY IS,” ABBOUD TOLD  EARLIER THIS YEAR. “THEIR LIV WERE STROYED, AND THEY’RE STILL REELG OM .”WHAT PRISONERS EXPERIENCED THE COOMA FACILY WAS CHILLG. BUT AT THE HEART OF THE GREATT MENACE REMAS A MYSTERY. “THEY TABLISHED A PRISON SPECIFILLY TO RCERATE GAY MEN, SPECIFILLY TO RCERATE HOMOSEXUALS AND THEY HAD AN TENTN BEHD THAT,” ABBOUD SAID. “WE UNVERED THE TENTN. AND THEN WHAT ME OF THAT TENTN? AND THAT’S THE PART THAT REALLY NIGGL AT ME THE WHOLE TIME. WHERE’S THE REPORT? WHERE’S THE FDGS OF WHAT HAPPENED? MY STCT IS THAT THEY DIDN’T WANT TO BE WILY KNOWN.”

"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.

EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON

(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.

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”.

A TE CRIME POD ABOUT ATRALIA’S ‘GAY ONLY’ PRISON IS HERE AND WE’RE ALREADY FKN HOOKED

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

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

‘INSI THE GAY PRISON EXPERIMENT’ — A ‘QUEER SERIAL’ AUDIBLE PODST — IS AN OBSSED QUT FOR INFO ABOUT THE ANTI-GAY ATRALIAN GOVT. CAMPAIGN VS. “THE GREATT MENACE TO SOCIETY: HOMOSEXUALY”

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.

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

INSI THE GREATT MENACE, THE PODST THAT EXPOSED ATRALIA’S ‘GAY PRISON’ EXPERIMENT

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”. “It expos that what the former New South Wal ernment were tryg to do to, (which) was sentially to eradite homosexualy, ” Abboud believ whatever happened at the jail, was somethg the ernment of the time wanted to be fotten, and that Corrective Servic wanted to fet.

Abboud said the settg up of the gay prison, to n experiments on the and treatments for homosexualy, was a huge jtice. “There’s this sort of leftover ridue om that shame that my parents were rpondg to me terms of their rponse to me, and the gay muny generally, you n see that ’s not a historil story, ’s a very current, now story, ” he said.

Abboud said homosexualy was not crimalised until 1984, many years after the first Mardi Gras 1978, and the gay liberalisatn movement started even earlier than that. “I get choked up thkg about bee that’s me … that’s my life, and ’s so many other gay men’s liv.

ATRALIA HAD A PRISON FOR CURG GAY MEN, NOW PODSTERS WHO TOLD THE STORY WANT AN APOLOGY

It is home to the world’s only prison that begng 1957 operated as specifilly for tag men nvicted of homosexual is the subject of journalist Patrick Abbod’s latt Audible podst The Greatt Menace: Insi the Gay Prison BBC:Reopened 1957 wh the specific purpose of rceratg men for “homosexual offens, ” 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 podst. Acrdg to the BBC, until 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. He 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.

Downg nam Cooma prison as “the only penal stutn the world, so far as is known, voted specifilly to the tentn of homosexual offenrs”.