The grim tth of beg gay prison | Sadhbh Walshe | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• GAY ADULT FILM STAR MIKE DOZER GETS AT LEAST 8 YEARS ADD TO HIS PRISON SENTENCE – VIDEO
• WHY WASN’T MARV GAYE’S FATHER CONVICTED OF HIS MURR?
• IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• CATEGORY ARCHIV: GAY & BISEXUAL
• [WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY
• GAY DADDY PORN VIOS
• AARON HERNANZ TEARFULLY TOLD MOM HE WAS GAY BEFORE PRISON SUICI, BROTHER SAYS
• TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY
• TEXAS MAN IS SENTENCED FOR USG DATG APP TO TARGET GAY MEN
• WORLD'S ONLY GAY JAIL: HOW MEN WERE SENT TO ONE PRISON TO 'CURE' HOMOSEXUALY
• HOMOSEXUALS IN NEW ORLEANS KIDNAP YOUNG BOYS, BRG THEM INTO A GAY NEIGHBORHOOD, HORRIFILLY TORTURE THEM AND SODOMIZE THEM, AND THEN MURR THEM

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

In 1984, when Calv Burde was awag sentencg for allegedly stabbg his gay lover to ath, the prosecutg attorney enuraged the jury his closg remarks to award Burde the ath penalty, rather than life prison, on the grounds that sendg a gay man to prison was ak to sendg a kid to a ndy store.

GAY ADULT FILM STAR MIKE DOZER GETS AT LEAST 8 YEARS ADD TO HIS PRISON SENTENCE – VIDEO

His ath sentence was later overturned (mostly bee Burde's public fenr had slept through much of his trial), but the homophobic thkg – that prison is some kd of paradise for gay men – lgers realy of life prison for homosexuals and transgenr dividuals do not appear to reflect this myth.

The prison he was first sent to did actually have a separate tier for gay mat, but acrdg to Rodney, bee he did not "appear overly effemate" durg his classifitn, he was placed wh the general populatn; and bee was supposedly rare to have a gay person slip through the cracks of the system, his fellow mat took full advantage. It's difficult to asss how typil Rodney's prison experience is, but numero studi nducted by the Bure of Jtice Statistics, based on anonymo mate surveys, have shown that gay and transgenr mat are among the most targeted groups for sexual victimizatn. Jt Detentn Internatnal (JDI), an anizatn whose aim is to eradite prison rape (pdf), is tryg to change has been workg wh the California Department of Correctns and Rehabilatn (CDCR) to tablish "sensive needs yards" (pdf), where gay, transgenr and other vulnerable mat n serve out their time safety.

WHY WASN’T MARV GAYE’S FATHER CONVICTED OF HIS MURR?

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. "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. 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.

IS YOUR DAD GAY—OR ARE YOU A GAY DAD?

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". 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. PREVIOUS REPORT: 'I'll never get my baby back': Fay of woman killed crash on North Freeway angry over lossHoton police said Sarah Gay was toxited when she drove northbound the southbound lan of the I-45 North Freeway near the Whe Oak ex and h two rs. In his ial terview wh a classifitn officer, he explaed that he was gay and had been raped by gang members, and that he need to be hoed wh another gay person, or someone of small build, or a first-timer-- his words, a "softie"--and not a gang member.

Intake/terrogatn roomControl center wh: full light & lor ntrol mera monorg for each cell and areasWarn's skWarn's necsati to rtra/ntrol prisonersInterrogatn chairMug shot/fgerprt areaLockers to store personal emsMetal rtrats gear wallGallery wh origal gay art by zack cell blockShower/examatn area, wh water hoseRimmg chair2 cells wh prison toilets and skMaximum secury solary cell (double door)Padd and soundproofed cellWall & ground attachment pots throughoutDungeon space*Entry area wh gear lockers and gear wallDungeon bed by wh tegrated St. "I remember beg the Castro, " says John Forrett (army rerve, 1987–99), "and watchg the TV at a bar wh some iends, watchg Al Gore and Bill Clton swearg that if they beme the tag team for Ameri they were gog to get rid of the harassment of gays and lbians servg the ary.

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

Of a number of latg events—Rocha was also force-fed dog food and locked to a sh-filled dog kennel—the most abive and explicly homophobic was when he was orred by his manr to act a dog-trag scenar, repeated over and over so that every dog the un uld be n through . Life Seventy Years Ago as a Gay Serviceman: World War IIIt was only really around the Send World War that ary discrimatn beme dified and anized, and that the foc moved om simply sanctns agast homosexual acts to an attempt to intify and weed out homosexual tennci—though, as would be seen aga and aga, when fightg bodi were need badly enough, such ncerns would often evaporate. "While he was ployed, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a mpaigng group who had been givg him guidance, told him that 60 Mut wanted to do a piece about an openly gay man servg a bat zone, persuadg him that would give a voice to the "65, 000 men and women the ary" who weren’t able to live as openly as he was.

CATEGORY ARCHIV: GAY & BISEXUAL

’" The way he sometim jtified to himself what he did was that was a rponse to the ary’s homophobia, albe an extreme one: "I would feel very angry at the policy, and beme ’Well, fuck you, Mare Corps—I’m gog to do this and be as gay as I want to be for the world to see.

Some likely post-repeal plitns: ristant pockets of homophobia the ary; the ntued right to voice certa homophobic sentiments unr, for stance, the eedom of relig exprsn; possible aternizatn charg if gay servicemen of different ranks ntue to associate wh each other as they often did the silent years; growg disquiet at the absence of partner rights equivalent to those for servicemen’s wiv.

Jt like wh the rceratn numbers, there is no easy answer for why so many of those black men prisons have HIV; among jail populatns, Ain-Amerin men are five tim as likely as whe men and twice as likely as Hispanic/Lato men to be diagnosed wh while ndoms are overflowg om nightclub bathrooms and hand out like ndy at Gay Pri ftivals, the plac they may be most need, they're nearly impossible to fd. San Francis Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was ank wh Al-Jazeera recently, sayg that homophobia is clearly at play when to ristg sentiment also seeps to treatment of rcerated transgenr people, who are often placed prisons that don't rrpond wh their genr inty, as well as ristance to sex tn and PrEP, and sometim spotty distributn of HIV meds. 20, 2021A Texas man was sentenced to 23 years feral prison on Wednday for his nnectn a scheme that ed the popular datg app Grdr to target gay men for vlent hate crim, prosecutors County's Sheriff's DepartmentThe man, Daniel Jenks, 22, of Dallas, plead guilty June to one unt of nspiracy to m hate crim, kidnappg, rjackg, one hate crime unt and one unt of g a firearm durg and relatn to a crime of vlence, the Department of Jtice said a Jenks was the last of four fendants to be sentenced the nspiracy that ed Grdr, a social media app that is ed primarily by gay men.

[WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY

Jenks admted, acrdg to prosecutors, that he and others “lured multiple victims” to an apartment plex, poted a handgun at them, robbed them of their belonggs and asslted them, jurg one of Jenks told vtigators that members of his group ed gay slurs and tnted the victims and that one member attempted to sexually asslt one of the victims, the Department of Jtice said. Homosexual sex was illegal NSW until 1983, and for s before nsired an 'abomable crime' by police who ed handsome officers to tch men 'unnatural' state's Vice Squad round up hundreds of men parks, public toilets, railway statns and cemas and charged them wh acts of cency, or more dire, a year of Cooma openg as a special prison for nvicted men classified as 'homosexual remedials' or 'homosexual recidivists', the NSW Government had lnched a 'scientific evaluatn' of s mat who would be studied to fd 'a cure'. In the 1950s, the lst jail the state Cooma Prison (above) beme the world's only exclively gay penentiary where nvicted homosexuals were sent to be 'cured'Shirtls prisoners sun themselv the yard at Cooma Correctnal Centre the 1970s when the jail was still the place for men nvicted of havg homosexual sex, which was not crimalised until 1983 ONLY GAY JAIL IN THE WORLDThe state's leadg judicial officer, the Attorney General, would proudly clare Cooma as the only exclively homosexual prison the world.

It would ntue as such to the 1970s, when a royal missn to prisons heard the Cooma jail sewg room - where footballer Jarryd Hayne was recently employed for $24 a week makg prison greens - was a place of rampant sex for chapla Reverend Brian Burton later wrote a homoerotic novel about the gogs on the cupboards at the end of this tailorg was still happeng at Cooma 1976, crimal Raymond John Moore told the 1977 Royal Commissn Prisons, plag that '30 or 40 worked the tailor shop and jt about all of them were homosexuals. The prison sewg room the 1970s was known for rampant sex between gay male mat and trysts the cupboards down the back wh prison guards turng a bld eye The Cooma sewg room today, where high profile mat like footballer Jarryd Hayne earnt $24-a-week when imprisoned on a rape charge which has been over turned on appeal'They rried on their love affairs durg workg hours often full view of everyone  the shop' said prisoners bought stockgs and female unrwear on the weekly buy-ups and prisoners 'performed homosexual acts que openly ont of prisoners and prison officers' but he never saw a prison officer attempt to stop Cooma me to have the only gay prison on the pla is explored the the ABC rad eight-part podst 'The Greatt Menace' by award-wng documentary maker Patrick Abboud. Above, the yard of the 150-year-old prison mat today still endure nfement si the state's lst prison which is the largt town the Snowy Mountas NSW Police Commissner Col Delaney was a shockg anti-homosexual who whipped up muny fear wh the aid of the rabid tabloid Tth and set his Vice Squad after gay men'SHOCKING MALE VICE' It seems to have been the rult of the perfect storm of a rabidly anti-homosexual police chief, a moralistic mister, a willg psychiatrist, a shockg tabloid newspaper and the parative backwater that was 1950s police chief was Col Delaney, a highly rated policeman wh an obssn agast homosexualy.

GAY DADDY PORN VIOS

A year to his appotment as NSW Commissner, Delaney clared at a lunch 1953 that his biggt problems were the burgeong road toll and the 'growg ncer of perversn' He proclaimed that homosexualy was the greatt menace facg Atralia Delaney would later proclaim that 'homosexualy is the greatt menace facg Atralia', givg Abboud the tle of his podst, and that this danger to society had to be stamped his missn to do so was a climate of hysteria, whipped up by Tth 1954, the racy tabloid ran a story - and wasn't an opn piece, headled 'Shockg male vice mt be wiped out  Sydney'. Reg Downg (above) was the Attorney General rponsible for turng Cooma prison to the world's only gay jail at a time when homosexualy was seen as a threat to society Mol of Cooma prison shows the four wgs for up to 130 mat when the 19th century prison reopened 1957 to exclively hoe men nvicted of 'homosexual crim'HYSTERIA ABOUT 'PERVERTS'The story said: 'Gaol and the lash are the only way to put a stop to shockg homosexual perversn this state before gets out of hand. ' Darcy Dugan, a bank robber and a habual pee known for his hatred of gay mat, told the 1977 Royal Commissn on Prisons that 'homosexualy spread like a disease jails' Profsor Trethowan's fabled report on how to 'cure' homosexualy was never released after he went back to England and the sexologist who died of a mystery illns left illegible notWHIPPING UP FEARA public bate began, wh one doctor suggtg surgery might cure homosexualy, while a prison psychiatrist said was like a disease and 'there is a risk that male love will spread'.

Even late 1977 the so-lled surge of homosexualy prisons was beg examed wh certa mat mandg transfers om Cooma should they fd themselv locked up there Jtice Michael Kirby, above as a young man wh Johan van Vloten, said he was keen not to end up prison simply for beg wh his partner and would not have been ma a judge if had been known 'HOMOSEXUALITY COMMITTEE'Greatt Menace host Abboud unvered an old letter om Downg, boastg that he 'was rather proud of the fact that I was able to have the ernment spend many thoands of pounds on the nversn of the old Cooma gaol to an stutn to which all nvicted or known homosexuals are sent' terviews openly gay former high urt judge Michael Kirby, who speaks kdly of Downg as a iend and 'quiet, gentle, honourable cent man’, but a 'Roman Catholic who adhered to his church’s view, thought he was fulfillg word of God pied statu of the law'. He thought he was fulfillg the word of God Kirby adms as a young man he knew special prisons for homosexual men existed 'where I was keen not to end up' simply for sleepg wh his partner behd closed doors, to where zealots like Delaney extend his force's powers of July 1, 1958, Downg, after whom Sydney's urt plex the Downg Centre is named, tablished a 'homosexualy mtee' to make 'an exhstive scientific vtigatn' to Cooma's mat, subject them to tts and evaluatn.

AARON HERNANZ TEARFULLY TOLD MOM HE WAS GAY BEFORE PRISON SUICI, BROTHER SAYS

Michael Kirby and Johan van Vloten (above) married 2019, but back the 1960s the judge kept his sexualy a secret even though he has spoken kdly of zealot Reg Downg Profsor William Trethowan (above) led the ill-fated homosexualy mtee which failed to produce a report after setback cludg s sexologist leavg behd not that were ‘virtually cipherable’. The Greatt Menace podst was piled by award wng documentary maker Patrick Abboud (above) who explor Sydney's gay history the 20th century The 'homosexualy mtee' head profsor Trethowan was iends wh Dr Harry Bailey (above) whose disastro ep sleep therapy at Chelmsford hospal saw 26 patients dieSECRET REPORT Commtee members ma regular viss to Cooma prison to terview homosexual mat, gettg 350 to plete 30-page qutnnair and 100 to do 'Catell' personaly tts to duce mascule and feme the qutnnair and tts were to be given to ‘normal’ people as a ntrol group, but never were as the wheels fell off the mtee. FOUR 'TYPES' OF HOMOSEXUAL But the herald quiry to homosexualy would never release s fdgs, and March 1963 the Sydney Morng Herald published a story sayg the mtee had only a 'highly secret' terim Herald article anticipated what the report might fd, cludg that 'most homosexual are produced by their environment, not born' and 'often experienced fective relatnships childhood' 'staff rrponnt' thor had clearly been leaked some ntent, sayg other fdgs would clu gay men had a 'lack of balance and affectn fay, lack of socialisatn and often a domeerg mother'.

A tolerant attu towards homosexuals is sadly lackg Also, that 'homosexuals felt sense of isolatn or "apartns" even as young children' and there were 'four very different typ of homosexuals' were the 'adolcent gog through normal stage of experimentatn', the 'practisg homosexual who is a nsentg adult', the 'male prostute' and 'the homosexual who terfer wh young children'. Cooma's prison mm (above) ntas artefacts om the days when mat nvicted of 'homosexual crim' such as buggery were flogged wh the jail lash Dpe beg eezg temperature wter when sever ld onts move through the Snow Mountas town, Cooma prison is ed for celebry mat who need protectnROYAL COMMISSION It also asked if laws uld be changed 'so that homosexualy between nsentg adults no longer be punishable'. In 1973, the publitn Woroni ran a letter om Bob McLeod, cryg Cooma prison as 'an stutn for 'homosexuals or pimps, men who have raped young girls or boys' as well as young men raped heavy jails who need scribed the 'disgt' felt by Aborigal mat who look 'at men kissg the cells at warrs walkg away and upon disverg one male (engaged a sexual act wh) another'.

TELL: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF GAY MEN THE MILARY

Young men are equently raped when they enter jail In 1977, notor crimal Darcy Dugan, a bank robber and a habual pee who had once been sentenced to ath, told Royal Commissn on Prisons that 'homosexualy spread like a disease jails' and that  was cultivated unr 'ial laboratory ndns'. In recent years has hoed so-lled celebry prisoners cludg si trar Oliver Curtis, seen leavg Cooma prison 2017 after a year si A jubilant Jarryd Hayne walks om Cooma prison after his nvictn on a rape charge was overturned FebaryJAIL'S MODERN ERAStrzelecki explas that at least more recent s Cooma fulfilled the need 'for a smaller stutn to hoe prisoners at risk', the son of doctor who went si Cooma prison to treat prisoners, said that if mat who were homosexuals were 'put Long Bay or Goulburn, they would be attacked. There is a need for a prison to hoe mat at risk She said the Cooma was dubbed ‘The Queen Cy of the South’ and the lol knowledge was homosexual prisoners facg parole would 'reoffend and get arrted and go back to their special iend the prison' was known the late 20th century as a prison for 'prits, police, policians and paedophil', or those at risk of beg attacked the general prison populatn.

This paper explor the ways that people volved wh women’s prisons nstcted lbian inty and the queer space of prisons between 1970 and 1980, at a historil moment shaped by the rise of gay and lbian liberatn, send wave femism, and prisoner’s rights movements. Then the women make ugly mocksOf the betiful woman to woman relatnshipTheir imatn [sic] loveIs full of gam that your soul they will ripAnd worst of allThey all sware [sic] they’ve always been gayBut if so, how n they turn love om a rose to a weed? Te lbians were the bt, and the thenticy of someone’s gay inty, as well as the value of their romantic attachments, uld be challenged if they f certa creria: beg mascule, participatg butch/femme relatnships, havg recently adopted a gay inty, havg sual sex, tradg sex for missary, or hurtg someone else the ntext of a romantic relatnship.

TEXAS MAN IS SENTENCED FOR USG DATG APP TO TARGET GAY MEN

Jt as nstctns of homosexual inty rerce the notn of an origal and natural heterosexual inty, nstctns of fluid “suatnal” homosexualy the prison rerce the ia of a universal, born, unchangg “real” homosexual inty that remas outsi of the prison. ” Speakg about the Daddy Tank, an anonymo source om the Stat of Women Commissn of the County Board of Reprentative stated, “the Commissn oppos the assumptn that a whole group of people are dangero bee they ma a life choice that is not a crime” (Cordova, 38) While the source’s scriptn of homosexualy as a “life choice that is not a crime” suggted that had never been crimalized, the crimalizatn of sodomy California had only e to effect on July 1 of the prev year (Eskridge 2008, 200). Darr Reed, 14 and Jefey Lopez, 15 were killed and two others were left for ad but survived… Davis argued he was sexually abed as an adolcent at Beatty mental hospal… he was forced to perform homosexual acts, as an adolcent, wh the olr mat… This ‘affected Davis’ sexual inty, ’ his lawyers said.

WORLD'S ONLY GAY JAIL: HOW MEN WERE SENT TO ONE PRISON TO 'CURE' HOMOSEXUALY

HOMOSEXUALS IN NEW ORLEANS KIDNAP YOUNG BOYS, BRG THEM INTO A GAY NEIGHBORHOOD, HORRIFILLY TORTURE THEM AND SODOMIZE THEM, AND THEN MURR THEM