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

Contents:

• 10 THGS I LEARNED AS A GAY PRISONER BEHD BARS
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• SENT TO JAIL FOR BEG GAY?
• VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• FORMERLY GAY MAN COULD GO TO JAIL AFTER SHARG TTIMONY OF FDG GOD, EMBRACG BIBLE: ‘I DON’T HAVE TO WEAR THAT LABEL ANYMORE’
• THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO JAIL IN ENGLAND JT FOR BEG GAY
• 13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH
• 70 COUNTRI WHERE IT'S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY
• 5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)

10 THGS I LEARNED AS A GAY PRISONER BEHD BARS

Lbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) dividuals are disproportnately rcerated, mistreated and sexually victimized U. 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. " 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. 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.

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

"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.

SENT TO JAIL FOR BEG GAY?

"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.

VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL

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. A 2011 survey om the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN) found more than six 10 LGBT stunts felt unsafe school bee of their sexual orientatn, and more than four 10 felt unsafe bee of their genr exprsn.

It's also possible the laws disproportnately affect LGBT dividuals, sce gay men make up more than half the HIV-posive populatn but 4 percent of the overall male populatn. Supreme Court will ci whether to hear arguments Limon's urt has already agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that hands out stiffer penalti to gays than heterosexuals for mtg sodomy. Hardwick that said the Constutn did not protect the rights of gays and lbians to engage sex the privacy of their the urt also agre to hear the Limon se, the cisns both s uld amount to the most monumental lgs the high urt has issued the area of gay rights certaly sce lgs eher se uld have signifint nsequenc for the legal stat of gays and lbians the Uned Stat, Limon has much more at stake than the platiffs the Texas se.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

Texas, two gay men say the state prived them of privacy rights and equal protectn unr the law when they were arrted 1998 for havg sex a Hoton home.

FORMERLY GAY MAN COULD GO TO JAIL AFTER SHARG TTIMONY OF FDG GOD, EMBRACG BIBLE: ‘I DON’T HAVE TO WEAR THAT LABEL ANYMORE’

Lawrence and another man, Tyron Garner, were held overnight jail and later fed $200 each for vlatg the state's Homosexual Conduct law.

The neighbor was later nvicted of filg a false police stands, though, Limon will have to stay jail until he is 35 years old if the high urt do not overturn the Kansas law that put him issue Limon's se is how Kansas treats gay and heterosexual behavr differently g two different statut. But the legislature cid not to make the statute applible to gay, teens of the same genr engagg the same sexual behavr fall unr the state's crimal sodomy statute, which prohibs sodomy wh a child between 14 and 16 years of age, whout regard to nsent, the offenr's age, or the genr of the participants. Advot of same-sex sodomy laws say the stat have every right to differentiate between homosexual and heterosexual nduct unr the law.

Defendg Same-Sex Sodomy LawsStat have the prerogative to make a moral distctn between homosexual and heterosexual nduct, said Lively, who -thored a brief the Lawrence se support of same-sex sodomy laws.

THIS IS WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO GO TO JAIL IN ENGLAND JT FOR BEG GAY

Gay dividuals have no grounds for an equal protectn challenge bee they are not siarly suated as heterosexuals, he said. In the rerdg leaked earlier this week, the Chigo rapper appears to claim he’s gay to law enforcement officers an effort to secure a cell transfer while servg time jail.

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. 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.

13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH

He scribed a lany of btal rap, asslts, beatgs and, eventually, the total abandonment of his male inty as his only means of survival the hyper-mascule and often homophobic prison environment. His acunt suggts that far om beg a paradise, prison for gay men n be a livg days of his first enterg prison, the 23-year-old Rodney claimed he was the victim of three separate sexual asslts, volvg five different mat. 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. Jails are trmatizg and often dangero plac, pecially for lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people, and anyone who is genr nonnformg.

Available at: 6 Angela Irve, We’ve Had Three of Them: Addrsg the Invisibily of Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Genr Nonnformg Youths the Juvenile Jtice System, 9 Colum.

70 COUNTRI WHERE IT'S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY

An ex-LGBT activist reportedly fac potential prison time after sharg his ttimony of leavg behd a gay liftyle to follow Christ. “I did m my life to J Christ and ’s been an awome journey of jt growg this new inty and life, ” he said, notg how his fah also led him away om a gay liftyle. I had never heard homosexualy addrsed om a pulp before, but I was really challenged and I remember jt really wantg to be the will of God.

He said he realized, “What society lls gay, I don’t have to wear that label anymore … When I unrstood that, hope filled my heart … heavs left my body. “They wanted to unrstand why I view sexualy differently as a Christian, and why I would do such a thg … jt leavg and forsakg homosexualy altogether as an inty practice, ” Grech said.

5 SAFT PLAC FOR GAY TRAVELERS IN 2019 (AND THE MOST DANGERO)

He is old now – 81 – but the events of his youth, when Bra hated gay men, still is 50 years this month sce the laws forbiddg sex between men were overturned England and Wal – laws that led to the nvictn of World War II breaker Alan Turg, the rceratn of Osr Wil, and thoands more jailed like Biddlebe. It would be another before people ed the word “gay” to mean anythg other than happy, and another 15 before sex between men beme law agast “buggery” – as the offence was known – dated back to 1533, but 1885, the related offence of “gross cency” was add, outlawg any sexual ntact between such, the law did not only mean jail; s impact sd out, ntrollg and suffotg: an all-pervasive prison. Turg subsequently killed Biddlebe served his sentence, a report was beg prepared that would beg the procs of overturng four centuri of legal opprsn agast gay Wolfenn report, as beme known, was missned by the Conservative ernment, and prised a mtee of experts, led by Lord Wolfenn, who nducted terviews wh people affected by the laws.