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

Contents:

• EXPOSG THE SHOCKG PLAN BEHD ATRALIA’S GAY PRISON
• COOMA JAIL: PRISON THAT WAS ONCE 'WORLD'S ONLY JAIL FOR GAY MEN'
• ATRALIAN MAN SENTENCED TO 9 YEARS PRISON FOR GAY AMERIN'S 1988 MANSLGHTER
• ATRALIAN MAN SENTENCED TO 9 YEARS PRISON FOR GAY AMERIN'S 1988 MANSLGHTER
• KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO
• VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL
• MAN ARRTED NOTOR 1980S KILLG OF GAY AMERIN ATRALIA
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• COOMA JAIL'S DARK PAST CLUS BEG WORLD'S ONLY 'GAY PRISON', PODST REVEALS
• ‘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”

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. “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. 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.

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

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.

ATRALIAN MAN SENTENCED TO 9 YEARS PRISON FOR GAY AMERIN'S 1988 MANSLGHTER

And here Atralia, the seeds of were planted that gay prison Cooma. 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.

ATRALIAN MAN SENTENCED TO 9 YEARS PRISON FOR GAY AMERIN'S 1988 MANSLGHTER

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.

KG VON TELLS POLICE HE'S 'GAY' IN RURFACED JAIL VIO

"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. "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".

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

' 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.

MAN ARRTED NOTOR 1980S KILLG OF GAY AMERIN ATRALIA

"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.

You may also be terted :Media ptn, How Atralia's first gay imam is 'savg liv'.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

SYDNEY -- An Atralian man who admted killg a gay Amerin by punchg him off a cliff top Sydney 1988 was sentenced on Thursday to ne years prison, endg the victim's fay’s 35-year battle for Phillip Whe, 52, had plead guilty the New South Wal state Supreme Court to Los Angel-born Stt Johnson’s had plead guilty last year to the then-27-year-old’s murr — a greater crime — and had been sentenced to more than 12 years prison.

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

A send roner’s quiry 2012 uld not expla the ath and a third quiry led 2017 that Stt Johnson had been attacked by an unknown assailant or assailants bee he was perceived to be homosexual.

‘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”

“That was a break the se, ” Steve Johnson Johnson's mpaign for his brother helped trigger a state ernment quiry to historic police difference toward gay hate crim and more than 100 unsolved aths om the mid-1980s until the early Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans ngratulated Steve Johnson, whom he nsirs a “good iend, ” on his mpaign.