In a short perd of time Atralia's crimal law has shown a dramatic shift perceptns regardg gays and lbians.
Contents:
THE SECRET HISTORY OF ATRALIA'S GAY DIGGERS
* gay history in australia *
In a sense, lonial Atralia was found on homophobia.
It is certa that Phillip, generally regard as a product of the European Enlightment, uld not have forseen that such a society would prise regnised muni of gay men and lbians. After all, the ncepts of homosexualy and ‘the homosexual’ were not to be nceived for another 81 years and gay liberatn lay a further 100 years beyond that.
It is not until the late 19th century that we have evince of the rise of a nascent male homosexual subculture, particularly Sydney. The ‘Cleveland-street prosecutn’ is a reference to a celebrated raid on a London homosexual brothel 1889. This applied particularly to homosexual men.
160 GAY HISTORY TRIVIA QUTNS, ANSWERS, AND FUN FACTS
In the words of historian Garry Wotherspoon, homosexual men were ‘nghty, sick and sful’, and wh regard to the latter, generally rema so.
In 1958, the Police Commissner Col Delaney, a vout Catholic wh secury service nnectns and a homophobic obssn, claimed that ‘homosexualy was Atralia’s greatt menace’. The police force took s cue om the Commissner and the post-war perd saw a crack down on homosexuals, wh police even actg as agents provotr at regnised beats.
The ‘mp’ muny, as homosexual men me to self-intify, referred to them as ‘pretty policemen’ or ‘lily law’. Then, 1969, Ivy’s Birdge opened Taylor Square and that marks the begng of Oxford Street as Sydney’s gay ‘Goln Mile’, as other venu opened durg the 1970s. However, society at large, the stereotype of homosexual men as high-pched, limp-wristed queens persisted.