" we had church leaders pushing our case. "The Government called us a 'ratbag minority' trying to lead the silent majority somewhere they didn't want to go," Dr Hodge said. Money delegated by the Federal Government to the council had been "streamed off" by the NT Health Department and used "for its own purposes", Dr Hodge said. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were among those campaigning for equal rights in the NT in the 1990s. It would prove a catalyst in more ways than one, and according to Dr Hodge, a "green light" for the Northern Territory Government to treat gay men and those with HIV "with contempt".įaced with mounting attacks, the queer community responded to the global crisis with a local AIDS council - a tiny office run on a shoestring in the heart of Darwin.ĭespite an increasingly hostile Territory Government, it lobbied for the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation that would ensure protections against discrimination on the grounds of sex and sexuality. He couldn't work, he was turned away from restaurants, he couldn't go into the local swimming pool." 'The silent majority were no longer silent'
"The first man diagnosed with HIV in the Territory, his details were leaked by the health department to the media. They were seen as the intentional carriers of this virus, who were setting out to infect innocent gay people and children," Mr Hodge said.
Until 1983, about a dozen men were convicted of committing homosexual acts in the Northern Territory, some of whom were not aware they had even been charged, according to NT Attorney-General, Natasha Fyles.īut it was the AIDS crisis some years later that would see a marked turn in the political rhetoric, and a treatment those who lived through it want leaders to reflect on.
They'd become social pariahs if their same-sex love was revealed." "People were excluded from employment, evicted from their accommodation. "People were being charged by police, but that was only one branch," Dr Hodge said. In the NT Library archives, articles on homosexuality are placed next to paedophilia ( ABC News: Bridget Judd) It was the 1980s, and while political attitudes in the Territory may have gradually shifted in favour of decriminalising homosexuality, social attitudes had not. 'Colleagues were saying they should all be killed'Īustralian gay history academic and activist Dr Dino Hodge still recalls the day a co-worker refused to use any kitchen utensils he had touched. Though its significance varies, LGBTI people and advocates alike agree: the Northern Territory's gay history and the intergenerational legacy of "homophobic" public policy should not be forgotten. For others, it's merely the start of a broader conversation. Today, Chief Minister Michael Gunner attempted to right historical wrongs, expunging historic gay sex convictions and offering the first formal apology to the LGBTI community.įor some, it is symbolic a sign of solidarity. Though it is difficult to pinpoint just how many people were affected by laws criminalising homosexuality in the NT, for those who lived through it, the impact remains more than three decades later. Though jarring, it is in many ways an apt reflection of a bygone era.įor years, it was a term levelled at the Territory's gay and lesbian community, decried as sexual deviants and social pariahs. Tucked away in the Northern Territory Library archives, articles about homosexuality are placed alongside abhorrent cases of paedophilia.