Case for gay rights to go to UN

October 23, 1991
Issue 

By Tom Flanagan

HOBART — In the wake of the rejection of gay law reform by the upper house of state parliament in July, the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group (TGLRG) has announced that it will takes its case directly to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in December.

TGLRG spokesperson Rodney Croome said his group was liaising with the federal Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to put together a cast-iron case against Tasmania's anti-gay laws.

A TGLRG member will put the case to the UN in December. Human rights lawyers suggest that a positive outcome is likely.

This will put pressure on the federal government to legislate under external affairs powers to overturn Tasmania's laws governing gay sex.

Since the federal government isn't legally bound by the ruling, the mobilisation of public opinion, to add to the pressure on the government to act, will be important to the success of this strategy in achieving gay law reform.

Once the case has been lodged it is likely that the committee will take about six months to decide whether it is admissible, and then about a year to make a decision.

The Human Rights Committee relies on precedents established by the European Court of Human Rights, which has ruled that laws similar to Tasmania's (Ireland's) violate the right to privacy.

The Tasmanian submission will probably rest on three grounds — the right to privacy, the right to equality under the law and the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of sexuality and sexual preference.

The TGLRG has been engaged in struggle to have the rights of gay men and lesbians accepted in Tasmania since October 1988, when the Hobart City Council banned their stall at the city's Salamanca market. The TGLRG won this battle when the city council backed down.

Immediately following the 1989 state election, the Liberals tried to destabilise the prospects for an accord between the Greens Independents and Labor by using the prospect of gay law reform to whip up anti-gay hysteria.

The conflict and debate have also had an impact on the Christian community in Tasmania. Many Uniting Church parishioners and in some cases whole congregations have left the church over its support for gay law reform.

Following the signing of the Labor-Green accord, the task facing the TGLRG was to convince the Greens and the ALP to act on their commitment to gay law reform. In response to a decriminalisation bill tabled by the Greens, gay law reform measures were eventually included in the government's HIV/AIDS bill, a display of moral cowardice on the which clearly finds AIDS a more politically expedient issue that the human rights of gay men. The bill was eventually passed with the Liberals opposed.

When reform reached the notoriously conservative Tasmanian upper house, there was hysterical "debate" on the bill, including calls for the jailing of lesbian and gay activists, deportation of all lesbians and gay men from Tasmania and the reintroduction of the death penalty for homosexuality.

The TGLRG has always combined the campaign for law reform with public action to confront, engage, and educate those with homophobic attitudes.

Lesbian and gay visibility has been an important part of the TGLRG's agenda, and the law reform campaign has provided a framework that has enabled the group to target those who oppose sexual self-determination.

An indication of the success of the persistent efforts of the group is given by two opinion polls. The first, just before the beginning of the Salamanca campaign in 1988, showed 31% support for gay law reform. Three years later support stands at 48%, with 45% opposed.

By taking its case to the UN, the TGLRG will not only make Tasmania's anti-gay laws the focus of world attention, but will also maintain a very useful platform from which to continue to highlight aspects of society which systematically oppress lesbians and gay men.

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