Justice Michael Douglas Kirby’s achievements are impressive. The High Court Justice and articulate and outspoken gay advocate has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia, a Laureate of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education, the Prix Yves Pelicier of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health and has been named amongst Australia’s ‘Ten Most Creative Minds’, ‘Top Ten Public Intellectuals’ and ‘Hundred Most Influential Australians Ever.’ When Justice Kirby speaks, people listen. This month, we were fortunate enough to have him speak to OUTinPerth.

Justice Kirby was born in Sydney and educated through the public school system. Following school, Kirby attended Sydney University, where he excelled, graduating with degrees in Arts and Economics and a Masters in Law. Admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1967 Kirby rose through the ranks and was appointed to the High Court in 1996.

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Although never really in the closet, Kirby put his relationship with Johan van Vloten officially on the public record in 1998 and has been a vocal proponent of gay rights ever since. Kirby sees this advocacy as a natural extension of his role as a Justice.

‘Judges in court have a proper function to declare the common law and to decide the operation of the Constitution and Acts of Parliament. In doing so, they have a necessary “active role”… The whole history of the common law of England, as we have adapted it in Australia, has been one of active judicial pursuit of individual liberties and freedom.’

Most recently, Kirby attracted attention for his call for an apology to the gay community for past sodomy laws.

‘It was a response to criticism, from some of the usual media suspects, suggesting that I should apologise for being in a relationship with my partner at the time that homosexual acts were a criminal offence. I suggested that this was like saying that Nelson Mandela should apologise for… breaching the racist laws during the apartheid days. When the law changes, it is sometimes appropriate to provide apologies to those who were oppressed by the old law,’ he explains. ‘More important than apologies, however, are practical measures that remove the discrimination in the law books. Fortunately, this is now happening in our country, slowly but surely.’

Kirby is cautiously optimistic about the Federal Government’s proposed reforms.

‘The reforms, if adopted, should not only remove personal inequalities for citizens from sexual minorities, they should enhance self-respect and human dignity, which is the right of every individual in a society like Australia’s.’ Furthermore, Kirby says, ‘Future generations will look back in astonishment at the past discrimination, just as we do today to the previous legal discriminations against Aboriginals, women and Asians in Australia.’

In Kirby’s view, law reform is just the beginning. ‘Further reforms are needed for transgender and intersex people,’ he says, continuing, ‘To reform the law is one thing. To secure changes in social attitudes is another. To win changes in the attitudes of organised religion will be an even bigger challenge because of past interpretations of religious texts. The Dalai Lama once told me that even Buddhist religious texts have been interpreted to present difficulties for full acceptance of homosexuals. He appeared to indicate that this was something painful for him as he acknowledged that many supporters of the Tibetan people in the United States were gay.’

As problematic as he sees some of the views espoused that are held by organised religion, Kirby isn’t quick to judge, drawing on his human rights expertise.

‘Some religions, believing that they are the living embodiment of God, cannot accept the possibility that they may not have the entire truth. However, if we are all to live together in this rather small planet, we must ensure that freedom of conscience is respected and freedom of religion, or freedom to have no religion, are accepted and respected as basic civil rights. Drawing the line in particular cases will sometimes be difficult. But that is what one has to do all the time in the law.’

And as delicate as the balancing of conflicting viewpoints may be, it is clear that Kirby sees it as crucial to Australia’s future.

‘Changing attitudes may be difficult; but it can be done. In my lifetime, I have seen changes of attitudes towards Aboriginals, women and Asian and other non-‘white’ races in Australia. There is a big difference between ‘tolerance’ (a most condescending word) and ‘acceptance’. It is acceptance that we should work towards. I have a feeling that we in Australia are in an important cross-roads in the evolution of acceptance of difference and diversity in our society. I hope that this will come about and we must all do whatever we can to promote acceptance and to grow out of infantile attitudes that insist that people must all be exactly the same.’

If there is a man who can help Australian society evolve, one gets the feeling that it may very well be Justice Michael Kirby.