The Tasmanian parliament is expected to pass legislation today that will create a scheme that provides for compensation for people who impacted by the state’s former laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing.
Tasmanian LGBTIQA+ rights advocate Rodney Croome and legal expert Professor Paula Gerber spoke about the legislation on ABC News Breakfast this morning.
Professor Gerber helped shape the redress bill, while Croom led the campaign for government action before expunging previous convictions.
Professor Gerber noted that as Tasmania was the last place to decriminalise homosexuality, not changing the laws until 1997, which meant those affected by the laws were more likely to still be alive and much younger than in other states.
“There was so much resistance to basically doing what the rest of Australia was doing and recognising that humans have a diversity of sexual orientations. It took a case to the United Nations in Geneva before finally, kicking and screaming, they agreed that they would no longer criminalise same-sex sexual conduct.” Professor Gerber said.
Rodney Croome said life for gay men in Tasmania before 1997 could be pretty difficult.
“They ceased tov be used in the 1980s,” Croome said of the laws against homosexuality. “Before that gay men were sometimes dragged before the Supreme Court, they were sentenced to jail, they were fined, some were sent to mental institutions to try to ‘treat’ their homosexuality.”
Croome also noted that even after the laws ceased to be enforced on a regular basis, they were still used to justify discrimination against the LGBTIQA+ communities.
“It was a pretty regressive place Tasmania, back in the 1990s.” Croome said, before noting that the state now has some of the progressive laws in Australia and around the world.
Both Gerber and Croome said the scheme likely being introduced in Tasmania today would provide a blueprint for other states to adopt.
Professor Gerber noted that there are still 65 countries in the world that criminalise homosexuality and when countries such as Australia take action it also sends a message on a global scale.
Tasmania’s scheme will see people who were convicted of homosexual offences be eleigable for three tiers of compensation depending on whether they were charged, convicted and what sentence they received. The scheme will see people getting payouts between $15,000 – $75,000 depending on people’s circumstances.
