Tasmania gay marriage

It's only 25 years since being gay stopped organism illegal in Australia

The overdue s were tough for Rodney Croome. Aged in his 20s and not long after coming out as gay, he decided to become an LGBTIQ+ advocate in his residence state of Tasmania.

I discovered then, that because I was gay, I lived in a police state, he says.

He recalls going to a gay people meeting and learning not to use his surname as police informants could be hidden within the group. He was also told police could be waiting outside to insert attendees&#x; car registration plates to their so-called pink list .

Tasmania's state law at the time still criminalised homosexuality, meaning sex between men was punishable by more than 20 years in prison. The remain of Australia had decriminalised it.

Police attending a homosexual law reform stall at Hobart's Salamanca Markets in Source: AAP / Roger Lovell

The last time a person was charged with homosexuality offences in Tasmania was the mids, Mr Croome says, but the law was still used as a justification by the government and oth

Tasmania marks 25 years since decriminalisation of homosexuality

Members of Tasmania's LGBTQI+ community tell the state has come a "very long way" in the 25 years since becoming the last jurisdiction in the country to decriminalise homosexuality.

Key points:

Until May 1, , sex between two consenting men in Tasmania was illegal
The maximum penalty was 21 years in jail, which was the harshest penalty in the western world
Members and advocates of the LGBTQI+ community say things have improved significantly, but there is still work to be done

The Greens introduced legislation to repeal the anti-homosexuality laws, which passed the Upper Home on May 1, by just a single vote.

One of the key campaigners was Rodney Croome, who felt ashamed about being Tasmanian, "as did many other fair-minded Tasmanians."

"There was a terrible stigma attached to being gay, womxn loving womxn, trans,"

Mr Croome said.

"There were members of parliament who called for the death penalty [to be] reinstated. Some of them wanted the government to pay for one-way tick

Same-sex victory celebrated one year on, as Tasmania's gay community heals after 'hateful debate'

As a symbol of just how far Tasmania has come on the issue of gay rights, the similar civic centre where an anti-gay rally was held 29 years ago has just last month hosted the wedding of a lesbian couple.

The wedding of Trish Bock and Sally Marks at Ulverstone's Civic Centre in October was described as "a cleansing".

ABC News footage of a society meeting at the centre, where about people attended to vote on the prospect of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania, revealed a majority of the crowd vehemently opposing the move.

In the same news report, then-Tasmanian Labor premier Michael Field tells an ABC reporter the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the declare was "not a high priority" for his government.

Timeline: Decriminalising homosexuality

The years between first and last Australian states decriminalising male homosexuality.

It would be another nine years before Tasmania would get the last Australian jurisdic

Australia is progressing towards LGBTIQA+ equality. In we voted for it. But the backlash to that progress poses a serious threat. The question before us is how do we continue to make progress despite the backlash?

From Bigots Island to the Rainbow Isle

Thirty years ago, my article for the first edition of the Human Rights Defender explained a ground-breaking appeal I was involved in to the UN Human Rights Committee against Tasmania’s then laws criminalising gay intimacy with up to 21 years in gaol.

That appeal was ultimately successful. It gave us a platform to seek federal legislation and a High Court verdict against the offending mention law, it gave the Commonwealth Parliament a mandate to prohibit anti-LGBTIQA+ discrimination, and it set a precedent for decriminalisation in other countries from Belize to India.

The Tasmanian UN decision has played a critical role in LGBTIQA+ emancipation. But it would be wrong to attribute change in Tasmania and elsewhere solely to that decision. Its ramifications possess been greatest where there was already a community-based campaign in place.