page_title: LGBT rights in Australia
section_title: Decriminalisation
hierarchical_section_title: LGBT rights in Australia / Legality of same-sex sexual activity / Decriminalisation
caption_attribution_description: Gay Solidarity Group supporters march from Circular Quay to Hyde Park to protest the Briggs Initiative, which would effectively ban gay and lesbian teachers in the US state of California. Courtesy Tribune / SEARCH Foundation Call number: ON 160/Item 0385 Digital ID: FL4369488 Format: negative Find more detailed information about this photograph: archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110369632 Search for more great images in the State Library's collections: archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/home From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales www.sl.nsw.gov.au
context_page_description: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Australia have advanced since the late-twentieth century. LGBT people in Australia are legally protected from discrimination and have largely equal rights and responsibilities at law.
  Australia is a federation, with most laws affecting LGBT and intersex rights made by its states and territories. Between 1975 and 1997, the states and territories progressively repealed anti-homosexuality laws that dated back to the days of the British Empire. Since 2016, each jurisdiction has an equal age of consent for all sexual acts. All jurisdictions offer expungement schemes to clear the criminal records of people charged or convicted for consensual sexual acts that are no longer illegal.
  Australia legalised same-sex marriage on 9 December 2017. States and territories began granting domestic partnership benefits and relationship recognition to same-sex couples from 2003 onwards, with federal law recognising same-sex couples since 2009 as de facto relationships.
context_section_description: In October 1973, former Prime Minister John Gorton put forward a motion in the federal House of Representatives that "in the opinion of this House homosexual acts between consenting adults in private should not be subject to the criminal law". All three major parties were given a conscience vote, and the motion was passed by 64 votes to 40.
  However, Gorton's motion had no legal effect as the legality of homosexuality was a matter for state governments. Over a 22-year span between 1975 and 1997, the states and territories gradually repealed their sodomy laws as support for gay law reform grew.
  South Australia was the first jurisdiction to decriminalise male homosexual activity on 17 September 1975, with the Australian Capital Territory's decriminalisation, first proposed in 1973, approved by the Fraser Federal Government with effect from 4 November 1976. Victoria followed on 23 December 1980, although a "soliciting for immoral purposes" provision added by conservatives saw police harassment continue in that state for some years.
  Other jurisdictions to decriminalise male homosexuality were the Northern Territory (effective 4 October 1983), New South Wales (22 May 1984) and (after four failed attempts) Western Australia (7 December 1989). In exchange for decriminalisation, Western Australian conservatives required a higher age of consent and an anti-proselytising provision similar to the United Kingdom's section 28, both since repealed.
  Queensland legalised male same-sex activity with effect from 19 January 1991 after the long-standing Nationals government had lost power.
  The Tasmanian Government refused to repeal its sodomy law, which led to the case of Toonen v Australia, in which the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that sodomy laws violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Tasmania's continued refusal to repeal the offending law led the Keating Government to pass the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994, which legalised sexual activity between consenting adults throughout Australia and prohibited laws that arbitrarily interfered with the sexual conduct of adults in private.
  In the 1997 case of Croome v Tasmania, Rodney Croome applied to the High Court of Australia to strike down the Tasmanian anti-gay law as inconsistent with federal law; after having failed to have the matter thrown out, the Tasmanian Government decriminalised homosexuality on 1 May 1997, becoming the final Australian jursidiction to do so.
caption: November 1978: Gay Solidarity Group supporters march in the Sydney CBD to protest the Briggs Initiative, which would have effectively banned gay and lesbian teachers in the U.S. state of California.
exif: {}