A History of Humanists and LGBT+ rights in Australia
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The story of LGBT+ rights in Australia did not begin with a Pride March or a gay organisation. It began in a humanist meeting room.
In the 1960s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense across Australia and no LGBT+ group could legally exist, it was humanists and rationalists who first organised publicly to campaign for law reform. They surveyed gay men, published booklets, held public meetings, wrote to politicians, and put the case — in print and in person — that the law must be separated from religious morality. The history below traces that hidden beginning and the remarkable decades that followed.
December 1966 — The first issue of the Australian Humanist magazine is published. It includes an article by Beatrice Faust on human rights in Australia, arguing for the separation of law from religious morality — and including what is believed to be the earliest published call for homosexual law reform in Australia. At this time, no LGBT+ organisation can legally exist anywhere in the country.
1969 — Members of the Humanist Society of Victoria and the Rationalist Society of Victoria prompt public debate on homosexual law reform. The Humanist Society surveys 100 homosexual men and publishes The Homosexual and the Law — a pamphlet setting out the case for reform — distributed to every Member of Parliament. This is the earliest known distribution of pro-LGBT+ reform material to Australian parliamentarians.
Mid 1969 — The ACT Homosexual Law Reform Society is formed in Canberra — one of the first gay rights organisations in Australia, itself inspired by the earlier humanist campaigns of the 1960s.
Late 1960s — In New South Wales, the Humanist Society of NSW forms a homosexual law reform subcommittee. Lex Watson joins as a member — his first involvement in what will become a lifetime of LGBT+ activism. Around the same time, Lex writes on homosexual law reform for the Australian Humanist magazine, one of the earliest such articles in Australian print.
1970 — The Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) is founded by John Ware and Christabel Poll — Australia’s first openly homosexual organisation. Lex Watson is a foundation member. The humanist movement has helped create the conditions that make CAMP possible.
January 1970 — The Daughters of Bilitis Australia is formed in Melbourne — one of Australia’s first gay rights organisations, and the first specifically for lesbians. Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis are among its founding members, having exchanged wedding rings in July 1970 despite same-sex marriage not being legally recognised.
October 1970 — Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis become the first lesbian couple to come out on Australian national television, appearing on ABC’s This Day Tonight. Phyllis loses her job as a result, and her mother takes legal action to prevent her from claiming her inheritance. Their courage helps make the emerging lesbian movement visible to Australians for the first time.
1971 — Dennis Altman publishes Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation — described as the first serious intellectual analysis to emerge from the gay liberation movement, published in seven countries.
Victoria’s first openly organised homosexual group, Society Five, is also formed this year, quickly establishing its own law reform subcommittee. Some of its earliest participants were earlier involved in the humanist campaign.
October 1971 — Lex Watson organises the first gay rights demonstration in Australia — held outside Liberal Party headquarters in Ash Street, Sydney.
1972 — Lex Watson and Sue Wills become co-presidents of CAMP. Together they challenge the psychiatric profession’s use of aversion therapy and psychosurgery against gay people. Also in 1972, Ken Lovett participates in a gay liberation demonstration in support of Peter Bonsall-Boone, who has been dismissed from his position after coming out on ABC television.
Early 1970s – The Humanist Society of Victoria announces that it is stepping back from leadership of the campaign in order to allow emerging LGBT+ rights groups to assume control, though humanists commit to continued support of the issue.
October 1973 — The Australian Parliament passes a motion in favour of decriminalising homosexual acts between consenting adults. The Australian Medical Association removes homosexuality from its list of illnesses — two months before the American Psychiatric Association does the same. This vindicates the work of Lex Watson and Sue Wills, who had directly challenged the psychiatric profession’s treatment of gay people since 1972.
1975 — Don Dunstan, Premier of South Australia, a humanist and bisexual man, achieves the first homosexual law reform in Australia — decriminalising consensual sexual activity between men and establishing an equal age of consent. South Australia becomes the first jurisdiction in Australia to achieve this landmark. Barry Jones introduces the first parliamentary move towards homosexual law reform in Victoria the same year, though the bill does not proceed.
24 June 1978 — The first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras takes place. Ken Lovett is among the 78ers — those who marched and were arrested. His distinctive handmade placards and banners become a feature of demonstrations for decades to come.
1980 — Lex Watson and Craig Johnston co-found the Gay Rights Lobby in NSW. By December of the same year, Victoria finally decriminalises homosexuality under the Crimes (Sexual Offences) Act 1980 — fifteen years after humanists first raised the issue publicly.
1983 — Bob Brown, publicly avowed atheist, environmentalist and gay rights advocate, is elected to the Tasmanian Parliament. During his ten years in the lower house he introduces private member’s bills for gay law reform — among the earliest such bills in any Australian parliament. He is arrested and jailed for environmental protests the same year. Later, as a Senator, he campaigns for marriage equality and opposes Howard’s 2004 amendments to the Marriage Act. In 2010 he is named Australian Humanist of the Year.
July 1983 — As HIV/AIDS begins devastating the community, Phil Carswell co-founds the Victorian AIDS Action Committee in Melbourne — later renamed the Victorian AIDS Council and now known as Thorne Harbour Health — serving as its founding president. Phil later recalled those early days: “Looking ahead, we thought we could see a tsunami was coming. What we failed to understand was that it wasn’t a tsunami; it was a whole climate change.”
In the same year, Lex Watson co-founds the AIDS Action Committee in Sydney — later the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON) — and serves as its founding president. The two men later serve together as the gay community’s representatives on NACAIDS, the body that finances the controversial Grim Reaper advertising campaign — a campaign that proceeds despite their objections.
1994 — Ken Lovett and Mannie de Saxe co-found the Sydney Park AIDS Memorial Groves (SPAIDS) — a living and loving memorial to those lost to HIV/AIDS. By 2008, over 8,000 trees have been planted and more than 1,200 people commemorated.
12 February 1995 — Olive Zakharov — Australian Labor senator, Australian Humanist of the Year 1984, and lifelong LGBT+ ally — is struck by a car while crossing St Kilda Road after leaving Midsumma, Melbourne’s LGBT+ arts and culture festival. She dies on 6 March 1995. The Senate sits for over two hours to hear condolence motions.
1997 — Homosexuality is finally decriminalised in Tasmania — the last Australian state to do so — following a landmark United Nations ruling secured by Tasmanian activist Rodney Croome.
2013 — Georgie Stone, aged 10, mounts a successful petition to the Family Court of Australia, becoming the youngest person in Australia to receive hormone blockers. Her case sets a precedent that changes the law for transgender children across the country. In 2021 she is named Young Australian Humanist of the Year.
2017 — Australia votes Yes in the marriage equality postal survey. Same-sex marriage becomes legal in December 2017.
December 2026 — The 60th anniversary of the first issue of the Australian Humanist magazine. Rainbow Humanists launches its census campaign, inviting LGBT+ Australians to mark No Religion — connecting the 2026 census to the founding moment of 1966, and honouring the humanists who first carried the torch for LGBT+ equality in Australia.
Sources and further reading: Graham Carbery, “Towards Homosexual Equality in Victoria,” La Trobe Journal, May 2011 · Graham Willett, Living Out Loud: A History of Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia · Geoff Allshorn, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Humanist Blog, 2021 · Australian Queer Archives · Humanists Australia