*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
23rd
September 2009 Email to all
-----
Original Message -----
From: John
Frame
To: Every individual Member of
Parliament in Queensland
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:42
PM
Subject: ABC online "Unleashed"
article 10/9/09 re Qld age of consent reform by John
Frame
To: _________
___________, MP ___________
From: John Frame, 82 Main Avenue Wavell Hts
4012 Ph: 07 3350 1562
jvframe@ozemail.com.au www.queerradio.org/AgeOfConsent.htm
Dear Geoff,
You will be
aware of the many efforts I have made since early 2000 to convince the
Queensland Government that it should enact a truly equal age of consent at 16.
I bring to your attention the following article written by myself which
was published last week, 11th September 2009, on the ABC's
"Unleashed" discussion forum:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2681136.htm
Unleashed presents diverse and robust opinion
about politics, society, belief and behaviour.
10 September
2009, 11:30
The age of consent
I am confident that most
people consider the health and welfare of youth to be of utmost importance. I
am equally confident that one of the all-time least desirable topics for public
discussion is anal intercourse.
However, for the sake of the health and well being of many youth in
Queensland is the only state or territory in Australia which has a "sodomy
law" - a law which defines a higher age of consent at 18 for homosexual
male intercourse than for heterosexual intercourse and other consenting sex
(which is 16). The severe penalty for any offender is up to 14 years
imprisonment.
Equal age of consent reform is necessary so that same-gender attracted youth
can expect to be protected and supported by the law in true equity with their
heterosexual peers and siblings. I believe that loving parents would want all
of their children to be treated with equity, and to have the best possibility
of living long, healthy, loving and productive lives.
The current law validates those who wish to oppress homosexual youth and serves
to reinforce institutionalised homophobia, leaving
same-gender attracted youth at dramatically increased risk of harassment,
abuse, depression and suicide. They may also face increased risk of HIV
infection through reduced self-esteem and the impeded delivery of duly
inclusive sexual health education.
The Sodomy Law is not about limiting homosexual activity for altruistic
societal benefit – it is purely about bigotry based on the unreasoned fear of
the reality of love between two people of the same gender, and the fact they
can share love in every way as deeply, sincerely and passionately as can a man
and a woman.
In 2008 La Trobe University conducted a national survey
of Year 10 and 12 students which they published in August 2009 in the report Secondary
Students and Sexual Health 2008.
Their results show seven per cent of young men reporting a same-sex partner in
their most recent sexual activity, and at least 25 per cent of young men
reporting that they have ever engaged in intercourse.
So if these national averages hold true, then perhaps up to two per cent of 16
and 17 year old male
So why does
In 1990 the Goss Labor Government met its commitment to Fitzgerald Report
recommendations by appointing a Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee to
hold public hearings and report on the decriminalisation
of male-to-male sex. Peter Beattie was the Committee Chairman and in the
October 1990 Report he declared his support for the first eight of the nine
majority recommendations.
Recommendation seven was that:
"The age of consent for homosexual acts in accordance with the principles
of sexual equality and anti-discrimination be the same
for males as it is for females, irrespective of whether the sexual act is
heterosexual or homosexual."
The scandal is that this was the only majority recommendation which was not realised in the November 1990 Bill. Hansard
shows that not one word was spoken about this Section in the passing of the
Bill.
Labor did make just one attempt to set things right. Their 1995 Revised
Criminal Code included a truly equal age of consent at 16, but it was repealed
in 1996, just before its date of effect, by the incoming Borbidge
Nationals. The 1899 Code was reinstated – with the term "anal
intercourse" changed to "sodomy", the minimum age raised to 18
and the maximum penalty doubled.
Getting rid of the Sodomy Law is a potentially emotive issue, because there's a
long and tragic social history of prejudice and bigotry linked directly to the
act of anal, rather than vaginal, intercourse.
Why won't the Bligh Government enact equal age of consent reform when
Queensland Labor's official Policy Platform in Section 7.9 of the Justice and
Governance Chapter states: "7.9 Labor will ensure uniformity of age among
laws relating to the age of consent for lawful sexual activity"?
Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth has stated:
"The current provisions of the Criminal Code that impose different ages
when people can lawfully participate in sexual intercourse are not consistent
with the objects of the Anti-Discrimination Act. These laws discriminate on the
basis of sexuality. The Anti-Discrimination Act requires that everyone should
be equal before the law – and that includes equal benefit of the law, without
discrimination. I support the removal of the provisions that discriminate against
same sex attracted young people."