*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
From the website of Queer
Radio, the gay & lesbian
Community Radio program on 4ZZZ
fm102.1 in
Homosexual law reform history in
(The hyperlinks go to
government sourced Adobe
Acrobat pdf files)
In 1990, following electoral promises of sweeping
social reforms in line with the recommendations of The Fitzgerald Inquiry (that
were long overdue in our famously “redneck” state), the newly installed Labor
Party Government, led by Premier Wayne Goss, established a Parliamentary
Criminal Justice Committee (PCJC) to report on “Homosexual Law Reform”. With
(current Premier) Peter Beattie MP as Chairman, the PCJC called for submissions
and held hearings on 6th
August 1990 and 7th
August 1990 at which notable local Gay Community representatives and
professionals presented. Also speaking were religious conservatives who
vigorously opposed law reform. The PCJC’s
Report was “laid on the table of the Legislative Assembly” in October 1990.
It is important to note that the October 1990 PCJC Report on Homosexual Law Reform had
strongly recommended the full equalisation of the age
of consent at 16 years for sexual activity and consequently full equal
treatment under the law. However, in November 1990 the “Criminal Act And
Another Act Amendment Bill”, amending the 1899 Criminal Code, which was
presented to Parliament by Labor's Attorney General Dean Wells, actually
proposed the amendments to declare anal intercourse illegal for anyone
"not an adult" under Queensland Criminal law (meaning someone not yet
17 years of age). There was no comment or debate from either side of Parliament
to justify inclusion of the proposed higher age. The Criminal Code And Another Act Amendment Act No
93 of 1990 therefore
passed into law a higher minimum age of at least 17 for anal intercourse.
As per http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/CURRENT/C/CriminLwSexOA78.pdf
(page 15):
Criminal Code and Another Act
Amendment Act 1990 No. 93
date of assent
commenced
The Attorney General's Bill had also
proposed the inclusion of a “preamble”
to the legislation stressing that the “decriminalisation”
of homosexual sexual activity did not mean that Parliament should be seen to
either "approve or condone" homosexuality. Mr. Peter Beattie MP had
stated in the October 1990 PCJC Report on Homosexual Law Reform
that such a preamble was an unnecessary, potentially obstructive legislative
move with only negative legal aspects.
The
Preamble does read like an insulting apology for enacting reform,
however it also clearly states one key reason why it was enacted at that
time - and that's the very real threat of HIV/AIDS, closing with: "AND WHEREAS rational public health policy is undermined by
criminal laws which make those who are at high risk of infection unwilling to
disclose that they are members of a high risk group". It is
appalling that they got away with passing legislation which allowed the health
of 16 and 17 year olds to be undermined by this very Criminal Law.- especially
16 and 17 year old same sex attracted youth who are at high risk of infection
and who have been made unwilling, by this law, to disclose that they are
members of a high risk group.
The public was never informed about the
reason for the higher age to consent regarding anal intercourse, nor was it
clearly explained that other male to male sexual acts were legal for those aged
16 and over. The “preamble” served to
bolster the ensuing official silence in promoting the false impression that all
male to male sex for those under 18 was not only undesirable but also quite
possibly illegal. Even today very few people (maybe 1 in 5 from my experience)
know the true interpretation of the law regarding age of consent and legal
sexual activity.
An opportunity to get rid of our
state’s Sodomy Law was missed when a bi-election in 1996 resulted in a Liberal/National
Party dominated Government which repealed a Labor-formulated June 1995 complete revision of the Criminal
Code. That Revised Criminal Code would
otherwise have taken effect in June 1996, and it is important to note that it contained no higher age for any particular
sexual activity – ALL sex involving a person aged
under 16 years was to be clearly illegal.
Several months later the Borbidge Government then pushed through their Criminal Law Amendment Act 1997 (Act No 3 of 1997) - which received "Assent" on 3rd April 1997. This Act extensively amended many areas of the 1899 Criminal Code to reflect National Party sentiments - including anti-homosexual attitudes. In Sections 208 & 209 they replaced the term “not an adult” with a defined minimum age of 18 (up from 17 in the 1990 Act). They also doubled the maximimum penalty, to 14 years imprisonment, and changed the legal term of the offence from “unlawful anal intercourse” to “sodomy”. There was absolutely no debate or objection by the Labor Party Opposition regarding this part of the Bill. Therefore there was also no attempt to establish a definition of the meaning of the term “sodomy” under Queensland Law, or to question the minimum age of 18.
On 29th November 2002 Queensland
Parliament passed the Discrimination
Law Amendment Act 2002 which reformed a wide range of areas in the Queensland
Ant-Discriminition Act 1991 such as couples
(whether same sex or de-facto), including transgenders
(“gender identity”) and “sexuality” in protection under existing
Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Vilification legislation, and also included
amendments to stop schools being able to hire and fire based purely on
sexuality or marital status. Age of consent was not an issue raised in this
Bill.
An
opinion which has been unofficially and indirectly expressed to me is that
reform is not likely to come voluntarily from this Government, and that
suitable grassroots lobbying by youth themselves (those least empowered by the
law) would be necessary in order to help convince the Government that action is
both justified and urgently needed.
-
John Frame (8th May 2006).
Last updated