What was the National Homosexual Conference?
The 1970s was a time of change for homosexual rights in Australia. Early years reflected the progress of general liberation movements during the 1960s: politically-minded Gay Liberation superseded the somewhat more conservative Campaign Against Moral Persecution in 1972, and a national Gay Pride Week was held in 1973.[1] However, change began to stagnate in the mid-1970s.[2] The community was splintering into political and gendered factions.[3] Public debate about decriminalisation was at a high: public surveys and a national government vote supported decriminalisation, but this would not be carried out at the state level until September 1975 (South Australia) at the earliest, with Victoria decriminalising in 1980.[4]
At the 1975 Annual Conference of the Australian Union of Students (AUS), delegates took a major stance against anti-homosexual discrimination.[5] One of their most significant decisions was the organisation of a National Homosexual Conference (NHC), aiming to bring together homosexuals from across the political and geographic spectrum of Australia to discuss the nature of oppression and means of liberation. Organised by the Homosexual Conference Collective, NHC was held at Melbourne University on August 16 and 17, 1975. It consisted of four Plenary sessions where attendees presented discussion papers around four key themes, a Speak Out where anyone could present, and several Workshops of smaller groups to discuss targeted concerns. NHC advertised itself as “homosexual territory”, making explicit the identity of those who were involved despite the possible public contention around the issue.[6]
[1] Frank Bongiorno, The Sex Lives of Australians (Melbourne: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd., 2012), 260-8; Graham Willett, Living Out Loud: a history of gay and lesbian activism in Australia (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 2000), 108-10; and Robert Reynolds, From Camp to Queer: Remaking the Australian Homosexual (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002), 140-2.
[2] Michelle Arrow and Mary Spongberg, “Living in the Seventies,” Australian Feminist Studies 22, no. 53 (2007): 159-61; Bongiorno, The Sex Lives of Australians, 268-7; Reynolds, From Camp to Queer, 142-57; and Willett, Living Out Loud, 111-4.
[3] Reynolds, From Camp to Queer, 142-57; Geraldine Fela and Hannah McCann, “Solidarity is Possible: Rethinking Gayand Lesbian Activism in 1970s Australia,” Australian Feminist Studies 32, no. 93 (2017): 325-6; 329; and Bongiorno, The Sex Lives of Australians, 268-70.
[4] Willett, Living Out Loud, 111.
[5] Graham Willett, From Camp to Gay: the homosexual history of the University of Melbourne 1960-1976 (Melbourne: History of the University Unit, 2001): 4-5; and 27-30.
[6] Laurie Bebbington et al., “Statement of the Homosexual Conference Collective,” in Papers and Proceedings: First National Homosexual Conference, eds. Laurie Bebbington et al. (Carlton: Melbourne State College, 1975), 4.