Terminology
The word ‘homosexual’ causes some members of the current LGBTQI+ community discomfort due to its association with the pathologising of identity. However, it was the term used throughout NHC’s promotional material, speaker papers, and personal letters as a way of identifying NHC attendees, thus I have used it throughout the site for people who were/are same-sex attracted.
At NHC, ‘homosexuals’ explicitly included people attracted to multiple genders, as bisexuality was, for example, a topic in the first plenary session.[1] It did not, unfortunately, include individuals we would now identify as transgender.
[1] Lyn James, “Bisexuality: Structure of a paper to be presented,” in Papers and Proceedings: First National Homosexual Conference, eds. Laurie Bebbington et al. (Carlton: Melbourne State College, 1975), 10.