Making the Modern Australian Homosexual Male: Queensland’s Criminal Justice System and Homosexual Offences, 1860-1954

Abstract

Until a series of law reforms between the 1970s and 1990s, male homosexual activity was a criminal offence in all Australian jurisdictions and subject to severe penalties. This paper is an analysis of 464 cases between 1860 and 1954 from the colony/state of Queensland. The data is organized by offence and broken down into subcategories relating to the regions of Queensland, time periods, 1860-1900 and 1901-1954, the age of the defendant, and the severity of the sentence. The paper is illustrated by fourteen pie graphs. Although there is a growing literature on gay issues, large-scale evidence of the treatment of homosexuality by the criminal justice system is rare, and most previous studies have only sampled the cases preserved in criminal justice records. This ninety-five year span of cases is unique in Australia and unusually detailed by any standards. The evidence indicates that the police carefully chose the possible range of charges to ensure convictions, targeted various age groups, manipulated the evidence, and tried to control the emerging gay subculture. However, the sentences, although still severe were lenient within the possible range, and show that the judges were aware that male homosexuality was not such an “abominable crime”. During the twentieth century, the legal system attempted to understand homosexuality and moderated sentences accordingly. The findings help locate the timing of the emergence of the modern Australian male homosexual, when erotic categories are reorganized, gender and gender roles loose significance for categorizing sexual acts, and sexual object choice becomes detached from gender identity, allowing men to be homosexual while maintaining normative behaviour patterns.