By Tom Wilson
SYDNEY — The gay community here is closing ranks to defend itself against a McCarthy-style witch-hunt by a royal commission which is supposed to be investigating police corruption.
Former Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras president Susan Harben and leading barrister Richard Cobden have both described the commission, headed by Justice James Wood, as "homophobic and fascist".
Wood has slandered the entire gay community, even suggesting, for example, that Darlinghurst gay saunas existed and operated for the entrapment of under-age boys.
Counsel assisting the commission, Patricia Bergin, has made no secret of her intention to use anomalies in the law to persecute gay men. In NSW, the age of consent for gay men is 18, compared to 16 for heterosexuals. Bergin asserts on this basis that any man aged over 18 who has a consenting sexual relationship with a 17-year-old man should be pursued as a paedophile — even though such a relationship would be perfectly legal for two people of opposite sex.
Gay activists accuse the commissioner of having a hidden agenda of trying to link male homosexuality to paedophilia, even though the vast majority of cases of paedophilia are known to occur within the family, usually involving girls being sexually abused by male relatives.
The royal commission coincides with the systematic vilification of prominent NSW civil libertarian John Marsden by some sections of the media. Marsden, who is openly gay, vigorously denies the unsupported allegations made against him on two recent television programs.
At first sight, it is difficult to understand what the connection could be between homophobia and institutionalised police corruption in NSW. But there are some clues.
The commission was set up reluctantly by the minority Fahey government in 1994, after sustained pressure from independent MP John Hatton. Within weeks of the beginning of hearings, an embarrassing number of witnesses from both the police force and the criminal underworld offered to roll over in exchange for indemnity. Evidence started appearing about drug trafficking and deals in high places. The trail of institutionalised corruption led higher and higher.
The last straw appeared to be the commission's attention turning towards the 1994 unsolved murder of former ALP MP John Newman. Newman was well known for his uncompromising campaigns against police and political corruption. Just as some very interesting questions began to be asked, this line of inquiry was inexplicably dropped. Instead, and with all the appearance of a diversion, the commission suddenly turned its attention to paedophilia.
Before long, the commission's work had extended to an attack on the gay community in general. This line appears based on the argument that because all male homosexuality in NSW was illegal before 1984, anyone engaging in gay sex before then might have corrupted police.