40th Anniversary of Australia’s ‘turning point’ for LGBT

George DuncanIt was a murder 40 years ago which is noted as the beginning of a process which lead to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Australia. However four decades on campaigners hope the anniversary can be used to highlight the continued discrimination many LGBT people face.

actup.org report that it was the killing of 41-year-old law lecturer George Duncan which lead to homosexual law reform after public outrage generated by the murder.

Duncan was born in London’s Golders Green to parent’s originally from New Zealand he spent a lot of his early years between the UK and Australia in both study and work. It was a return to Australia after a spell teaching at Bristol University that would lead to his untimely fait. In March 1972 he began working for the University of Adelaide in their law school.

Six weeks later he was murdered when his body was found in a river near a meeting point for gay men. Reports suggested that such disregard for the remains of Duncan lead to police ‘restaging’ the discovery of his body for a television crew. It was also suggested that members of the police force may have been involved in the homophobic attack.

Now activists are hoping to use the anniversary to draw attention to the level of discrimination which remains four decades later.

Professor Carol Johnson of University of Adelaide recalled to actup.org, “He was walking near the university footbridge, which also happens to be near a gay beat, when he was attacked” adding, “It had a huge amount of notoriety because of the ongoing suspicion that members of the South Australian police force had been involved in it, albeit that Duncan’s death was unintentional,”

In 1975 South Australia became the first jurisdiction in the country to decriminalise same sex relations.

Activists however believe there is still a lot of work to do. ‘They want the Federal Government to legislate for gay marriage and the state to change laws preventing gay couples from adopting.’ actup.org note.

Ten years ago a memorial was unveiled to remember George Duncan.

 “In memory of Dr George Duncan, whose death by drowning on 10th May, 1972, near here, at the hands of persons unconvicted, precipitated homosexual law reform in South Australia, making it the first state in Australia in 1975 to decriminalise homosexual relations.” The inscription states.

ATV Today’s GLBT team salute and remember you today.