Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 18:43:04 +0100 From: skolander@bahnhof.se (Bjoern Skolander) (by way of ilga ) Subject: ILGA EMAIL ACTION #96:4: Australian Age of Consent Action If you want to support this action (#96:4), please follow the instructions below. You can join other list members in an easy-to-participate email/fax action, or respond individually by faxing your letters of protest to the authority stated below. Best regards, Bjoern Skolander ILGA e-mail action support coordinator actions@ilga.org HOW TO JOIN THE EASY-TO-PARTICIPATE IN E-MAIL/FAX ACTION: 1. Address your mail to: actions@ilga.org 2. Write your NAME, ADDRESS (snailmail), etc in the body of the message. 3. The letter of protest with all signatures will be faxed on November 18, 1996. Please post your participation before that date. 4. You can also respond individually by faxing or posting your own letter of protest to the authority stated below. ***************************************************** ILGA EMAIL ACTION #96:4: AUSTRALIEN AGE OF CONSENT ACTION SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer Wilson GAY MEN PORTRAYED AS PAEDOPHILES DUE TO CURRENT AGE OF CONSENT LAWS IN NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA BACKGROUND: A Royal Commission (investigation) into Police Corruption in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, has been going for about 18 months. Around 10 months ago, it was asked to look at paedophilia, especially in relation to public official and police corruption. What it has actually done is look at sex between men, consensual in virtually every case, and often involving 17 year olds with 25 year olds. One of the definitions used by the Royal Commission is that paedophila is when sex occurs with a man under the age of consent (currently 18 for gay men in NSW, 16 for everyone else). Not only is this definition ridiculous, it lets the media take the easy way out of portraying all gay men as paedophiles/ all paedophiles as gay men. CURRENT ACTION: The Judge in charge of the Royal Commission, Justice Wood, has been asked to make a recommendation to the government on whether the age of consent should be changed (equalised) as part of this proceeding. (Why they think gay=paedophilia is beyond me!) The government of NSW recently indicated that they were not planning on considering any changes to Age of Consent until the Commission's report (and recommendation) was issued. It now appears that pressure from right wing sources on the Royal Commission is making Justice Wood think that maybe no change is the best change. ACTION REQUEST: We want people to write letters to Justice Wood (via the State Government of New South Wales) pointing out that Australian has a good record on human rights and is a signatory to International Conventions regarding the same. Point out that the Federal Goverment in the recent case in Tasmania upheld the issue of human rights and equality of treatment. The current discrimination in NSW singles out gay men for discriminatiry treatment and needs to be changed. With all the other advances in legal issues in NSW, this law is archaic. Voice international support for equality in age of Consent in all countries of the world, asking Australia to stand by its past commitments. Letter should be sent to: Justice James Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service C/- Jeff Shaw, Attorney General New South Wales Parliament Parliament House Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA Thanks Jennifer Wilson PS: In your personal letters you might wish to state that an equal age exists in a majority of Council of Europe countries. And that the average age of consent in Europe is 15 years. Bjoern Skolander Email action coordinator