From: George Heard <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 May 94 18:44:25 EST

Reprinted without permission from the Mercury May 20, 1994.

BATTLE LOOMS ON GAY LAWS - GROOM PLEDGES FIGHT

   The Federal Government is certain to move to quash Tasmania's anti-gay
laws - and the state is set to respond with a High Court challenge.
   The looming showdown follows a visit to Hobart yesterday by Federal
Attorney-General Michael Lavarch, who has vowed to take the matter to Cabinet
within six weeks.
   After meeting Mr Lavarch, Premier Ray Groom and Attorney-General Ron Cornish
are sticking to their resolve to maintain the state's ban on homosexual acts
despite Mr Lavarch suggesting two "soft option" alternatives to scrapping the
laws.
   He said the State Government could either repeal sections 122 and 123 but
insert a strong preamble to keep the educative effect of the law, or amend
the law so that homosexual acts in private were excluded from the ban.
   Mr Lavarch said the state shared a responsibility with all the other states
to maintain human rights.
   "If you look at the position that every other state has taken - be it
Labor or Liberal governments - that it's not appropriate for police to be
looking into people's bedrooms to see what sort of sex they're having, then
that's not an unreasonable conclusion that could also be reached by the
Tasmanian Government, he said.
   Mr Groom said he would fight the Commonwealth on the issue.
   "In our view this is a matter totally for the people of Tasmania and the
Government of Tasmania," he said.
   "It has nothing at all to do with the United Nations or the Commonwealth.
We will not allow any interference from outside the state. That's our
position." If necessary the State Government would fight the Commonwealth
in the High Court but there was some doubt as to how the matter could get to
the High Court.
   "It could well depend upon someone being charged under the relevant section,"
he said.
   Gay activist Rodney Croome said he hoped to see gay law reform by the end
of the year.
   "We have two tasks ahead of us," he said.
   "The first is to ensure that Cabinet supports Mr Lavarch's initiative
and the second is to confront and defuse any inflammatory states' rights
campaign that may be whipped up by the Tasmanian Government."
   He said Mr Cornish was ignorant of the law if he believed recent
statements by gay activists confessing to gay sex in private were not
sufficient basis for prosecution.

Laurie 8 <[email-masked]> | Some Driveways are concrete
Theoretical Chemistry PhD student        | Some Driveways have bricks
University of Tasmania, Australia        | Other Driveways
Unashamed 70s man, glad to be glam.      | Have Pebble-Mix - Laurie 8         
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