Victoria, AU No Gay Records
I didn’t know this, but up until 1981 there were “gay” crimes in Australia and gay people were arrested and convicted for having gay sex. This all ended in 1981, but evidently the criminal records of those who were prosecuted were not erased. These criminal records held a great deal of significance and those who were convicted were not allowed to do things like travel freely or volunteer or apply for teaching jobs.
And now, over thirty years later, Victoria has become the first state in Australia to expunge these records.
Under the policy, anyone with a historical conviction for an offence relating to consensual homosexual acts would be able to apply to have their conviction expunged, provided the offence is not a crime under current legislation. Convictions for non-consensual sex or sex with a minor will remain.
The number of arrests and prosecutions that took place before homosexuality was decriminalised is not known although the number is estimated to be in the thousands as gay men were ”witch-hunted” or entrapped by police at the time.
This brand of entrapment mentioned above is still happening today in the US, only in different forms and I don’t want to get into that right now in detail. But I have known more than a few gay men who have been entrapped by police and for fear of being exposed in public they never said a word to anyone about it. They don’t have to arrest you just for being gay. There are other ways to do it and they can be very clever about it. If you don’t get this, picture a great looking young guy walking around alone in a state park sending strong, visual sexual signals to an older gay man. But the great looking young guy is really a cop luring/baiting the older gay man in order to entrap him and arrest him on grounds similar to disorderly conduct. In some small towns it’s a sport for local cops, and most of the gay men who are targeted this way are not in positions to fight back. So they pay a steep fine, take the humiliation quietly, and pretend nothing ever happened. I had one friend who had something similar happen to him in Griffith Park in LA and when he told me the story in detail once I was horrified.
Michael Fassbender on Gay Marriage
In 2012 I wrote a post about a film, Shame, which starred Michael Fassbender. This is what I wrote back then:
In any event, the main character in “Shame” is a sexual addict. And there are a few full frontal nude scenes with Michael Fassbender that I didn’t expect. I think those scenes were handled well with respect to the theme of the film, and also necessary in a film like this. But I’m not reviewing “Shame” here. I’m only reviewing Michael Fassbender’s full frontal scenes. And Fassbender gets five big gold stars for this one just on full frontal alone. He’s truly one of the more “gifted” actors in Hollywood in this department. In fact, it’s hard to forget these scenes long after you’ve seen them.
Fassbender was recently interviewed and asked how he feels about gay marriage in the US.
‘I’ve always thought it was a bit crazy that it wasn’t allowed. It’s so weird, bizarre,’ Fassbender said Saturday (11 January) as he arrived at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles Tea Party.
‘I totally favor it,’ he said of gay marriage being made legal.
You can read more here. And I recommend Shame to anyone interested in an intense drama that revolves around a sex addict looking for something he may or may never find. And, there are several excellent music scenes, too. No spoilers. But there’s much more to this film than Fassbender’s full frontal scene.
Photo Attribution, click on the photo above.