New South Wales Prime Minister Chris Minns will issue a formal state apology to people convicted under historic laws that made homosexuality a given crime until 1984, when discriminatory laws were abolished.
Mr Minns will address the House of Commons at 12.15pm on Thursday, where he will apologize ‘unreservedly’ to people affected by the laws.
He will also “acknowledge and (express) deplore the role of the NSW Parliament in “enacting laws and endorsing policies of successive government decisions that criminalised, prosecuted and harmed people on the basis of their sexuality and sex‘.
NSW is the latest state to issue an apology, eight years behind Victoria and South Australia who formally apologized in 2016.
The motion will also acknowledge the trauma felt and endured by the LGBTQIA+ community, their families and their loved ones.
Labor leader in the Legislative Council Penny Sharpe, the first lesbian to serve in the NSW Parliament, and the state’s first lesbian minister, will make a similar apology in the House of Lords at 2pm.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns will issue a formal state apology to people convicted under historic laws that made homosexuality a crime (photo, Sydney Mardi Gras 2023)
Mr Minns (pictured) will address the House of Commons at 12.15pm on Thursday, where he will apologize ‘unreservedly’ to people affected by the laws
More than a dozen of the 78ers who marched in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras will attend the apology, as will prominent Sydney gay rights activist Robert French.
Jill Wran, the wife of former Labor Prime Minister Neville Wran who oversaw the decriminalization of homosexuality, will also be in the NSW Parliament. Mr Wran died in 2014.
Ms Sharpe said Thursday’s motion will be an ‘opportunity to thank those who fought for change’.
“A formal apology from the state to those who have suffered under the laws criminalizing homosexuality recognizes the harm done to many and acknowledges that it was wrong,” she said.
The NSW government’s apology comes two days before the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1984, which ultimately decriminalized homosexual acts.
Labor Leader in the Legislative Council Penny Sharpe (pictured), the first lesbian to serve in the NSW Parliament, will deliver a similar apology in the House of Lords at 2pm.
NSW was the fourth jurisdiction to overturn discriminatory laws, after South Australia, the ACT, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
This was years after Sydney’s first Mardi Gras on June 24, 1978, which resulted in the violent arrest and imprisonment of several protesters who would become known as the 78ers.
Former Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet was criticized for resisting a formal apology ahead of Sydney hosting WorldPride in 2023.
