BY ALISON DELLIT
It would be easy to think, watching Channel 10's ever-so-hip coverage of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, that homophobia in Australia was in retreat. But the March 12 attack, under parliamentary privilege, by cabinet secretary Senator Bill Heffernan on High Court judge Michael Kirby provided a quick jolt back to the real state of things.
Heffernan's accusation that Kirby used a commonwealth car to solicit male prostitutes, one of which was under 18, has helped the Howard government neatly sideline attention from Governor-General Peter Hollingworth's mismanagement of sexual abuse cases while he was archbishop of Brisbane. It has also diverted attention from the mess the government found itself in after the "children overboard" scandal. The attack has discredited a High Court judge who has supported progressive legislation — such as land rights for Indigenous Australians.
Improper use of a commonwealth vehicle — which Kirby denies (and has previously been investigated and dismissed by police) — is not the most heinous crime on the books. But Heffernan is relying on homophobic prejudice and suspicion to smear Kirby, and damage his standing and thus his ability to continue as a judge.
Heffernan used one of the oldest tricks in the book — arguing that gay judges are susceptible to blackmail because gay sex was illegal in NSW until 1984. How Kirby would be subject to such blackmail was not explained. Since 1999, he has listed his male partner in Who's Who, and noted that the relationship pre-dated 1984.
The "blackmail" charge is just a cover for what Heffernan believes, and seeks to convince others, is Kirby's real crime — being gay. Heffernan's most revolting smear is the implication that Kirby is unfit to judge paedophiles, because as a gay man, he is one.
Arguments that gay men are likely to abuse children have been a staple of the homophobic lobby since the US anti-gay-and-lesbian-teacher campaigns of Anita Bryant in the 1970s. The "moral crusaders" who seek to push gay men and lesbians back into the closet with this accusation have never been deterred by the simple fact that it is untrue.
Like many homophobic organisations, in the past Heffernan has cited psychologist Paul Cameron's research, published in 1984 and 1985 in the US journal Psychological Reports, to argue that most paedophiles are gay. Cameron, however, proceeds from the assumption that all male-to-male sexual abuse and assault is perpetrated by gay men — regardless of the perpetrator's adult sexual orientation. His circular argument is that male paedophiles who abuse boys are gay because they abuse boys.
According to US Department of Health statistics, three-quarters of childhood sexual abuse victims are girls. Although it is overwhelmingly men who abuse boys, studies by paediatric researcher C. Jenny, published in Pediatrics in 1994 found that less than 2% of abusive men are gay.
Jenny's findings broadly supported those of A. Groth and H. Birnbaum published in Archives of Sexual Behaviour 1978, who found that none of the 175 paedophiles they studied were gay. While they found 13% were bi-sexual, all of these had a primary sexual attraction to women. In comparison, 40% were heterosexual. The remainder were attracted exclusively to children.
An Australian review of literature on the subject, published by Nathanial McConaghy in 1998 in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, concluded: "The man who offends against pre-pubertal or immediately post-pubertal boys is typically not sexually interested in older men or women."
But Heffernan has not even accused Kirby of sex with children. He has accused him of sex with teenagers old enough to have heterosexual sex, but not gay sex. In NSW, the age of consent for gay men, 18, is two years older than for heterosexual people.
A differential age of consent law, which Heffernan supports, is based upon, and reinforces, homophobia. Heffernan's evident disgust with older gay men who have sex with young men is loaded with the belief that the young men are being "corrupted". This view is just a step away from Bryant's hysterical claims that "the homosexuals are recruiting our children".
The concern of the homophobes like Heffernan is not for the healthy sexual development of teenagers. It is that no more people become gay — that teenagers who are attracted to men are convinced to "suppress" this attraction and isolated from contact with openly and happily gay people.
Of course, nobody could argue that working as a teenage street prostitute — whether the teenagers are male or female — is a "healthy" and safe way of exploring sexuality.
The young men who work the "Wall" in Sydney's Darlinghurst, are generally homeless, often drug addicted, and frequently desperate. Many end up at the Wall as a direct result of persecution because of their sexual orientation. According to the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria, gay and lesbian teenagers are nearly three times as likely to be homeless as heterosexual teenagers, and more callers to the Kids Help Line are referred to the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service than anywhere else.
Thousands of gay and lesbian young people are stranded by homophobia every year — kicked out of home by their parents, or too scared to raise the issue of their sexuality, they have few options. It is extremely difficult to get access to young homeless' allowance without parental confirmation that the young person is not welcome at home. Since many parents argue that children are welcome — provided they abandon their sexuality — many gay and lesbian young people are left with no support at all.
Heffernan's attack on Kirby does nothing for gay and lesbian young people. By reinforcing stereotypical, and untrue, ideas about gay men, he encourages exactly the sort of attitudes that drive young people into prostitution, drug addiction and suicide.
From Green Left Weekly, March 20, 2002.
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