src president’s report src president’s report Ana Obradovic ~ SRC President
At the time of writing, it is 50 years since Adelaide Uni Law Professor George Duncan’s death at the hands of police. The officers, members of SA’s “vice” squad – a notoriously anti-gay section of the police force – were never convicted. At the time, an astonishing level of homophobia was enshrined in law. Police powers were so expansive that they could search a house without a warrant on suspicion of two men sharing a bed. They brutalised gay men with impunity as attempts to seek justice would see the victim incriminated instead. A leaflet, published by Melbourne Uni’s Gay Liberation group in 1973, asked: “Are homosexuals protected by the police? - you must be joking. We need to be protected from the police.” 10
George Duncan’s murder sparked a campaign for gay rights that resulted in the decimalisation of homosexuality in South Australia, the first state in the country to do so. Activists agitated on the university campuses, set up a new organisation – the Gay Activists Alliance – and, in defiance of antigay laws, published a gay rights newspaper, “Boiled Sweets”. On the 15th of September 1973, activists held their very first Gay Rights march in Adelaide. Public outcry, led by Adelaide students activists and reverberating onto campuses across Australia, was crucial in both pushing and justifying Don Dunstan’s gay law reform. The fightback caused such a
