Leaders from Bendigo’s legal and health services have welcomed premier Daniel Andrews’ apology to men convicted of homosexual crimes as another step towards equality for the queer community.     

Before Victoria decriminalised homosexuality in 1980, hundreds of men were fined and imprisoned for having consensual sex with each other, often as a result of police entrapment. 

Mr Andrews today said the fault for these laws lied with the parliament, and acknowledged the effects their persecution had on LGBTI Victorians.   

“The government invalidated their humanity and cast them into a nightmare,” he said.

“For decades we were obsessed with the private mysteries of men and so we jailed them, we harmed them, and in turn they harmed themselves,” he said.

Bendigo Community Health Services chief executive officer Kim Sykes described the premier’s speech as powerful, especially his assertion that “equality is not negotiable”. 

“We also believe in fairness and hold a deep aspiration of everyone being treated equally and with respect,” she said.

“We look forward to a world without prejudice and see strong statements from people in power such as the Victorian premier as important to achieving true change.”

ARC Justice executive officer and lawyer Peter Noble called the parliamentary address a “significant act of justice”, and also acknowledged the efforts of former premier Dennis Napthine under whom legislation to expunge gay men’s convictions was introduced.    

“Taking this moral responsibility is the flipside of celebrating some of the best achievements in our history – like the ANZAC spirit or the evolution of modern Australia.” 

“The premier embodied the truism that taking pride in one’s country or one’s past or one’s people also requires that we bear a moral burden for the wrongs of that people.”

He likened yesterday’s apology to the one former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered to the Stolen Generations in 2008, explaining it did not suggest a personal guilt for the suffering of other people, but contrition it ever happened. 

But in his speech, the premier warned threats to the freedom and safety of LGBTI Victorians remained. 

“There is so much more we need to do to make things right,” Mr Andrews said.

Friends Alike Bendigo – Central Victoria co-ordinator Jakob Quilligan was glad for the Premier’s concession, saying it would take time to rebuild faith between his community and the police, but he was hopeful about the future for same-sex attracted, sex and gender diverse Victorians. 

“Here at home it seems like we have the opportunity to pave the way to a future of equity before law and our society alike,” Mr Quilligan said.