Hunting Gays and Lesbians in the Australian Defence Force, 1974-92
Abstract
The Australian military had longstanding bans on gay and lesbian service from the Boer War until November 1992. Even so, policies and practices towards suspected and confirmed gay and lesbian service personnel changed over time. From 1974, regulations and public statements regularly said that suspected gays and lesbians should be “treated sympathetically and with discretion.” Yet, testimonies of dismissed gay and lesbian Defence members from the 1970s and 1980s suggest that military police rarely acted in such a manner. Instead, military police services engaged in so-called witch-hunts and practices of surveillance, intimidation, interrogations and even spying on members or particular establishments. Using oral histories and military documents, this article analyses the disconnects between policy, rhetoric, practices and public awareness about witch-hunts and the persecution of Australian lesbian, gay and bisexual service personnel from 1974 until the 1992 repeal of the ban.
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