Hobart City Council Apology: 20th anniversary Tasmanian Gay Law Reform Group's stall Salamanca Market 1988

This apology was offered by the Hobart City Council through Lord Mayor, Rob Valentine, at a civic reception at Hobart Town Hall on December 10th, 2008.

Tonight we pay tribute to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex citizens of our great city, as well as their families, friends and supporters.

We acknowledge their contribution to the life of our city, to its diversity, its prosperity, its culture and its values of friendliness, acceptance and equity.

Tonight we reflect on the prejudice and discrimination that many GLBTI people, their family, friends and supporters have endured. We also acknowledge the commitment of those who have defended the rights of GLBTI people.

Twenty years ago in September 1988 the Hobart City Council prohibited a gay law reform stall at Salamanca Market. This led to the arrest and banning from the Market of gay law reform stall supporters who were ordered by Council representatives to leave and who refused.

We acknowledge that there were members of Council at that time who believed what they did was right. But looking back at the discrimination, the pain that was caused to everyone involved, and the prejudice that was fostered in the wider community, the Council has now resolved that it will apologise.

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Equal Citizens in a Just Land: a response to the Hobart City Council Salamanca apology

This response to the Hobart City Council Salamanca arrest apology was given by Rodney Croome on 10.12.08.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been asked to respond to the apology we have just heard from the Lord Mayor.

I found this response one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to compose.

Reflecting on what happened 20 years ago raises many strong and conflicting feelings.

On the one hand I acknowledge and applaud the sincerity of the Council. It genuinely wishes to make amends for its actions, heal the wounds of the past, and build a more inclusive city on the basis of its apology.

I also recognise how historical this moment is. Never before has a public authority in Australia offered an apology for breaching the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and our supporters. It shows how profoundly Tasmania has changed since 1988.

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'Trespass'

What follows is the text for TRESPASS: a 20th anniversary photographic exhibition of the 1988 Salamanca Market arrests

TRESPASS is an initiative of the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group with the support of the Gay and Lesbian Community Centre and the Hobart City Council GLBTI Community Liaison Committee.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Hobart City Council, curated by Roger Lovell, and will be officially opened by former arrestee, Richard Hale, at 5pm on Wednesday December 10th.

The organisers would like to thank the Mercury newspaper, Doug McGregor and Roger Lovell for permission to use their images.

The majority of photographs in the exhibition were donated to the TGLRG. If you know or are one of the photographers, or if you have any photographs or memorabilia associated with the Salamanca arrests, please contact Roger Lovell 0419 202 548.

All historical information and direct quotes in this exhibition leaflet are from Pink Triangle: the gay law reform debate in Tasmania, by Miranda Morris (UNSW Press, 1994).

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Myths and facts about same-sex marriage

~ Same-sex marriage is a untried social experiment that undermines traditional values and heterosexual marriage.

- Same-sex marriage has been in existence for long enough, and in places sufficiently comparable to Australia, to make it clear that the dire predictions of its opponents are groundless.

- Studies have shown that the legal recognition of same-sex marriage does not affect rates of heterosexual marriage.
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Same-sex marriage: key quotes

The right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right compared to which the right to attend an integrated school, the right to sit where one pleases on a bus, the right to go into any hotel or recreation area or place of amusement, regardless of one's skin or color or race are minor indeed. Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the (US) Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to `life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' ... and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs.

Hannah Arendt, 1959
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