Australia once inspired immigrants like me, now it’s time for leadership in this country again.
As a gay man living in Britain in the early ‘90s, life was tough. Just a few years before, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher had enacted Clause 28, banning “the promotion” of homosexuality.
The law applied to local government authorities but it underpinned what seemed like a society-wide ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ mentality. It wasn’t quite illegal for me to hold my lover’s hand as we walked down the street, but the open hate and aggression it caused by was just as bad.
I needed to leave and I moved to Sydney because it seemed more liberal and free. Australia held out the promise that I would be accepted for who I really am.