"These Are Just a Few Examples of Our Daily Oppressions": Speaking and Listening to Homosexuality in Australia's Royal Commission on Human Relationships, 1974–1977

Abstract

A u s t r A l i A ’ s r o y A l C o m m i s s i o n on Human Relationships was an initiative of the progressive and social democratic Whitlam Labor government. Instituted in 1974 with the unusually broad terms of reference to investigate “the family, social, educational, legal and sexual aspects of male and female relationships,” it was the first inquiry into such a topic in the world. The three commissioners (Justice Elizabeth Evatt, journalist Anne Deveson, and Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane Felix Arnott) delivered their final report in November 1977 after taking evidence from hundreds of both expert and ordinary Australians on a tremendously diverse array of aspects of intimate life. Framed as a response to social, cultural, and technological change and conducted in the hope of a “better understanding of Australian society and the challenges it is facing,” the commission’s findings offered a wide-ranging analysis of Australian private lives. It made more than five hundred recommendations on a huge array of topics, including sex education, parenting, gender roles, domestic violence, contraception, adoption, and child abuse. Thirteen of these recommendations related to homosexuality. That the report addressed homosexuality at all was testament to the tenacity of gay and lesbian activists who had worked to place gay and lesbian issues on the commission’s agenda through their testimonies and submissions. The commission’s inclusion of gay and lesbian experi-