LGBT rights in Queensland

LGBT rights in Queensland
Queensland (Australia)
Same-sex sexual activity legal?	Always legal for females; legal since 1990 for males
Gender identity/expression	Gender on birth certificate can be changed if certain preconditions, including SRS, are satisfied
Discrimination protections	Yes (since 2002 under state law and 2013 under federal law)
Family rights
Recognition of relationships	Civil partnerships (February–June 2012; April 2016–present) Registered relationships (June 2012–March 2016)
Restrictions:	Same-sex marriage prohibited under federal law since 2004; see Same-sex marriage in Australia
Adoption	No (foster parenting allowed)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) residents in the Australian state of Queensland have some of the same rights as other non-LGBT Queenslanders. Private consensual sex between adult males has been legal since 1990, while lesbianism has never been criminalised. Sexuality and gender identity as protected attributes under both Queensland and federal Australian anti-discrimination laws. Same-sex partners can register their relationship with the state registry, with marriage expressly reserved under federal law for opposite-sex couples since 2004. Same-sex couples cannot adopt children, but they can be foster parents. They can also use altruistic surrogacy and lesbian couples can access IVF in order to have children.

Queensland has a reputation as Australia's most socially conservative state and as a result LGBT rights have historically been politically polarised - the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party have supported the decriminalisation of homosexual sex and anti-discrimination protections since 1981, while the socially conservative Liberal National Party of Queensland has been more hostile.

Laws regarding homosexuality

As with other British colonies, Queensland originally derived its criminal law from the United Kingdom. This included the prohibition of "buggery" and "gross indecency" between males. Similarly to the United Kingdom, lesbian behaviour was never criminalised under Queensland law.

The release of the Wolfenden Report in the United Kingdom in 1957 marked the beginning of a change in official attitudes in the Anglosphere, with its recommendation that homosexuality be decriminalised. Homosexual sex was legalised in England and Wales in 1967.

While other states in Australia began to liberalise their anti-homosexuality laws in the 1970s and 1980s, Queensland was ruled by the socially conservative National Party of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. His government refused to countenance changes to the law, describing gay people as "child molesters" and "perverts". At this time government policy was uniformly hostile; the Education Department refused to hire the openly gay teaching graduate George Weir and in 1985 the government passed an amendment to the Liquor Act making it an offence for publicans to serve alcohol to "perverts, deviants, child molesters and drug users" or to allow them to remain on licensed premises. The Bjelke-Petersen Government intended that the law allow publicans to refuse entry to homosexuals.

The anti-homosexuality laws were enforced by police throughout the 1980s, including against men who were in same-sex relationships and were not aware that their private conduct was illegal. National Party politicians of the time such as Queensland minister Geoff Muntz and federal leader Ian Sinclair made their anti-gay views well known, with the latter claiming that the Labor Party's failure to condemn homosexuality was helping the spread of the newly discovered HIV.

The first major public demonstration in favour of decriminalisation occurred on 31 August 1989, when several hundred people demonstrated outside Parliament House in Brisbane. The protests arose after five men from Roma were charged with a variety of anti-homosexuality offences. At the time the maximum penalty for "sodomy" was seven years in jail. Opinion polls published by The Bulletin during that era suggested that while a majority of Queenslanders did not support equal rights for gay people, they thought that private homosexual conduct between consenting adults should be decriminalised.

Decriminalisation of male same-sex activity

The Fitzgerald Inquiry was commissioned in the late 1980s in Bjelke-Peteresen's temporary absence, following allegations of corruption and misconduct in the Queensland Police. The inquiry subsequently investigated the entire system of government. One of its recommendations was that a newly established Criminal Justice Commission review the laws governing voluntary sexual behaviour, including homosexual activity.

This proposal was an issue in the 1989 state election. National Party leader Russell Cooper, whose party was heavily implicated in corruption by the Fitzgerald Inquiry, tried to galvanise socially conservative support using his party's opposition to the legalisation of homosexual conduct. During the election campaign he claimed that his party's corruption was a "secondary issue" to moral issues like abortion and homosexuality, adding that the then-Opposition ALP's policy of decriminalisation would send a "flood of gays crossing the border from the Southern states". These advertisements were satirised by Labor ads depicting Cooper as a wild-eyed reactionary and a clone of Bjelke-Petersen and/or a puppet of Nationals party president Sir Robert Sparkes. Cooper's party was defeated in the election.

Following its victory, the new ALP Government led by Wayne Goss commissioned the recommended review into the legality of homosexuality. That review recommended that homosexual offences be removed from the state's Criminal Code and that the age of consent for private consensual conduct be 16 years for both homosexual and heterosexual conduct.

Goss' government largely implemented the changes in the Criminal Code and Another Act Amendment Act 1990, which was passed by the parliament on 29 November 1990. However, a truly equal age of consent was not implemented. Queensland’s age of consent is 16 for oral and vaginal sex. By contrast, anal intercourse, or "sodomy", involving any person aged under 18, whether male or female, is a criminal offence, punishable with up to 14 years imprisonment. Patterson described this as a "pragmatic political response" to the objections of religious lobby groups, who largely equated homosexuality with sodomy.

Queensland is the only state or territory in Australia which does not have a truly equal age of consent. In August 2015, the state government announced it was referring the proposal to equalise age of consent laws relating to anal intercourse to an expert panel of the Queensland Law Review Commission.

Historical conviction expungement proposal

Following moves by South Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and New South Wales to expunge the criminal records of men who had been convicted of conduct that would have been legal in contemporary times, then-Attorney General Jarrod Bleijie stated he would have an "open mind" to reviewing the law following discussions with the state's LGBTI Legal Service. Despite no action forthcoming, the Palaszczuk Labor Government announced in January 2016 that it had referred to the Queensland Law Review Commission the issue of expunging historical consensual homosexual sex crimes. The commission is expected to report back to the government by 31 August 2016 with a series of recommendations.

Laws regarding gender identity

See also: LGBT rights in Australia § Sex and gender recognition, and LGBT rights in Australia § Medical treatment of transgender people

Birth certificates are within the jurisdiction of the states, whereas marriage and passports are matters for the Commonwealth. All Australian jurisdictions, including Queensland, recognise the affirmed sex of an individual after sexual reassignment surgery unless the person is married.

The requirement that only unmarried persons can apply to change their legal sex, current in every Australian jurisdiction bar the ACT, effectively forces transgender people wishing to change their legal sex to divorce their spouse. This has led to criticism and attempted reform via social media.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

See also: Recognition of same-sex unions in Australia and Same-sex marriage in Australia

De facto recognition

The first legislative action to remove discrimination against same-sex couples occurred in December 2002, with the passing of the Discrimination Law Amendment Act 2002. The law amended the definition of "de facto partner" to include same-sex couples. Since then, same-sex partners are now recognised in over 60 pieces of state legislation, including superannuation entitlements, workers compensation, the distribution of property in the event of a separation and state-based parental, family, bereavement and carer’s leave provisions, among others. The Equal Opportunity in Public Employment Act 1992 and the Public Service Act 2008 promotes equality of employment in the public sector. Furthermore, if a gay or lesbian couple came to Queensland from another state where they were recognised as a couple, Queensland will do the same.

While the changes in Commonwealth legislation in 2008 provided complete recognition of same-sex couples at the federal level, Queensland laws are now contradictory, particularly when children are involved. With the federal legislation, the non-biological parent can now be made to pay child maintenance. However, in Queensland, that same person who has to pay child maintenance is not even recognised as a parent. Without some sort of legal guardianship, health services may not accept the other parent authorising procedures for the child. If the biological parent dies, his or her partner would not be considered the next of kin.

Same-sex marriages are currently not permitted under Australian federal law. Since 2004, the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 has defined marriage as "the union between a man and a woman". In addition, Australian law expressly declares that unions between same-sex couples entered into outside the country are not to be recognised as marriage in Australia.

Queensland recognises overseas same-sex marriages under state de facto recognition law.

Civil partnerships

Queensland first allowed civil partnerships (for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples) with a state-sanctioned ceremony (effectively civil unions) in February to June 2012, though reforms by the LNP Government watered down civil partnerships in the state, replacing them with "registered relationships" and eliminating the ability to have a ceremony. In December 2015, the new Labor Government passed a law restoring civil partnerships and state-sanctioned ceremonies. The following sections detail this process:

Bligh Government

In June 2008, Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine announced that the Queensland Government would begin considering a relationships registry for same-sex couples in the second half of 2008. A Galaxy poll conducted in December 2008 showed 60 percent of people in Queensland supported civil unions with 54 percent supporting gay marriage.

However, no progress was made on the issue until late 2011. On 21 October 2011, Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser announced that he would introduce a private member's bill to legalise civil partnerships, which would allow same-sex relationships to be officially registered in Queensland and would allow the option of an official ceremony. Similarly to the existing recognition of same-sex couples as de facto partners, civil partnerships would provide most of the rights of marriage, excluding adoption rights. Fraser was criticised by the then-Opposition LNP, who claimed his bill was a "political stunt" designed to win Greens preferences in his electorate of Mt Cootha.

The Civil Partnerships Bill 2011 was introduced into Parliament on 25 October 2011 and passed its first reading on a 46-30 vote. On 30 November 2011, it passed its second and third reading on a 47-40 vote. Members of the then-governing Australian Labor Party were granted a conscience vote. Most voted in favour, except for Michael Choi, Geoff Wilson, Margaret Keech and Jo-Ann Miller. LNP members were denied a conscience vote and voted as a bloc against it. They were joined in opposition by most of the cross-bench, except for Peter Wellington. The bill passed and was granted royal assent on 6 December 2011, becoming an Act (number 46) The law commenced operation on 23 February 2012. The legislation aligned Queensland with Tasmania, Victoria, the ACT and NSW, which had already made similar reforms.

Newman Government

The 2012 state election was held soon after civil partnerships became available, with differing policy approaches offered by parties. The Australian Labor Party and Queensland Greens supported retaining them without changes. Katter's Australian Party proposed a full repeal of the civil partnership law, and were criticised for a homophobic advertisement attacking Campbell Newman for his personal support for same-sex marriage.

Before the LNP took office, party leader Campbell Newman stated that repealing the laws after couples had already entered into civil partnerships would create an "unacceptable and intolerable situation", and so promised to do nothing. He later stated that the party would repeal the law.

On 12 June 2012, Premier Newman and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie announced that the legislation would be amended to remove aspects that "mimcked marriage", such as the option of an official ceremony, to avoid offending conservative religious groups.

On 22 June 2012 the Civil Partnerships and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 was passed by a 69-8 vote, amending the Civil Partnerships Act with effect from 27 June 2012. All LNP members voted as a bloc to amend the law. They were opposed by the six present ALP members, and Peter Wellington. Liz Cunningham also voted against the bill as she wanted a full repeal of the law, while the two Katter's Australian Party members, who shared her position, abstained.

Apart from renaming the legislation to the Relationships Act 2011, other changes included: replacing civil partnerships with "registered relationships"; amending the termination procedure, so that instead of seeking a court order from the District Court, an application would be lodged with the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, thereby reducing the similarities with obtaining a divorce; and repealing the option of state-sanctioned ceremonies.

Palaszczuk Government

Following the Queensland election in January 2015, the Labor Party returned to power, defeating the Liberal National Party and forming minority government. In May 2015, the Labor Government announced its intention to reinstate civil partnerships and state-sanctioned official ceremonies.

In September 2015, the government introduced the Relationships (Civil Partnerships) and Other Acts Amendment Bill 2015 to the parliament. Under the legislation, any couple has the option of participating in an official ceremony prior to having their relationships registered. The bill also amends other terminologies used throughout the existing Act including replacing references to ‘registered relationship’ with ‘civil partnership.’ The bill received the support of two of the four crossbenchers in the parliament. On 17 September 2015, the bill was referred to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee, who reported back to parliament on 17 November 2015. On 23 November 2015, the LNP opposition announced it would have a free vote on the legislation.

On 3 December 2015, the bill passed the parliament by a margin of 64 votes to 22. Royal Assent was granted to the legislation on 17 December 2015 by the Governor, thus becoming the Relationships (Civil Partnerships) and Other Acts Amendment Act 2015. The Act came into effect following a number of administrative procedures, with civil partnerships resuming in the state on 2 April 2016.

Adoption and parenting rights

Adoption and foster parenting

Same-sex couples in Queensland lack many adoption or other parenting rights. Same-sex couples cannot legally adopt a child, but they may become foster parents.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) issued a report in 2007 entitled National Inquiry into Discrimination against People in Same-Sex Relationships recommended amending or creating laws recognising the relationship between a child and both same-sex parents. In particular, "‘Stepparent adoption’ laws should more readily consider adoption by a lesbian co-mother or gay co-father." This will require amendments to remove the prohibition on same-sex stepparent adoption in all state and territory laws other than in WA, the ACT and Tasmania." The final report of the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry was tabled in Parliament on 21 June 2007.

The state's adoption rules were revised in August 2009 with the Adoption Act 2009 which only allows opposite sex couples who are married or in a de facto relationship for two years to adopt. The Act requires that applicants for both adoption and stepparent adoption be married or de facto and "the person’s spouse is not the same gender as the person" making the application. Although discriminatory, the Act specifies that the Anti-Discrimination Act is not to apply. One of the Act's key features is to allow foster parents to more easily adopt the child they are fostering. Phil Reeves, the state's minister for child safety, said, "Foster carers with children in their care for a long time - often from birth - frequently express a desire to adopt these children. It is only natural that a child in this situation often feels a true part of the family they have lived with long-term." Same-sex foster parents are explicitly excluded from adopting their foster children. Independent (previously One Nation) MP Dorothy Pratt said, "I must say I was very pleased there was no allowance in this bill for homosexual couples to adopt a child." Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's approach was described as "confusing" by the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties after she stated that "everyone - regardless of their sexual status or their gender - should be afforded the privileges of parenthood" in the context of surrogacy, but failed to apply this logic to adoption laws.

Following the return of the ALP to power in 2015, Communities Minister Shannon Fentiman suggested that the exclusion of same-sex couples from Queensland's adoption laws was out of step with contemporary standards and most other Australian states and territories. She announced the government was seeking public submissions about the laws as part of a five-year review of the legislation. A review of the state's Adoption Act is currently underway, with submissions the state consultation closing on 11 March 2016.

Access to IVF

Socially-infertile women (lesbians) are permitted access to in vitro fertilisation treatment in Queensland, and an amendment to the Status of Children Act 1978 now means that in some circumstances the female de facto partner of the birth mother is recognised as a parent. These circumstances are when the child has been born through the use of a fertilisation procedure (such as in vitro fertilisation, assisted insemination or self insemination) with the consent of the birth mother’s female de facto partner.

Surrogacy

The Surrogate Parenthood Act 1988, which commenced on 6 October 1988, prohibited all forms of surrogacy, formal and informal, paid and altruistic. All surrogacy contracts were deemed void and entering into an agreement (or offering to do so), as well as giving or receiving payment were prohibited. Any advertising in relation to surrogacy was also prohibited. It became a criminal offence for a person ordinarily resident in Queensland to enter into a commercial surrogacy arrangement anywhere in the world.

In May 2008, a parliamentary committee was formed to examine whether to decriminalise altruistic surrogacy in Queensland. Commercial surrogacy was immediately ruled out. A parliamentary report recommended legalising surrogacy only as a last resort, and people must meet several criteria, including being medically infertile or unable to carry a child.

In October 2009, Attorney-General Cameron Dick released for consultation draft laws to decriminalise altruistic surrogacy and put into place certain strict requirements, including satisfying the court they have undergone counselling, received independent legal advice and have established a medical or social need for the surrogacy. The draft Bill would not restrict who can enter into a surrogacy arrangement, meaning that a couple, either married or de facto (same-sex or heterosexual) or a single person (male or female) may be the intended parent or intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement and then subsequently apply for a parentage order. The government will amend the law to recognise two mothers as parents. The Liberal-National opposition party countered the Labor government's moves by introducing a bill that specifically excludes single parents and same-sex couples from any new surrogacy laws. Queensland’s Attorney General called the opposition's response "offensive".

The Labor government's bill, which does not restrict who can enter into a surrogacy arrangement, was tabled in November and passed 45 to 36 on 11 February 2010 with seven not voting. The opposition's surrogacy bill was dismissed, and their amendments did not pass. The decriminalisation of altruistic surrogacy allows singles and couples to enter into surrogacy arrangements and to become the parent of a child. It remains illegal for Queensland residents to enter into commercial surrogacy arrangements anywhere in the world. The law took effect on 1 June 2010.

During the 2012 election campaign, LNP leader Campbell Newman stated that the party would not change the new surrogacy laws if it won government. However, after the party attained government in 2012, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie announced in Parliament that the LNP would amend Queensland's surrogacy legislation to exclude same-sex couples, singles and heterosexual de facto couples of less than two years' standing. Bleijie claimed that Newman had not been "fully briefed" on the LNP's policy platform. Newman later stated that his pre-election promise was a "mistake" given earlier misgivings expressed by LNP members, and that he was listening to the majority of members in his party. Subsequently, moderates within the LNP had expressed concern about the proposal to remove surrogacy rights and it was quietly shelved, with Bleijie's announcement described by one colleague as a "brain snap".

Discrimination protections

On 29 November 2002 Queensland Parliament passed the Discrimination Law Amendment Act 2002 which reformed a wide range of areas in the Queensland Ant-Discriminition Act 1991 such as couples (whether same sex or de facto), including transgender persons ("gender identity") and "sexuality" in protection under existing Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Vilification legislation. The areas covered are work and work related; education; goods and services; superannuation and insurance; disposal of land; accommodation; club membership; administration of state laws and programs; local government; existing partnership and in pre-partnership.

In practice, those facing discrimination on the basis of gender identity have faced difficulties in pursuing anti-discrimination claims - in its 2013 annual report, the Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland noted that a single gender identity claim - 0.2% of its work - had been upheld. Trans men and women potentially face years waiting for their claims to be resolved, with little support available for people outside south-east Queensland and Cairns.

Australian federal Commonwealth Government under law does outlaw discrimination based on "marital or relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or intersex status" at the federal level at various levels that cover aged care, employment, health services, goods and services, accommodation, etc. since August 2013. Federal employment protection does include "sexual orientation" in the federal Fair Work Act 2009. However, in response to Australia's obligation to implement the principle of non-discrimination in employment and occupation pursuant to the International Labour Organisation Convention No.111 (ILO 111), the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) Act established the HREOC in 1986, and empowers it to investigate complaints of discrimination in employment and occupation on various grounds, including sexual orientation, and to resolve such complaints by conciliation. If it cannot be conciliated, the Commission prepares a report to the federal Attorney-General who then tables the report in Parliament. It is important to note that such discrimination is not rendered unlawful under the Act.

The Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 provided that sexual conduct involving only consenting adults (18 years or over) acting in private would not be subject to arbitrary interference by law enforcement. This applies to any law of the Commonwealth, State or Territory. As of August 2013, the Australian federal Commonwealth Government under law does provide protections for "marital or relationship status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or intersex status" at the federal level at various levels that cover aged care, employment, health services, goods and services, accommodation, etc. in the Human Rights Commission Act 1981 (Commonwealth legislation).

Federal law also protects LGBT and Intersex people in Queensland in the form of the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Act 2013.

Schools and LGBTI students

80% of 581 gay and lesbian students surveyed in Queensland reported being bullied in a La Trobe University survey, the worst result in the country. Queensland is the only state with no official policy in place to combat homophobic bullying.

The Queensland Government did publish a policy statement entitled "Supporting Same Sex Attracted, Intersex or Transgender Students at School" in 2013, but it subsequently revoked the policy in favour of allowing principals to make decisions on a case by case basis. Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek noted there were “contentious views associated with gender diverse and same-sex attracted students”, including opposition to recognising LGBT issues in schooling. The draft policy statement had encouraged state schools to have coeducational sporting teams, gender neutral uniforms and consider scheduling physical education classes to cut down on the number of clothes changes required. Instead, principals were to be provided with "supporting materials". The policy change was criticised by PFLAG national spokeswoman Shelley Argent while Australian Transgender Support Association Queensland president Gina Mathers supported the move to case-by-case decision-making, while expressing cynicism about its practical application.

Homosexual advance defence

In Queensland, a person charged with the murder of a gay person can claim that he or she was provoked by a non-violent homosexual advance from the victim; this can act as a partial defence to murder and reduces the crime to manslaughter. As at 2014, the only other Australian state still allow this defence, to be used in common law like Queensland is South Australia.

A 2008 report by the Queensland Law Reform Commission on the topic of provocation stated "it is difficult to imagine how a non-violent sexual advance to a man by a woman could be regarded as justification for killing the person making the advance... in principle, gender should make no difference to the law’s conclusion".

The use of this defence by two men who killed another man in 2008 in the grounds of St Mary's Catholic Church in Maryborough led the local priest, Father Paul Kelly, to launch a Change.org petition to remove its application from Queensland law. The petition was supported by British comedian Stephen Fry. Although the ALP Government flagged its intention to remove the defence, following the election of an LNP government in 2012, new Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie stated that no changes would be made.

Social conditions

Social attitudes to homosexuality

A 2005 paper by the Australia Institute, Mapping Homophobia in Australia, found that 38% of Queensland respondents considered homosexuality to be immoral, making it one of the most homophobic states in Australia, alongside Tasmania. Overall the most homophobic areas in the study were the Moreton area of country Queensland (excluding the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast), Central/South-West Queensland and the Burnie/Western district of Tasmania, where 50 per cent considered homosexuality to be immoral.

A 2010 Roy Morgan poll confirmed Queensland as being the most anti-gay state in the nation, with one third of Queensland respondents considering homosexuality to be immoral. The state had the three federal electorates with the highest proportions of respondents considering homosexuality to be immoral - the Division of Capricornia (44.7%), the Division of Wright (44.1%) and the Division of Hinkler (42.8%). The state had nine of the twenty most homophobic federal electorates. While inner-city suburbs of Brisbane, the state's capital, were relatively tolerant, they still lagged the southern state capitals of Sydney and Melbourne.

Anti-LGBTI harassment

In 2010, Alan Berman and Shirleene Robinson released the findings of the largest survey ever undertaken into homophobic and transphobic abuse and reporting in Queensland. It found that overwhelming majorities of respondents had experienced some form of abuse. In relation to verbal abuse, the statistics were 76% of males, 69% of females, 92% of trans women and 55% of trans men. For physical assault without a weapon, the figures were 32%, 15%, 46% and 45% respectively. Where a weapon, knife, bottle or stone was involved, the statistics were 12%, 6%, 38% and 9% respectively, with 12% for "other".

The study found that 75% of LGBTI survey respondents did not report the abuse to police, with attackers usually being young men who did not know their victim.

Domestic violence

A person who is in a same sex, spousal or intimate personal relationship is protected by the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 1989. Couples in same-sex relationships who are victims of relationship violence may take out domestic violence orders against a violent partner, and other protective measures, including counselling services.

In early October 2014, Marcus Volke murdered his transgender wife Mayang Prasetyo before committing suicide. The case drew heavy media attention. The coverage of local newspaper the Courier Mail, which initially referred to her as a "she-male", mentioned her prostitution career and featured photos of her posing in a bikini, drew widespread condemnation for its transphobia, sensationalism and victim-blaming. The Courier Mail subsequently apologised for its coverage. In the aftermath of the case, criminologist specialising in domestic violence Sharon Hayes noted that transgender victims of domestic violence often "fell through the cracks", with a lack of support from women's refuges and other services.

LGBTI health issues

The peak LGBTI health organisation is the Queensland AIDS Council (QuAC), which has also been known as the Queensland Association for Active Healthy Communities (QAHC) which was founded in 1984. The organisation has run various HIV/AIDS prevention programs since that time, including a controversial "Rip and Roll" safe sex billboard campaign showing two clothed men embracing while holding a condom packet. The ads were temporarily removed by billboard company Adshel after an Australian Christian Lobby-orchestrated complaint campaign before being reinstated following a public outcry. Before the 2012 election, when the LNP was opposing the ALP's civil partnerships legislation, QAHC (as it was then known) launched a "Speak out for equality" campaign in favour of the legislation.

After the LNP won office in that election, it withdrew funding from QAHC, alleging that the organisation's advocacy had become inappropriately politicised and too far removed from its initial focus on preventing HIV/AIDS, while its initiatives to reduce HIV infection were not working. Statistics released after the defunding decision actually demonstrated a decline in new HIV infections between 2010 and 2011, whereas southern states had reported an increase over that time.

The withdrawal of $2.5 million funding caused 26 of the organisation's 35 staff to lose their jobs. Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced that he would set up an expert ministerial advisory committee on HIV/AIDS instead. The minister made the announcement through the media without contacting the organisation beforehand.

One of the members appointed to the nine person HIV/AIDS ministerial advisory committee, Dr Wendell Rosevear, subsequently resigned from the committee, likening the government to a "homophobic schoolyard bully". He cited the government's decision to defund QAHC and new rules forbidding non-profit organisations from agitating for state or federal law changes if their group receives half or more of its funding from Queensland Health and other state agencies as a "king hit" to the gay community.

LGBTI community

Accurate estimates of the LGBTI population are difficult owing to under-reporting. According to the first Australian Study of Health and Relationships, conducted in 2003, approximately 1.6% of Queensland male respondents identified as homosexual and 1.0% identified as bisexual. For women, the figures were 0.8% and 1.7% respectively. When it came to reported sexual attraction, 6.0% of Queensland men reported attraction to both sexes and 0.7% exclusively to the same sex. For women, the corresponding statistics were 11.7% and 0.2%. For sexual experiences, 5.5% of men and 7.7% of women reported having had sexual experiences with both sexes and 0.4% and 0.03% reported sexual experiences exclusively with their own sex. This has led to an estimate of there being between 72,000 and 370,000 LGBT people living in Queensland.

The 2013 Queensland Gay Community Periodic Survey reported that between 2011 and 2013, there was a significant increase in the proportion of men who reported having met men through the mobile applications such as Grindr (26.2% to 38.5%). Mobile applications have become the most common way that men in Queensland meet male sex partners. Other common methods include meeting through the internet (37.7%), gay bars (28.1%), saunas (27.5%) and meeting men while visiting other Australian cities (21.1%).

There are a variety of community venues and events throughout Queensland for the LGBTI community.

Brisbane hosts several annual events: the Big Gay Day in March, the Brisbane Queer Film Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse in April and the Brisbane Pride Festival in September, which originally began as a protest march in 1990. It also hosts Brisbane Leather Pride for the leather subculture in July and Northern Exposure for the bear subculture in October.

LGBTI venues in Brisbane include The Beat Mega Club, the Wickham Hotel and the Sportsman Hotel. Some venues offer regular LGBTI-focussed events, such as the weekly "Fluffy" parties at the Family nightclub, the female-only "Scarlet" and the male-only "White Wolf". The city also hosts several sex-on-premises venues: the gay saunas Wet Sauna and Bodyline and the cruising clubs The Den and Klub Kruise.

There are various LGBTI venues and events in regional Queensland. The Gold Coast hosts gay club Escape and the annual Gold Coast Gay Day in May. Cairns has a week-long Tropical Pride festival in August with gay-friendly nights at the Vibe bar while Townsville's gay venue is the Sovereign Hotel.

Politics

Political analyst Clive Bean has noted that Queensland has a relatively conservative political culture, with conservative parties enjoying stronger levels of support compared to other states. Before the 2015 Queensland state election, the socially conservative Liberal National Party of Queensland held the most electoral seats at both the state and federal level. The presence of a powerful "religious right" lobby in that party has been noted in the media. It included the president of the party organisation Bruce McIver, a conservative Christian strongly opposed to gay equality; former Parliamentary Speaker Fiona Simpson, who once stated that gays could "grow into heterosexuality over time" and Vaughan Johnson, who said in 1999 that homosexuality was “totally immoral”, “anti-family” and “against what Jesus Christ put us on this planet for” before stating he had become "tolerant" of homosexuality in 2002. Former LNP member and subsequent Katter's Australian Party member Shane Knuth stated that his fellow "happy clappers" were a powerful lobby group within the Liberal National Party.

McIver was responsible for the Liberal–National party merger at a state level, which saw the Queensland Nationals, with their long history of social conservativism, amalgamate with the Queensland branch of the more socially progressive Liberal Party of Australia. McIver's time as National Party president coincided with the demotion of members who did not share his socially conservative views. After then parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney disagreed with McIver's opposition to stem-cell research and criticised McIver's email seeking to instruct politicians on how they should exercise their conscience vote, he was soon deposed from the leadership. This led to speculation in the Courier Mail that the Queensland Nationals had been "hijacked by the Christian Right", drawing parallels to similar developments in certain parts of the United States. Following the amalgamation of the two parties into the LNP, McIver was criticised as having "taken over" the merged entity with no tolerance for views contrary to his own.

Following the Liberal National Party's victory in the 2012 state election, the party enacted several policy changes that led to criticism from gay rights advocates. These included: defunding Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, the state's sole LGBT health organisation, on the grounds that it had developed an excessively political focus; downgrading civil partnerships to a "registered relationships" scheme; and refusing to remove the homosexual advance defence from the state's criminal law.

Religious conservatives have historically featured across the political spectrum in Queensland, including some political independents and minor parties, ranging from the anti-gay Katter's Australian Party to the relatively gay-friendly Labor Party. Members from various parties may attend a cross-party Christian parliamentary group breakfast meeting on Wednesdays when parliament is sitting.

Summary table

Same-sex sexual activity legal	(since 1990 for males; always for females)
Equal age of consent	(16 years for oral and vaginal intercourse and 18 years for anal intercourse; under review)
Anti-discrimination state laws for sexual orientation	Not documented to ever have been enforced
Anti-discrimination state laws for gender identity and expression	Not documented to ever have been enforced
Hate crime laws include sexual orientation
Hate crime laws include gender identity or expression
Gay sex criminal records expunged	(proposed)
Gay panic defence abolished	(proposed)
Recognition in state law of same-sex couples as domestic partners
Step adoption by same-sex couples	(under review)
Joint adoption by same-sex couples	(under review)
Automatic IVF/artificial insemination parenthood for female partners
Access to IVF for lesbians
Same-sex marriages	(federal jurisdiction)
MSMs allowed to donate blood	(one year deferral - Australia-wide)

See also

• LGBT rights in Australia
• Recognition of same-sex unions in Australia

External links

• Open Doors Youth Service
• Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Brisbane
• Queensland LGBTI Legal Service
• Gay and Lesbian Welfare Association
• Australian Transgender Support Association Queensland Inc
• Queensland Police Community Liaison & Support - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Communities
• Queensland Government - Support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people