An apology to the gay activists, the 78ers, who received rough treatment at the hands of police shines a light on media’s role

‘PERVERTS, pests, creatures, misfits’. In the lead up to the 2016 Mardi Gras, DEBORAH FITZGERALD takes a look at the language of hate.

June 24 1978. Sydney, NSW. Protestors take to the streets of Sydney, NSW, for gay and lesbian rights during international homosexual solidarity day. The demonstration was met with police presence and seven people were arrested.

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‘PERVERTS, pests, creatures, misfits’. In the lead up to the 2016 Mardi Gras, DEBORAH FITZGERALD takes a look at the language of hate that has been used by the media in the past and, what follows, will shock you.

In fact, some of it occurred not that long ago. So, how did newspapers report on the gay community?

It smacks you between the eyes and in the gut with its vitriol.

“Perverts ... creatures ... unclean individuals ... misfits” — the language chills.

It is a sobering reminder of the abuse meted out to this community, made worse by the fact it was still tolerated little more than a generation ago.

Last week, State Parliament witnessed an apology to gay activists, ‘the 78ers’, for how police treated them in the ‘70s.

Only two decades earlier the call went out to lock up the ‘queers’.

Police clashed with gay activists in 1978 and seven people were arrested.

An editorial in the Truth newspaper in 1950 under the heading ‘Perverts must be cleaned out of Sydney’ rails against the brazen congregations of male homosexuals in fashionable hotel bars across the city.

In language that stuns in its lack of humanity and its proximity to contemporary times, the article applauds the appointment of a vice squad to ‘deal with these unclean individuals’.

And so it goes: “Aided by barmaids, who, during recent months, have refused to serve these creatures, the police were able to break up groups in at least three of Sydney’s leading hotels.

“Truth finds that the onus for ridding the city and suburbs of these parodies of men, lies with the New South Wales Government — the Minister of Justice in particular.

“It is with some reluctance that Truth mentions the misfits at all.”

It refers to loopholes in the law, which allow the ‘queers to put their painted thumbnails to their noses at any policeman’.

Peaceful scenes at a recent Gay Mardi Gras parade on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst.

It bemoans that the law requires men to be found ‘in flagrante delicto’ before being charged with a criminal offence and warns of the ‘grave danger to youths’.

The article calls on the Government to use the Consorting Act of 1929 to arrest and jail men they suspect of being gay, merely for being in another man’s company.

“This will help the police and will help rid Sydney of these pests.”

The hysteria and the hatred is indicative of a number of witch hunts that have gone on throughout human history and it champions the persecution of those deemed different.

It seeks to dehumanise and therefore mitigate the suffering of fellow human beings.

As Sydney gears up for its annual Mardi Gras — the 38th the city has held — and a celebration across all sections of the gay community and, as the same-sex marriage debate continues, it is a timely reminder of how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.