NSW Premier Chris Minns will make a formal state apology to people who convicted under historic laws made homosexuality a crime up until 1984, when the discriminatory laws were abolished.
Mr Minns will address the lower house at 12.15pm on Thursday, where he will “unreservedly” apologise to people affected by the laws, and “recognise and (express) regret” at the role of NSW parliament in “enacting laws and endorsing policies of successive governments decisions that criminalised, persecuted and harmed people based on their sexuality and gender”.
NSW is the last state to issue an apology and eight years behind Victoria and South Australia which formally apologised in 2016.
The motion will also recognise the trauma felt by and endured by the LGBTQIA+ community, their families and their loved ones.
Labor’s Leader in the Legislative Council Penny Sharpe, who is the first lesbian to serve in NSW parliament, and the state’s first lesbian minister, will issue a similar apology in the upper house at 2pm.
More than a dozen of the 78ers who marched in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras will be attending the apology, as well as prominent Sydney gay rights activist Robert French.
Jill Wran, the wife of former Labor premier Neville Wran who oversaw the decriminalisation of homosexuality, will also be present at NSW parliament. Mr Wran died in 2014.
Ms Sharpe said Thursday’s motion will be an “opportunity to thank those who fought for change”.
“A formal state apology to those who suffered at the hands of laws that criminalised homosexuality recognises the harm done to many and acknowledges that it was wrong,” she said.
The NSW government’s apology comes two days short of the 40th anniversary of the passing of the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1984, which finally decriminalised homosexual acts.
NSW was the fourth jurisdiction to overturn the discriminatory laws, and followed after South Australia, the ACT, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
This was years after Sydney’s first Mardi Gras on June 24 1978, which resulted in the violent arrest and jailing of several protesters who would come to be known as the 78ers.
Former premier Dominic Perrottet was criticised for resisting a formal apology in the lead up to Sydney hosting WorldPride in 2023.