Almost 20 years ago in 1997, a federal youth suicide prevention program aimed at gay and lesbian teenagers was scrapped after a backlash from the religious right.



The “Here for Life” Youth Sexuality Project was initiated by Dr Carmen Lawrence as the Keating Government’s health minister in 1995, with a $200,000 pilot project set to roll out through Western Australia under supervision of the WA Aids Council.

“Here for Life” was part of a wider $18m National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy and was devised in response to research showing up to 30% of all suicide attempts were linked to issues around sexuality.

With the election of John Howard as Prime Minister in March 1996, the “Here for Life” pilot program became the responsibility of incoming minister for family services, liberal moderate Judi Moylan.

Just days before its official launch in August 1997, Moylan’s enemies in the coalition leaked the campaign material to The Australian newspaper.

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The main theme of the campaign was that young people struggling with their sexuality should “trust their feelings” with a poster showing teenage same-sex couples kissing on the cheek.

The advert was to be placed in youth magazines that week with a message that said sexually confused young people went through a difficult time:

These feelings are a natural and healthy thing; they are one more part of who you are. It’s ok to question your sexuality, it’s ok to be unsure, and it’s ok to take your time finding out. Many young people feel the same, you are not alone.

Moral outrage erupted after the leak, as religious conservatives condemned the campaign for “promoting homosexuality” and “recruiting children.”

John Howard stepped in and ordered a review of the program. Moylan directed the WA AIDS Council to redraft the campaign.

“I think the campaign has leant a little bit too much towards the promoting of a gay and lesbian lifestyle, and not enough about suicide,” Ms Moylan told The Australian at the time.

The program was gutted, the poster was banned and “Here for Life” never went national. Five weeks later Howard dumped Moylan as minister for family services.

Here we are two decades later with exactly the same politics being played out federally through the Safe Schools fiasco. On the one hand, the LGBTI community is seeking to curb bullying against gay teens through a program to validate and reassure those with a gay identity, while on the other religious conservatives generate moral panic, attack the program and accuse its creators of “promoting homosexuality.”

After 20 years, LGBTI Australians are still struggling simply for the right to exist and religious conservatives are still espousing the myth that homosexuality is a “choice” and that gay people are a threat and danger to children.

The unwillingness of political leaders to stare down the religious right caused the collapse of both the “Here for Life” and Safe Schools programs and it’s also behind Malcolm Turnbull’s delay on putting forward legislation to enable a plebiscite on marriage equality.

Despite Attorney General George Brandis promising that the legislation would be presented to the Coalition party room before the election, the hysteria on the topic by the government’s religious conservatives means it’s not possible for him to hold a sensible discussion on the issue. The government has shelved any draft legislation until after the election.

Brandis says this strategy is to avoid any policy distraction in the election campaign and to keep the focus on the economy. However, history teaches us that wishing gay rights issues would just go away always backfires, and suppressing this issue will only serve to make it a key focus in the election.

In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee found against Australia in ‘Toonen vs Australia’, an international case that condemned Tasmania’s then anti-homosexual laws, effectively calling on the Keating government to invalidate the offending state laws with federal legislation.

In response, Federal Attorney General Micheal Lavarch was slow to act and Prime Minister Keating failed to read the mood of the electorate by giving the matter a low priority. Eventually the situation became explosive and the legislative delay resulted in a nationwide boycott of Tasmanian produce and tourism that threatened to wreck its economy.

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The Catholic right in the ALP resisted federal intervention but were eventually pulled into line, but the issue split the Coalition and was used by John Howard to topple Alexander Downer as Opposition Leader. The relevant legislation finally passed with a free vote but many Coalition MPs voted against it.

Even then, the main arguments against reform by the religious conservatives were that homosexuality was “wrong” and a “choice” - something that shouldn’t be protected by law and an issue that was “a low priority for voters” and “a distraction”.

Two decades later the exact same politics is playing out in the Coalition on a plebiscite for marriage equality. Turnbull is misreading the mood of the electorate by not taking more decisive action on this matter while Brandis is paralysed by those causing delay in the vain hope it will all just go away. It won’t.

Guardian Australia and Australian Marriage Equality are conducting an event: Marriage Equality, Why Knot? in Sydney on 31 March. Speakers include David Marr, Rodney Croome, Bill Shorten, Richard Di Natale, Michelle Heyman, Kristina Keneally and others. Click here for more information and to book your ticket