*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
17th
October 2006 Email to
Premier Peter Beattie and Attorney General Linda Lavarch directing their
attention to the 16th October 2006 announcement by the Hong Kong
Government that they will no longer contest their High Court’s decisions that
an equal age of consent for sexual activity must apply to all citizens at age
16. I ask that the Premier and Attorney-General find the
----- Original Message -----
From: John Frame
To: Premier
Peter Beattie ; Attorney-SMTP
Sent:
Subject:
Dear Premier and Attorney-General,
As you both know we are well into the
seventh long year in which I have been organising
community lobbying of your Government to reform the Criminal Code and
enact a truly equal age of consent. Apparently you do not consider
it sufficient to have received clear and concise advice from the
Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth (in July 2005) that
this law ought to have been reformed urgently because it is definitely
discriminatory. However I am hoping you may find inspiration from the
announcement this week, as per the news item below, that
This reform in
The other issue which must be addressed at the same
time is to bring
Within every other
I await your favourable reply.
Your sincerely,
John Frame
Ph: 07 3350 1562 / mobile: 0409 501 561
Post:
----"There is no substitute for equality"----
------------------------------------------------------------------------
as per:http://www.caah.org/articles/articles/countries/asia/china/index2006b.htm
IOL (
Author Not Stated (South African Press Association [SAPA] & Agence
France-Presse [AFP]),
The decision followed a shaming government defeat in the courts when it vainly
appealed against a judicial review's findings that the law governing the age of
gay consent was unconstitutional.
In a short statement, the Security Bureau said it would not seek to reverse the
court's decision.
"After considering all the relevant factors, the government decided not to
appeal the judicial review," it read.
In a city that only decriminalised homosexuality in 1991, gays and lesbians had
faced life imprisonment if they had performed sodomy before the age of 21.
However, heterosexuals who had sex before 16 faced just a five-year sentence.
The court's decision in September rendered the law unenforceable and the next
step will be for the administration to introduce legislation to remove the
provision from the statute book.
"I fail to see on any basis the justification of this age limit,"
Chief High Court Judge Geoffrey Ma wrote in his judgement at the time.
"No evidence has been placed before us to explain why the minimum age
requirement for buggery is 21 whereas as far as sexual intercourse between a
man and a woman is concerned, the age of consent is only 16," he said.
The case had originally been brought by 21-year homosexual William Leung. His
lawyer hailed the government decision.
"Now they are not appealing it, which means they accept the fact and the
court's judgement," said Michael Vidler.
"It's about time the government initiates steps to remove the law without
further delay. Failure to do so will be a slap in the face for the constitution,"
Vidler added.
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