Last night (Anglican) Trinity College Melbourne hosted the 42nd Barry Marshall Lecture with guest speaker, the Hon Michael Kirby AM CMG.

Justice Kirby was, before he retired recently, the longest-serving Australian judge. He was introduced with several minutes’ worth of accomplishments (including, I think, 20 honorary doctorates). My review of one of his books is here. See also here.

Here’s my paraphrase of a few points he made:

1. Sodomy was struck off the list of crimes punishable by death at the French Revolution, and subsequently in the Netherlands, Belgium etc. But not in Britain. So the respective colonies of these nations reflect this difference. For example, in Indonesia – the largest Moslem-majority country in the world – sodomy is not a crime (because of the Dutch influence) but in a majority of ex-British colonies it still is! (My comment: Note what’s happened in Malaysia, with accusations against the leader of the opposition). The majority of countries around the world that still criminalise homosexuality are former British colonies or territories (41 out of 54).  Sodomy laws are a common feature in 16 of the 18 African Commonwealth nations. Almost all anti-sodomy laws date back to the British colonial era penal codes.

See here for an example: Homophobia, stigma and HIV in Jamaican prisons . Justice Kirby has just come back from Jamaica – where there have been prison riots over the suggestion that condoms ought to be distributed to prisoners to help counter the terrible spread of HIV-AIDs. In one riot prisoners tied up 16 accused gay men, stuffed them into a cell, and burned them alive. In Jamaica (outside prisons) no one knows any homosexuals!!! It’s been described by human-rights groups as the most homophobic place on earth. See this Wikipedia article. 

2. Words in context. During the last 40 years there’s been a significant shift in ‘legal hermeneutics’: when a law is interpreted, it’s not the mere words that count, but meaning is now more commonly sought in words-in-context. What’s the purpose of this legislation? (etc) is a key question. The same principle happens with biblical hermeneutics: the five or six passages in the Bible which seem to outlaw same-sex relationships do not actually do so when read/ interpreted according to the principle of words-in-context.

An example: the word ‘jury’ once referred to 12 males who owned property. Over time women were included, and the property factor was ignored. So ’12 men’ became ’12 persons’. It’s the same with the word ‘marriage’. Originally, in the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures no one had a problem with polygamy being included in this term. More recently it’s changed to connote a monogamous union between a man and a women. The word will continue to broaden its meaning, to including same-gender-attracted people (‘and if you’ve got a problem with that, take an aspirin and have a little rest: you’ll get over it :-)’

3. So gay people don’t often form long-term relationships? Well, what else would you expect from a stigmatized minority?

4. The United Church of Canada has just elected an openly gay moderator.  

5. Two-thirds of Australians are not now married in churches: most have their weddings conducted by civil celebrants. We live in an increasingly secularized society: so the church will – and should – have less say in how people arrange their private affairs. And it’s a complete nonsense that proponents of celibacy in the Catholic Church – which has had mixed success, to put it mildly – should mandate gay people be celibate. Why? And in terms of the law, why are gay people still discriminated against in various ways? Even in countries like India and Singapore, gay people are winning legal cases when they are being discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

6. Identical twins: if one is gay, there’s a 57% chance the other will be too. This is not a conclusive proof of homosexuality having a genetic aetiology, but we can say there is a strong genetic component within a complex, multi-factoral combination of causes.