A Love To Hide.

As academics, we are supposed to be critical of fictional media, picking at the factual flaws of how sensationalised they've created an event to be. This is of particular concern with the over-dramatisation and stereotyping of crime in all forms of mass media. However, when it comes a topic which covers such an important, and hitherto neglected subject, such as the "re-education" of homosexuals under the Nazis laws in Paris France, presentation in a hyperbolic style has what I believe to be a positive effect.

I just now viewed an amazing French movie on SBS1, 'Un amour à taire', directed by Christian Faure in 2005. Though a fictional history film, it is based on true and very confronting events, of which I found to be completely unfathomable. How could people justify torturing others to such an extent they did in the war? I sought this as an opportunity to research and reflect on definitions of crime and the law in relation to the treatment of homosexuals from WW2 to present day Australia.

We sometimes forget that in addition to what the Nazis did to Jews in the Holocaust, they also rounded up other "undesirables" including homosexual men, subjecting them to severe torture in camps. This film follows the story of a gay couple that are hiding a young Jewish woman whose family had been killed. Criminal conduct involving one of the man's brothers, who was only recently released from jail, results in one of the lover's to be discovered and homosexual and hence transferred to Dachau, a Nazi controlled camp, where he is slave driven, and experimented on via a lobotomy. I won't continue with any more of the plot line, as it will ruin the ending if by the off chance one wishes to view this film. In any case, the acts that took place in these Nazi camps were criminal in the most horrific sense imaginable, however back then they were merely following the law implemented by Hitler.

Between 1933 and 1945 laws against homosexuality were written and acted upon in Germany, also being enforced by the Third Reich in all Nazi controlled countries during Hitler’s rein. As a result of these legal enactment, there was, on average, 10,000 convictions per year for homosexuality during the Nazi era, that 120,000 over 12 years (Katz, 1989). Under Paragraph 175 of the German penal code convicted homosexuals could be taken to concentration camps where they would be “re-educated”, however of the approximate 10,000 of those arrested that actually ended up in camps, 60 percent of them died before the war and their re-education was over (Katz). Their is believed to be only one Pink Triangle (the symbol on homosexuals prisoner uniforms) still alive today that survived the Nazi concentration camps, Rudolf Brazada (view interview).

Morris and Hawkins argue that 'the prime function of the criminal law is to protect our persons and our property', and that it is 'improper, impolitic, and usually socially harmful for the law to intervene or attempt to regulate the private moral conduct of the citizen' (1970). Shockingly however the decriminalisation of homosexual acts is an extremely recent reform in Australia. In 1972 South Australia became the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise some homosexual acts, with further reforms in 1975 and 1976 to their Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Amendment Act. The Australian Capital Territory followed respectively in 1976 with the Law Reform (Sexual Behaviour) Ordinance, then Victoria in 1980, and the Northern Territory in 1983. Legislation in New South Wales to legalise consensual homosexual acts between men was implemented in the Crimes (Amendment) Act of 1984. Following suit was Western Australia with their Reform (Decriminalisation of Sodomy) Act in 1989, and Queensland just 20 years ago made amendments. (Bull, Pinto & Wilson, 1991). In 1997 Tasmania became the last Australian state to decriminalise sex between consenting adult men in private (Croome, 2006).

Sadly these recent reforms in Australia and others world wide have done little to stop the general public’s negative opinions and actions towards the gay community. For example just this September, yet another life lost over the shame that society puts on being a gay male…

According to US news reports, Clementi (just 18yrs old), a talented violinist, was secretly filmed by his roommate, Dharun Ravi, while kissing another man. The film was allegedly broadcast live from a webcam, then shared on the iChat network. Three days later, on September 22, Clementi posted on his Facebook page: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." That same evening he jumped off the soaring George Washington Bridge, which connects New York City to New Jersey, and into the Hudson River…
Anti-bullying advocate Jowharah Sanders said Clementi was one of at least four teenagers who committed suicide across the United States in September after gay-related harassment. The others were a 15-year-old who hanged himself in Indiana, a 13-year-old who shot himself in Texas, and just this week another 13-year-old who died in hospital in California days after hanging himself. (Smith, 2010).

(Full story here: US students held over classmate's death)

If films like 'Un amour à taire' were more mainstream, and generations began to be educated on such issues, we could stop this form homophobic behaviour, and change the attitudes thus protecting future generations from history being repeated. The bottom line is religion, race, and sexual preference aside, we're all just the same: human. The world forgets that sometimes I guess.

References

Bull, M., Pinto, S. & Wilson, P. (1991) No.29 Homosexual law reform in Australia. Trends & Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice. Australian Institute of Criminology: Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Croome, R. (2006). Gay Law Reform. In The Companion to Tasmanian History. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania: Australia.

Katz, S. T. (1989). Quantity and interpretation – issues in the comparative historical analysis of the holocaust. Holocaust & Genocide Studies, 4(2), 127-148.

Morris, N. & Hawkins, G. (1970) The Hones Politician’s Guide to Crime Control. The University of Chicago Press.

Smith, S. (2010, October 1). US students held over classmate's death. Retrieved October 17, 2010: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-students-held-over-classmates-death-20101001-15zl5.html