Robert French – LGBTI Activist

Robert French’s proudest moment as an LGBTI rights activist came after police raided and arrested 27 people at a sex club called Club 80 in Paddington, Sydney. The year was 1983, just one year before NSW decriminalised homosexuality. “Twenty-eight of us signed statutory declarations to say we had done the same things. Lex Watson and myself were the first two to present our declarations to the vice squad,” French said. “We said, ‘we’ve done the same things you’ve arrested these people for, arrest us’.” They weren’t arrested and French went on to help form Australia’s first police gay liaison group, based on the San Francisco model. For full story click here.