NEWS

Ray Israel

Trust Fund

The April 10 public meeting at the Sydney Gay Centre passed resolutions to set up a Trust for the Lambda Legal Defence fund to administer all monies collected.

The 17 men charged with Crimes' Act and other offences during the Club 80 raids earlier this year will be the first applicants for financial assistance from the Trust, but not the last. As long as lesbians and gay men are harassed there will be a need for the provision of adequate legal resources. The Trust, through the financing of court costs, will provide an essential starting point in this long-term struggle for democratic rights.

Any person who is a defendant in a case where their sexuality is in any way a question will be able to apply for funding.

In deciding upon requests for help the Trustees will consider such things as the financial need of the person concerned, the availability of legal aid through government channels, and the legal and political significance of the case.

The five Trustees of the fund are to be elected annually. The first Trustees are Jan Aitken, Kate Harrison, Ray Israel, John Murray and John Schwartzkopf. Between them these five have a range of accounting, business, legal and welfare experience that should get the Trust off to a sound start.

Fund-raising for the Lambda Fund is already under way. A number of groups and individuals have made initial donations, and a number of fund-raising functions at well-known venues have already been organised. Continuing financial support will be necessary if the Trust is to raise the sort of money needed to make it a really useful resource.

The Trustees are now working on the preparation of a formal trust deed which SYDNEY: A defence fund for the will place the fund on a sound legal footcontesting of police actions and ing and which will spell out in detail charges has emerged from public the precise method of operation. meetings around the Club 80 arrests. The task group that has been meeting The first raid on the Sydney venue for the duration of the Club 80 campaign sparked, in addition to a variety of has formalised itself into the Gay Defence political activities, a commitment Campaign. This new grouping will be conto meet the legal expenses of those Lambda Trust and for the broader law centrating on fund-raising, both for the charged. This initial commitment reform campaign. It is anticipated that has now deepened into a long-term lobbying and political work will continue project. to be carried out by the existing groups.

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Prostitution and Police

SYDNEY: Following on from the introduction of new soliciting laws, the Wran Government has set up a Parliamentary Select Committee to look into prostitution. The committee will have to balance the demands of Darlinghurst residents with those who fear that increase in police power will increase corruption, and violence against minorities.

The Select Committee is headed by Labor MP Pat Rogan and includes Fred Miller and Don Baumann, all of whom have reasonable voting records on homosexual law reform. The other two places on the Committee were to be filled by John Dowd and a Country Party member, neither of whom will now be serving.

Gay community organisations are expected to make submissions arguing for the legalisation of prostitution, the repeal of laws giving police excessive power, and an increase in welfare and health backup for street people and others effected.

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Continued from page 5

According to Gay Rights Lobby member, Craig Johnston, the Disorderly Houses Act is archaic and repressive and should be repealed on civil libertarian grounds.

"The NSW Legislative Assembly's Select Committee upon Prostitution will presumably be looking at this law in their report: they should be urged to recommend its repeal. In the meantime the Disorderly Houses Act can only be added to the list of laws not specifically aimed at homosexuals which have been used against us in a discriminatory way. The diligence of the police in dragging up laws knows no bounds. Who knows what other corpses will have life breathed into them," he said.

Sydney gays have responded to the closure of Club 80 by calling on the NSW Attorney General, Paul Landa, to repeal the Disorderly Houses Act. They have also suggested that the Criminal Law Review Division of his department and the NSW Law Reform Commission research and isolate any other statutory or common law offences which are open to anti-gay interpretation.

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