This was the first Australian film that dared to feature an actual gay romance as its main theme. Here are 15 of the greatest Aussie LGBTQI flicks to watch: 1. Big screen gay love stories rarely seem to end happily. With such a hateful swamp of conservative legislators, it was left to the movie industry to fight for equal rights in love, marriage and child custody law, hence why, in nearly all of the movies here, the gay relationship is a ‘problem’ for wider society and the participants endure abuse, violence or hate. (Lesbian sex, meanwhile, has never been illegal.) Even then, the stubborn pollies in Tasmania made sure it was still a crime there until 1997. It’s staggering that homosexual acts between men were only made legal throughout Australia in 1994, the same year The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of the Desert exploded joyfully into cinemas the world over.
Then the authorities came to their senses and ruled that instead, it merited a mere 20 years in jail – double the maximum sentence for statutory rape.
Until 1949, having gay sex was a hanging offence in Victoria.
