Lex Watson was at the forefront of bringing change in Australia
Pioneering gay rights campaigner Lex Watson was born on this day in 1943.
Watson was born in Perth, spent some of his formative years in Geraldton, before attending the Perth Modern School and the University of Western Australia, where he won a scholarship and studied History, English and Philosophy.
Watson moved to Sydney to continue his studies and worked teaching politics in the Government Department of Sydney University. He became passionate about the rights of gays and lesbians and became involved with law reform, joining the ACT Homosexual Law Reform Society in 1970.
He was a founding member of Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), Australia’s first openly homosexual group. Watson has been credited with consolidating the organisation that paved the way for LGBT Rights in Australia as the group’s first co-president.
In 1976 he appeared on the ABC program Monday Conference to discuss the issue of gay rights, the interview was filmed in Mount Isa, Queensland in front of a hostile live audience.
At one point a member of the audience threw excrement at Watson, while another said the Cyclone Tracy disaster in Darwin was a message form God in response to the growing number of visible gay people in Australia.
Audience members asked questions which would astound Australians today, but one by one Lex Watson defended gay people from a wide range of often incredulous accusations.
Watson spent his life advocating for the rights of the LGBT community, and assisted in creating a dialogue between the gay and medical communities in the midst of the development of public awareness of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. He was a regular writer for the Sydney Star newspaper and continued to speak out for gay rights throughout his life.
He became founding president of the AIDS Council of NSW in 1985, and also founded NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby. In later years Watson became dedicated to recording the history of the LGBT community, and held a presidency of the Pride History Group.
Lex Watson passed away on the 6th May 2014. In June he was posthumously appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Watson had been informed of the award prior to his passing.
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