What is interesting for Rainbow Sash Supporters was how clearly Justice Kirby laid much of the blame for this injustice at the feet of the church and religious leaders. Coming from a man who is not from the religious world but has a unique view on our society, he speaks with a clarity that is worth reviewing, word for word! 

SOME QUOTES from Michael Kirby: 

(NARRATOR: ....but there is a long way to go.  Exemptions in the State anti-discrimination legislation still allows church schools to sack gay and lesbian teachers and a those schools remain free to teach that homosexual acts our sinful)

.............."In some religious schools, it's really quite difficult for teachers to embark upon a scientific explanation of homosexuality because the science challenges the understanding of the holy book, and therefore if we are serious about the very large number of pupils who are in church schools and religious schools, of every domination in Australia, then it will be necessary to reach out to those and not simply to say, "Well, They're entitled to teach whatever they like in their church schools, it's a matter of doctrine" insofar as that doctrine is causing hatred, violence, pain and discrimination and the indelible attitudes to homosexual people, which makes it difficult to change, then it may just have to give, because protection of minorities is a very important attribute of a democracy, and we have come to realise that in Australia in my lifetime, in respect of women, in respect of people of colour, as the White Australia policy was abandoned, in respect of aboriginal Australians, and the next step on the journey is understanding it in relation to homosexual Australians....".

"..........We are seeing more recently in the courts cases which are being defended on the basis that a person made a non-violent approach of a sexual kind to another and that this is said to excuse the homicide of the perpetrator, so that the so-called "homosexual advance defence"  is a phenomena which has burst upon the legal scene in the United States and in other western countries and in Australia.........."

SOME PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON HIS OWN 'COMING OUT:

"...........If I had been completely candid there was a risk that I would be put into a box as the 'gay judge' and if that had happened to me I would not be sitting where I am now in the High Court of Australia.  -- That is the unfortunate truth: that there is a glass ceiling for women, and there is a glass ceiling for gays.  But it was my partner who said to me, "You owe this to younger homosexual people, this is something we both owe to make the point that homosexuals are responsible people; they do not fit the stereotype necessarily, and they are everywhere"  Now, since I did that I have had a loss of hate mail but I have also had a lot of support and the support has overwhelmingly been from straight people, heterosexual people, so that times are changing, but they will only change if we break the code of silence because it is the code of silence that lulls some people into the false belief that homosexuals are a small group of wilful, evil people who are simply defying the order of God and nature . Well it is just not like that, and people have got to be told that it's not like that.

I've certainly received a number of letters of hate since my public statements about homosexuality, most of them, I regret to say, written by people of a religious background.  These are hurtful, but I believe they represent at a minority viewpoint in society and you just have to wear them as an example of the changing times.  If the choice is between silence and upsetting nobody, or honesty and candour and upsetting a few who had demons in their minds, then I'm afraid people like me have to accept the latter, and it is only by doing so, and by bringing home the truth, that we will change things, but change we will, and change we must................."