Rodney Croome: Last News

When Tony and Doug (names changed for privacy), a gay couple, who had lived interstate and overseas, moved to a small rural town in Southern Tasmania, they were looking forward to life away from the fast pace they were used to. What they did not bargain was for a year-long campaign of harassment and homophobic abuse directed at them by their next-door neighbour. A court in Tasmania recently held the woman guilty of anti-gay abuse and sentenced her to six weeks in prison.

Jeremy Rockliff, the Premier and Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing, last week announced the 2022-2023 implementation plan for the Tasmania’s mental health strategy.Trigger Warning: This story discusses mental health and suicide, which might be distressing to some readers. For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.The “Rethink 2022-23 Implementation Program” identified LGBTQI Tasmanians as one of three priority groups they are aiming this strategy towards.

Thirty four years ago a young newly graduated police constable Tim Dooley arrested LGBTQI activist Rodney Croome, who was calling for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Tasmania. Last week the two met for the first time after over three decades in very different circumstances. This was just the second encounter between Cooley, now a Commander with the Tasmanian Police, and Croome, a former Tasmanian of the Year, who was appointed Member of Order of Australia for his LGBTQI activism in 2003. Croome recalls that in 1988 the LGBTQI community’s relationship with the local police were “at a low ebb”. In 1988, Tasmania’s LGBTQI community started their decade long battle to call for the repeal of the law that criminalised homosexuality with up to 21 years imprisonment.

Miriam Margolyes came out as a lesbian in the 1960s, but is has only just experienced the joy of attending her first Pride. We know and love the 81-year-old Harry Potter star for her witty comments and scandalous stories, but now she’s opening up about her own past and what it was like to come out. The actress shared her story in ABC’s Australia Unmasked, with the British-Australian star taking a dive into the history of LGBTQ+ rights Down Under.

After winning praise for Almost Australian, actor Miriam Margolyes is back on TV screens with her new docuseries Australia Unmasked on ABC. The first episode sees Margolyes taking part in her first ever Pride parade in Hobart, with renowned Tasmanian LGBTQI activist Rodney Croome. “It was a privilege to have Miriam Margolyes highlight how Tasmania has gone from worst to best on LGBTIQA+ human rights,” Croome tweeted after the episode was broadcast.In her journey of unmasking Australia’s cultural crumbs, Margolyes arrives in Tasmania in the first episode. Not only does she get a chance to communicate with and unpack intricacies in the lives of Aboriginal Australian, but she also stumbles upon Croome in Ulverstone – a town of 15000 people at the mouth of Leven River.

The Tasmanian Catholic Church’s attempts to pit medical and health care professionals against a report about harmful conversion practices has been dubbed a “misinformation campaign”. The Tasmanian Law Reform Institute (TLRI) has called out the “incorrect” statements made about its report in the Catholic Standard, the official print publication of the Catholic Church in Tasmania. Earlier this month, a TLRI report had recommended law reforms to deal with unscientific and harmful conversion practices to change a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

Tasmania was the last jurisdiction in Australia to decriminalise male same-sex relationships and on Sunday May 1, the LGBTQI community celebrated 25th anniversary of that historic event. Before the law was changed on May 1, 1997, any sexual relationship between men was illegal and punishable with 21 years in gaol. Tasmania was also the only state in Australia to outlaw crossdressing – the law was repealed in 2000. Governor Barbara Baker AC hosted a reception for LGBTQI activists at Government House on Sunday to mark the anniversary.

ABC reported the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is allowing people who have had COVID-19 to donate blood a week after recovering from it.Queer men expressed their annoyance and anger on as the Red Cross has not eased the restrictions on blood donations in Australia for men who have same-sex sexual relations.One person responded to the ABC article via with the tweet, “Maybe if the Red Cross weren’t discriminatory against Gay, Trans and Non-Binary people, there would be more people who could donate?”Maybe if the Red Cross weren't discrimatory against Gay, Trans and Non Binary people, there would be more people who could donate?— Lady_Caster (@Noir_Duck) January 18, 2022Another person tweeted, “I was born with a toxic blood condition and cannot donate. My blood type is LGBTIQA-positive….”I was born with a toxic blood condition and cannot donate.

Tasmanians will head to the polls for the state’s Parliament on May 1.

Transgender rights advocate Martine Delaney has been inducted into the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women, becoming the first transgender woman to be recognised with the award.“It was a bit of a humbling thing to certainly find myself in that position,” Delaney said. “It’s not something transgender women in Tasmania have been nominated or inducted into previously.”Martine Delaney was a board member of Equality Tasmania, Australian Marriage Equality, and a member of Transforming Tasmania.

A gay man in Tasmania lost the court battle that he had waged after he was denied recognition as next-of-kin when his partner died six years ago.Hobart resident Ben Jago had appealed in the Supreme Court of Tasmania to take away the immunity granted to the Tasmanian Coroner’s Office from any action under the state’s anti-discrimination law. Ben had been denied senior next of kin recognition by the Coroner after his partner Nathan Lunson died by sucide in 2015. Justice Helen Wood ruled that the Coroner is immune from complaints under the  anti-discrimination law.

Six years after the death of his partner Nathan Lunson, Tasmanian resident Ben Jago is still waiting for justice and to be recognised as the next of kin. Ben Jago’s appeal seeking that the immunity from the anti-discrimination law to the Tasmanian Coroner’s Office, which had not granted him next of kin recognition, be taken away is pending in the Supreme Court of Tasmania. The Supreme Court of Tasmania last heard Ben’s case almost two years ago, but is yet to deliver a verdict, and this has frustrated him and his lawyers. “It has been over six years.

LGBTQI advocacy group, just.equal, has written to all Australian federal, state and territory health ministers asking them to support a complete removal of the celibacy requirement for LGBTQI men who want to give blood.