In Search of a Queerer Law: Two People's Tribunals in 1976

Abstract

In 1976, two people’s tribunals took place which considered issues relating to non-normative sexuality. ‘People’s tribunals’ are civil society initiatives that assert a popular jurisdiction which operates outside of both the state and international institutions. In Brussels, there was the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, which treated ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ as a crime. On the other side of the world, in Sydney, there was the Tribunal on Homosexuals and Discrimination. These people’s tribunals are sometimes treated as forerunners to later developments relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights in international law. In 1994, for example, Australian jurist Michael Kirby drew a link between the 1976 Tribunal on Homosexuals and Discrimination to the UN Human Rights Committee’s 1994 decision in Toonen v. Australia. In this paper, by contrast, I engage in a queer reading of the Brussels and Sydney Tribunals, whereby I consider how the legal framings and procedures adopted by the two tribunals diverged from the LGBTI rights framework that would later develop. In doing so, my aim is to shine a light on alternative, queerer legal possibilities, as well as to open up a conversation about using people’s tribunals as queer method into the future.

Keywords: Queer Theory, People's Tribunals, International Law, LGBTIQ Rights, Sexuality Rights, 1970s, Prefigurative Politics