The Greatest Menace

The story of Australia's gay prison is little known and risks being lost to the rubbish bin of history. Governments have never acknowledged the historical wrongs of the prison, let alone apologised for them. This documentary will uncover and preserve this story before it's too late.

This documentary will bring awareness to a largely forgotten part of Australian history, helping us understand what the LGBTQI community has overcome historically and the struggle still ahead to end gay conversion therapy. The project is aligned with the objectives of many community and philanthropic organisations working in this space.

We hope the project will heighten understanding of the historical criminalisation of homosexuality in Australia, and how present day gay conversion therapy has roots in 20th century psychiatric treatment of homosexuality. We hope the project will build momentum towards a government apology for the treatment of gay prisoners at Cooma gaol and at other facilities. We hope that exposing the secrets of past governments and the intrinsic homophobia that has been entrenched within many institutions since the inception of gay aversion therapy will go some way towards criminalising modern day gay conversion therapy everywhere. We would like to see a world in which the practice is eradicated for good.

We are working with some of Australia's most respected LGBTIQ+ historians and activists who are advising us on how to maximise the impact of the film.

We will encourage viewers to support the campaign for a government apology for the historical treatment of the LGBTIQ+ community in the prison system.

The impact will be measured by the public response to the film and increased journalistic and academic attention around the subject. Ultimately, success will be measure by a government acknowledgement of and apology for this history.