A newspaper article from 1932 has been uncovered that shows that gay men were seeking to marry each other in Australia as long ago as 80 years ago.

In an article in the tabloid The Arrow newspaper entitled ‘Wide Open Immorality,’ the newspaper’s writers describe a growing gay subculture with men marrying men and appeal for police action to halt the phenomenon.

‘The growth of the pervert population of Brisbane, beautiful capital of Queensland, is astounding, and in the last year hundreds of these queer semi-feminine men have made the city their headquarters,’ the newspaper wrote.

‘Now they have evolved into a cult, with two main sects, one on the north and the other on the south side of the town, with the river dividing them. And occasionally they meet at queer, indecent, degrading ceremonies when perverted lusts come into full play and shocking rituals are celebrated.

‘In the last two weeks there have been two ‘weddings’ — ghastly, horrifying spectacles of painted men and primping lads united in a sacrilegious blasphemy that they call the ‘bonds of matrimony.’’ the newspaper wrote.

‘They conduct these luridly immoral gatherings absolutely free from police interference. … Professional people have been invited as guests to witness the weddings — astounding revelation that perversion of this rotten type is so openly accepted in Brisbane. Nowhere else in the world — not even In Berlin, with its open homosexual clubs — is there the open boast that there are these ceremonies or the widespread extension of this sordid cult of male perversion. ‘

‘It is all conducted in these gatherings as if there were no ban on this horrifying indecency … This in Brisbane, in the year 1932 ! It is almost unbelievable.

The Arrow called for swift action against the city’s gay population.

‘The city is full of them, and more come from the other States regularly to swell the numbers,’ the newspaper wrote.

‘The nests of them should be cleaned out, and the whole of the horrid business scattered to the four winds. At present it is a scandal of evil almost unprecedented. Weddings between men, with city lights looking on and enjoying the ‘ceremonies,’ can only prove one thing — that Brisbane by tolerating them is earning for itself the name of the most wicked city in the Commonwealth. … Police action, speedily, please!

The article was shared by openly gay Australian stand up comedian Tom Ballard who tweeted, ‘Apparently Brisbane was holding same-sex weddings in 1932. They received pretty bad reviews.’

Local residents across Sydney have created their own rainbow crossings in chalk after the New South Wales (NSW) State Government dismissed public pressure and had a rainbow pride crossing installed for the Sydney Mardi Gras torn up in the dead of night on Wednesday.

Not even Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore had been told that road workers would be blocking off Sydney’s iconic Oxford Street to tear up the rainbow section of the road and replace it with black bitumen.

The following day a group of residents in Commonwealth Lane, Surry Hills, used colored chalk to make their own rainbow crossing and posted a photo online and the story went viral.

A grassed section of Sydney’s Taylor Square was also planted with dozens of rainbow flags to protest the removal.

By Saturday there were dozens of copycat chalk rainbow crossings across Sydney– with shelves cleared of chalk in many inner city stores.

Photos of rainbow chalk crossings were sent by copycats to a Facebook page created by the makers of the original crossing, brother and sister James and Kelly Brechney.

That page now has over 8,000 supporters. The petition to keep the Oxford Street crossing had received nearly 16,000 signatures but the NSW Government ignored it.

Chalk rainbow crossings have appeared as far a field as Kenya and Phoenix, Arizona, in New South Wales rural centers and across state lines in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.

One brave group of protesters even turned the footpath outside the building where NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay works into a rainbow chalk crossing.

Minister Gay is the man who had the ultimate say on whether the Oxford Street crossing would stay but he refused to relent in his plans for its removal – saying it posed a potential hazard as people had stopped to photograph themselves on the crossing when traffic was stopped at the lights.

New chalk crossings have continued to appear today and many sympathetic businesses have marked the pavement outside their shops, bars and restaurants to show support for the return of the original crossing.

Many people turned to social media to write how neighbours they had never met before who had spontaneously chipped in to help were now their friends.

‘We met more of our neighbours in an hour while making this than we have over the past six months living here,’ wrote Camperdown resident Munir Kotadia.

The Oxford Street crossing cost $75,000 to install and $30,000 to tear up. The chalk ones will just wash away with the rain.

A judge ruled yesterday that the ban on same-sex marriage in Australia does not constitute sex discrimination.

Gay rights activist Simon Margan brought a legal challenge against the Australian government and the states of Queensland and New South Wales for not allowing same-sex marriage. 

Margan said he lodged the complaint on behalf of ‘a number of homosexual and bisexual men and women and transgender and intersex persons’ who experienced ‘unlawful discrimination based on sex and marital status by reason of the inability of those persons to register same sex marriages’.

Justice Jayne Jagot ruled yesterday that the ban on same-sex marriage cannot be seen as sex discrimination because ‘the treatment of the person of the opposite sex is the same’.

‘Hence, a man cannot enter into the state of marriage as defined with another man just as a woman cannot enter into the state of marriage with another woman as defined,’ said Jagot in her ruling.

Australian Marriage Equality (AME) said that the Federal Court’s ruling shows that politicians should take action on same-sex marriage.

‘If our courts feel powerless to remove discrimination the majority of Australians oppose then it’s up to politicians to act,’ said AME national director Rodney Croome.

‘This issue has become a test of the capacity of Australia’s democratic institutions to respond to popular and over due reform.’

Same-sex marriage bills were defeated in the Australian Senate and House of Representatives last year.

Nearly a thousand people marched for marriage equality in central Sydney on Sunday, with thousands more marching in other cities over the weekend.

Speakers at the rally included New South Wales (NSW) state Upper House Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convener Rodney Croome and Vietnam veteran and father to a gay son Jeff Thomas who has previously challenged the Australian Prime Minister and Opposition Leader to explain their opposition on live TV.

Thomas told the crowd about his journey out of the homophobia that had been instilled in him in the military that had begun after his son came out to him seven years ago.

‘I took the telephone and told my son that I loved him and that I support him and that I would look at my attitudes and change my ways,’ Thomas told a crowd to cheers.

‘[Today] the only thing that I don’t like about my son being gay is that he is not treated equally in his own bloody country.

‘Being gay is not a lifestyle choice … all the opposition to the gay community is based in fear, ignorance and prejudice.’

Faehrmann pointed to the success of a NSW Upper House motion directing Australia’s national parliament to legalize same-sex marriage in a state parliament where conservative parties held power as proof that progress could still be made in Australia on the issue.

‘You can rest assured that the Greens will continue to introduce marriage equality legislation in every single [state] parliament across this country until we win. And we will continue to do that at a federal level as well whether it is convenient for [other] political parties or not.

Faehrmann pointed to the formation of an LGBT working group in the NSW Parliament with members from the Greens, Labor, Liberals and Nationals parties to contrast the refusal of federal parliamentarians to pass legislation to solve the problem.

Protestors then took to the streets, marching from Sydney’s Town Hall to Taylor Square, with the crowd swelling as pedestrians joined in.

Half way up Oxford Street the march halted while two same-sex couples had a brief marriage ceremony conducted by a pastor from the Metropolitan Community Church.

After the march reached Taylor Square a forum on the future of the marriage equality movement in Australia was held at a nearby venue.

AME’s Rodney Croome told the room that he was ‘60 percent’ sure that an Australian state or territory would legalize same-sex marriage in 2013 which would make the issue real for mainstream Australians, while the legalization of it in the UK, France and New Zealand would further bring the issue home.

Croome said there were important lessons that could be learned from the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in more states during the US Presidential Election – particularly the benefits of involving religious supporters and telling personal stories about the families of same-sex couples.

A rally in Brisbane on Sunday saw a turnout of close to five hundred, while marches held the day before in Perth and Melbourne attracted hundreds more.