LGBTI rights advocate Anne Deveson passed away aged 86

LGBTI rights advocate Anne Deveson passed away aged 86
Image: Dr Anne Deveson. Picture: Western Sydney University

JOURNALIST, writer and advocate of LGBTI rights Anne Deveson has died at the age of 86.

Many in the LGBTI community know of Deveson from her role as a Commissioner on the 1976 Royal Commission into Human Relationships that recommended anti-discrimination protections for gay and lesbian people, and called for the end of criminalisation of gay male sexual behaviour.

She was a longtime advocate of LGBTI people, and was one of the first Australia journalists to discuss and support law reform – reporting on LGBTI rights on her Sydney Radio 2GB and Channel 7 news programs as early as 1968.

Diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2014, Deveson died at her home on Friday. Her daughter, novelist Georgia Blain died several days earlier after being diagnosed with incurable brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 51.

Deveson released a book Tell Me I’m Here, and a film Spinning Out, about her son’s battle with schizophrenia and eventual drug overdose. She also helped established national body Schizophrenia Australia.

She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1983.

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