Craig Fredric Johnston (born 1951) is an LGBT activist and former politician. He was active in the Australian Labor Party, Communist Party of Australia. He is considered a founding member of the gay rights movement in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s, having established the Gay Rights Lobby with Lex Watson in 1980, four years before homosexuality was decriminalised in New South Wales in 1984.Australian LGBTIQ history timeline: the 20th century by Destiny Rogers; Qnews (28 March 2020)/
Education
An activist and office-holder with the Australian Union of Students, he dropped out of a University of New South Wales Commerce degree and then completed a Political Science degree with Honours at the University of Sydney.Union of Students Tharunka 18 April 1977 page 12
Activism
He had become a "leading gay activist" by the late 1970s and 1980s, and was involved in the beginnings of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as well as co-organising the first AIDS candlelight vigils in Australia.Marsh, Ian, and Larry Galbraith. "The political impact of the Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras." Australian Journal of Political Science 30.2 (1995): 300-320.Stonewall 1981 Tribune 1 July 1981 page 2Gay mobilisation against AIDS Tribune 13 February 1985 page 14 In 1980 he co-founded the Gay Rights Lobby with Lex Watson.Hansard New South Wales Legislative Assembly 28 May 2014
Johnston is considered one of Australia's "most important gay activists" both for his practical activities and "his contribution to the theory and practice of gay politics."
Sydney City Council
He was elected as Sydney City Council alderman in 1984. Along with independents Brian McGahen and Bill Hunt, aldermen elected in the same year, he was one of the first gay city officials in Sydney. Initially elected for the Australian Labor Party (ALP), as a member of the party's left wing, he was expelled in 1985 for refusing to vote with the Liberal Party members of Council as directed by the state ALP branch.Labor aldermen expelled Canberra Times 3 October 1985 page 10ALP expels rebel city alderman] Sydney Morning Herald 3 October 1985 page 10 He continued to sit as an independent and served until 1987.
Publishing
Johnston is the author of several works on the gay rights movement, with a particular focus on Sydney, including: Homosexuality: myths and realities (1982) A Sydney gaze : the making of gay liberation (1999) Queer city: gay and lesbian politics in Sydney (2001; co-authored with Paul van Reyk) Political and academic writing, generally focused on local and Australian social issues, has included texts for the Australian Left Review Alternative Law Journal, Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, and Labour History (journal), while for the gay press he contributed to the Sydney Star Observer.
References