From the Independent Weekly:Judge Michael Kirby, who retires next Monday, aged 70, showed courage both outside and inside chambers. Australia's first openly gay High Court judge famously "outed" himself with an entry in Who's Who.
A maverick in the often musty legal profession, the nation's longest-serving judge thought it was "uncool" to be predictable. So when it came time to give one of his final public speeches, he spoke in praise of a four-letter word he said had the power to extinguish human rights injustices, racism and discrimination.
"I refer to love," Justice Kirby said in a festive season speech in Brisbane. "Love for one another, love for our community, love for others everywhere in the world. I have always thought that the essential underpinning of fundamental human rights is love.
"Some Australians still did not love their indigenous people, consigning them to the outskirts of civilisation. So too with Asian people in the decades of White Australia. We did not love them either. So also for women and for gays."
It was the last that affected him most directly, never more so than in 2002 when Liberal senator Bill Heffernan used parliamentary privilege to accuse Justice Kirby of misusing his taxpayer-funded car and of trawling for under-aged male prostitutes in Sydney.
Senator Heffernan's evidence turned out to be a forgery, and he was forced to apologise. But it was the dignity of Justice Kirby's response that stuck in many minds.
"I accept Senator Heffernan's apology and reach out my hand in a spirit of reconciliation," he said. "I hope my ordeal will show the wrongs that hate of homosexuals can lead to."
Kirby did not come out until 1999, but thereafter quickly embraced his status as an iconic gay Australian. He visited schools and encouraged gay students to feel comfortable about their sexuality. He spoke publicly in support of gay rights, and opened the 2002 Gay Games, where he said the "unstoppable" movement for equality would eventually reach the four corners of the world.
As an Anglican Christian, he accused Sydney's Anglican and Catholic archbishops, Peter Jensen and George Pell, of reinforcing homophobia.
He campaigned for same-sex marriages, saying Australia lagged behind many countries and the relationships of gay couples could only be registered, "rather like a dog or busker's licence".
He won a victory late in 2008 when federal MPs agreed on measures which included equalising his partner Johan with the pension rights of the partners of other judges.
Read the rest HERE.
h/t MadPriest
And so it goes.
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I am most impressed with his response to the one who would have defamed him via forgery. For so many reasons this man has class.
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