High Court judge Michael Kirby was forced to abandon his dream of becoming an Australian prime minister because he had to hide being gay in an era when it was illegal, his brother has said.
David Kirby, a retired judge, recalled how his high-profile sibling did everything to keep his same-sex attraction a secret during the 1960s, when homosexuality was a crime.
His older brother constantly studied in his youth to keep himself busy instead of going on dates or attending parties.
Michael Kirby (left with his partner Johan van Vlote) hid his homosexuality as esteemed judge
Retired NSW Supreme Court judge David Kirby says his older brother Michael could have been prime minister if he didn’t have to hide his homosexuality
‘From an early age he did little else than study. We all thought that one day he would be prime minister,’ David Kirby said in a moving piece for The Sydney Morning Herald.
David Kirby laments how his older brother, who was president of the University of Sydney Students’ Representative Council in 1962, could have been prime minister if he was straight.
‘At the end of his 20s, Michael determined that the price for his ambition was too high,’ he said.
‘He faced a life in which he would never know the intimate touch of someone he loved. He abandoned any thought of politics.’
Despite being a High Court judge, Michael Kirby kept his sexuality a secret until 1999 (pictured at his retirement ceremony in 2009)
In 1969, when Michael Kirby had turned 30, he met his life-long partner Johan van Vloten.
He kept his homosexuality a secret for another 30 years, until 1999, when as a High Court judge in Canberra Michael Kirby revealed his soulmate in a Who’s Who entry in a book of prominent Australians.
Michael Kirby had to keep his sexuality a secret during a large part of his illustrious legal career, that saw him serve as a Federal Court judge and as president of the New South Wales Court of Appeal.
Homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in NSW until 1984, when Michael Kirby was already in his mid-forties.
Revealing his private life could have potentially seen him imprisoned, destroying his livelihood in the legal fraternity, which would almost certainly have stopped him serving on the High Court bench from 1996 until his retirement in 2009.
He later did a report for the United States on torture in North Korea.
Michael Kirby studied hard as a young man instead of going on dates because he was gay
David Kirby, a retired NSW Supreme Court judge, didn’t face the same constraints as a straight man.
Now 78, Michael Kirby has announced he is voting ‘Yes’ in the same-sex marriage postal vote survey despite his earlier misgivings about the idea of polling Australians on an issue unrelated to changing the constitution.
His partner Johan, however, is abstaining from the poll because he disapproves of Australians being asked to cast an opinion on gay relationships as part of the $122 million poll.
David Kirby says his older brother and his partner are ‘just like any other couple’.
‘They are still together 48 years later. It is a privilege to be in their company,’ he said, adding he would be voting ‘Yes’ in the same-sex marriage postal vote survey.