Living the gay life: identity and politics in twentieth century Australia

In days not too distant past, to turn twenty-one was to reach the age of (heterosexual) consent. When I was growing up in rural Victoria, I understood this to mean the age that one could get married without parental consent. At least that is how my mother explained it to me. What was left out of this parental discourse, like so many official stories in small-town Victoria, was sex.