The jury was not convinced and both men were found guilty and sentenced to 15 months hard labour at Pentridge.
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Lindsay swore that the puff was a necessary piece of his professional kit, which he had put in his pocket without thinking in the rush of his packing when leaving his last engagement in Wonthaggi two days previously. The court chose to believe the watchman's story, particularly after a powder puff with rouge was found in Lindsay's pocket. The pair maintained that neither was aware of the other's presence in the doorway until a suspicious night watchman shone his electric torch on them. Later in court, the two denied doing anything wrong Gore said he had stepped into the doorway to answer a call of nature, whilst Lindsay explained that he had bought a new pair of braces that day and was in the process of adjusting them as they were too tight. Around midnight on a Saturday in March 1925, wharf labourer James Gore was discovered in a darkened doorway of a warehouse in Wright's Lane in the central city with his trousers around his knees and his 'person' in the 'fundament' of Selwyn Lindsay, an actor.
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Melbourne's web of laneways also offered opportunities for sexual encounters. hile many people may find the notion utterly repugnant, it should be pointed out that if society denies access to legitimate meeting places for a minority, that minority simply develops its own meeting places, often by subverting institutions of the dominant culture. or many male homosexuals, public toilets provided a venue for both fast anonymous sex and also – and more than just occasionally – a place where one could simply meet others of one's own kind. It is contentious not only because of the alleged nuisance problem, and alleged danger to minors, but also because it involves the issue of 'public' – and multiple partner – sex, notions that parts of our society find distasteful. But one of the more contentious uses of society's institutions relates to the use, as a beat, of those generally ugly but ubiquitous facilities: public toilets. This has been necessary since the ways in which heterosexuals can meet each other openly are not available to homosexuals. Imaginative in creating other uses for a range of institutions established by the dominant culture, be they hotels, restaurants, cafes, baths or dressing sheds.
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Then as now, the subculture ranged from men who didn't identify as homosexual (a word first used in an Australian newspaper in 1906) 9 and who might live 'normal' lives, married in the suburbs and occasionally indulge in a furtive encounter in a park or other quiet place men who lived with other men quietly as committed couples, passing themselves off as brothers, cousins or best friends to the neighbours, recognisable 'queans' who, though dressed as men, used makeup and effeminate mannerisms and a few, very brave souls who ventured out in full drag, even during the day to 'pass' (ie, as a woman) in Collins Street or Bourke Street. Added to these usual concerns was the fact that they belonged to a secret subculture, potentially liable to prosecution and social exposure. Of course, at any time in history, homosexual men have the same needs, concerns and activities as the wider population – finding somewhere to live, some way of supporting themselves, feeding themselves, and holding together relationships, be they family, friends or lovers. Although first time offenders of minor acts and those involving consenting adults, would often be fined or held over on good behaviour bonds, being caught in a homosexual act had wider consequences than just court and punishment names and addresses were published in the press (particularly the tabloid press), and social ostracism and disgrace would follow. Acts of sodomy, attempted sodomy or 'indecent assault upon a male person' attracted penalties of up to ten years imprisonment with hard labour and, thanks to new legislation introduced in 1919, any form of actual or attempted 'gross indecency' committed whether in public or in private was also potentially punishable with prison terms. Although the 1920s are usually portrayed as a period of liberation and rebellion following the horrors of the Great War, and as homosexual reform movements and subcultures developed in large cities around the world, including London, Paris and Berlin, homosexual lives and acts in Melbourne between the Wars were played out against a more restrictive legal and social background.
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