Reclaimed youth

On a warm spring day in 1967, seventeen year-old Peter McEwan was arrested by undercover police officers on Melbourne’s Brighton Beach for being with another man. In the following months, Peter had to endure court appearances, psychiatric assessments and having his name published on the front pages of the newspaper, among other things. But the experience eventually propelled Peter’s involvement in the early Gay Liberation Movement in Melbourne during the early 1970s. Peter and I return to the spot where he was arrested to reclaim the space as one of victory and triumph.