Alexander “Lex” Watson was born in Perth, WA, in 1943. He began teaching politics at the University of Sydney in 1964. He was a founding member of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP) formed in Sydney in 1970, which was Australia’s first openly gay advocacy organisation. From the early 1970s Watson was a regular contributor to the Sydney Star newspaper and was featured in several interviews about gay rights by other Australian media. In 1980, with Craig Johnston, Watson helped establish the Gay Rights Lobby (GRL) (now known as the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby), and began the push to decriminalise homosexual acts under the Crimes Act 1900. Watson helped to form the AIDS Action Committee in mid-1983, which later became the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON), serving as its first president. After his retirement from Sydney University, Lex became involved in the Pride History Group, Sydney’s gay and lesbian history group. At the time of his death, in May 2014, he was president of this key LGBT history association.
