Meet Barry Charles, better known in the Sydney community as Troughman

19th February 2026 Luka Musicki

Barry Charles is a happily retired 75-year-old with a long history of involvement in Sydney’s LGBTQI community. As a child of working-class parents in the suburb of Punchbowl (south-west Sydney), he grew up and, as long as he can remember, had an attraction to other boys at his age. At the age of fourteen, he finally had a word to label himself with…homosexual. It was something obviously not approved of and though he felt no shame or guilt; it had to remain his little secret. This was the 1960s. There were no positive images of gay men and he had no idea where to find others. In 1969 (at age 18), he finally had his first adult sexual encounter in a public toilet (no surprises there) in an old Sydney department store.

He fully came out in 1971 by being a founding member of the University of New South Wales Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP). Becoming a life long gay rights activist, he was Secretary of UNSW Gay Lib. (1972-74) and a participant in The Street Parade on 24 June 1978 which was the First Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. That was an awesome time in his life as the month before in New York, he discovered my number one sexual turn on… getting pissed on (i.e. Watersports).

He came back to Sydney wearing a yellow bandana in his back right pocket and found others by going to the Signal bar and hanging about near the urinal. His first big party was New Year 1981 when the bar owners hired Sydney’s Luna Park for an all night party. He was photographed by Sydney photographer William Yang enjoying myself in the urinal.

It was not a performance just him being himself with like minded guys, and he continued to do this in the darkened toilets at all the major parties throughout the 80s and 90s. Somewhere around 1993-94, he found out that he had a name, ‘Troughman’. No idea who first coined it, but it appeared in the gossip column in the Sydney Star Observer, and thus the legend. He combined these activities with the political ones (Co-Convenor of Gay Rights Lobby 1981-84; the period we achieved decriminalisation in NSW) and in a perverse way see him out there shameless expression of sexuality as another form of activism for LGBTQI rights.

He was a latecomer to the Bear Community and have only been a member of HCB for a few years, but he have found them the friendliest, welcoming and supportive gay community group ever. He volunteered and, with my long background in Sydney’s gay life, he hoped to use it to conduct more history tours and share stories of our past for members. The Life Membership given to him on 20 September 2025, and it was an enormous honour and he hopes he can do more to earn it.

Luka Musicki (L.M.): What was it like growing up queer in Sydney and where did you find your people (kinks, friends and colloborators) in the queer community?

Barry Charles (B.C.): I grew up a rather solitary person which suited by nerdy/bookish intellect; but having identified myself as definitely homosexual ,my teenage years were pretty frustrating as apart from one straight boy who I masturbated with til age 16, I had no knowledge of where to find my community.

L.M.: What did you do as a day job, and how did you go through the gay scene in the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s?

B.C.: I started work as an auditor for a firm of Chartered Accountants, going to Univ. part-time. I had my first adult sexual experience in a toilet at lunch time on a work day. Using graffiti messages on toilet walls I found other sites around the city. I was a very happy “beat queen” and I guess that’s how I came to love public sex and orgy situations in parks and later back rooms in clubs and bars. By the mid-seventies we had Club 80 and Saunas and porn movie theatres. By then I had left accountancy behind and worked for Telecom in National Telephone Exchange. There was a good-sized group of gay men doing that work alongside a large female workforce. I enjoyed all the bar and club scene that grew up around Kings Cross and then Oxford Street in that period.

L.M.: And you are one of the 78ers, who went through hate crimes in NSW a long time ago for being yourself. The deepest condolescenses, Barry, for what you were going through and we (modern-day twinks) are luckily to be in a reasonable safe environment in Sydney nowadays. Do you feel like the NSW Commissioner’s apology was satisfactory for what you were going through, or do you think more should be done for rectrification?

B.C.: The night of 24 June 1978 and the subsequent marches and more arrests that followed was traumatic but also very positive for the community. It definitely united and politicised the “bar queens” with the activists that had been fighting for law reform since 1971. It should be known that many of us had been through a similar event in September 1973. The subsequent apologies particularly from the NSW Parliament such as on 6 June 2025 were very welcome. I am not one who believes in reparations. Certainly not financial ones. I think the only thing missing is a formal recognition that the imprisonment of homosexual men before 1984 was totally wrong and the criminal records be expunged.

L.M.: Now, Barry, you are well-known in the Sydney community for your historical contributions as the fabulous Sydney personality known as Troughman. I am guessing that you are being interviewed multiple times about it and they can find out more with the links below in the article. But I think a new questions to ask is how did Troughman come to be (nickname or your doing)? And do you think that you are proud of the image that you have given for yourself, like if we were young again, would we do the Troughman Shenignans again or do things differently?

B.C.: As I always say I did not seek any fame or notoriety. I was just enjoying the kind of free sexual expression that I love. I think the great advantage of being gay is that we start outside the boundaries set by conventional society. And therefore have this tremendous opportunity to explore all the possibilities of relationship and sexuality. The name Troughman was first used around 1993-94 in a gossip item in the Sydney Star Observer. I had been doing my thing for around 15y years by then. I did love it though and the best part was getting to talk about it to media and get my message out that we should be proud of our freedom to break conservative rules. We should be accepted for who we are and not have to become like boring straight couples in order to be accepted. A story I love to tell is about being in Chicago in May 1993 for IML(International Mr Leather). One day we went out for lunch and got caught in a rain shower. In a crowded lift back at the hotel , a voice came from behind “Everywhere you go , Do you always get wet?” I felt so loved. I had arrived!! One of my proudest moments as a gay man.

L.M.: I was lucky to have met you at one of the Harbour City Bears’ tour for Qtopia when you were are a great tour guide, and we were able to visit the Underground. The Underground was a public toilet closed for many years and now is an exhibition space about cruising and public sex in past LGBTQIA history. Do you have good memories of those days?

B.C.: I do have great memories. Sure we were in constant danger of arrest and criminal charges and public disgrace. loss of jobs etc.. Then there were risks of bahings by homophobic youths. But the sex was exciting and transgressive and raw. You hooked up quickly and lustily. No dancing around or dating and wasting energy deciding if you were in love. Just man on man action. I really got off on the group sex and anonymous encounters. I really miss it. I also miss the big parties and the lights out in the Hordern toilets and the complete freedom we had. But OH@S and Public Liability Insurance and Corporate ownership of venues ended all that. Sad.

L.M.: At the recent Harbour City Bears Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 20th September 2025, you received the Certificate of Life Membership for your outstanding contributions to the HCB club. Congratulations. What does getting the certificate mean to you?

B.C.: This is a great honour. I don’t know that I have made and outstanding contribution to HCB but I will do my best to continue promoting our club as a welcoming and supportive place for maturing gay identifying men. I am particularly thrilled that we provide a place for men who have come out later in life and who, after years of doubt, have found “their tribe”.

L.M.: Given that this is an article about bears, what advice would you give to bears, cubs or admirers entering into the kink scene, like the handy code, including the yellow handkerchief? Like enjoy your kink for whatever makes you happy but do it safely?

B.C.: My only advice would be explore and be open to new expereinces. Try it. You might like it . Actually try it twice the first guy may not be doing it right. Right back at my beginning the first guy to suck me was hopeless at it. Could have ended my sex life there and then. I found watersports by seeing it in action and being instantly turned on. So visibility and experimentation is crucial. That’s why things like the hanky code could remain very useful conversation starters. Of course safe sex and precautions became more necessary in the 80s. It you are sexually active today take advantage of all the preventative services we have created since the crisis days. But don’t be afraid to test the boundaries of sexual expression. Re Watersports itself; I have sought medical opinion over the years about safe sex and watersports and been told that it remains among the safer practices.

L.M.: What do you do for fun (or hobbies) now that you are 75 years of age? Pubs, dancing, tour guide, travelling?

B.C.: At my age have had to settle down to a retired life. I finally stopped attending piss parties at Trade about 6years ago. No-one wants to see someone my age doing that. My mobility is not great. To steal a joke from Barry Lowe (novelist and journalist) “ If I go down on my knees these days it takes a forklift and two paramedics to get me up.” I am enjoying doing the queer history tours with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and have more lined up for next year. Socialising at Bears is my main activity now. I may write a memoir. I have some great stories to tell and they would be pretty explicit and frank. I do miss sex. I would go so far as to say I am going through a grieving process from losing it.

L.M.: What are your career goals for the future, now that you are retired? Will there abe nother Throughman in the future?

B.C.: They are out there! Just maybe not as public as they could be.

L.M: We all love your efforts and courage Barry, is there is anything that you would like to say that you never got the chance to say or share to others?

B.C.: Pride and especially Visibility is everything! To hold our ground and defend the gains and freedoms we have achieved across the world in the past 50odd years means continuing to express ourselves openly and honestly on our terms.