Chetcuti was a member of Pride Victoria, the Overseas Committee of the Institute of Catholic Education and the Review of the Commonwealth Multicultural Education Program – Report to the Commonwealth Schools Commission. He was vice-president of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of Maltese, president of the Maltese Literature Group (Victoria) and chairperson of the Victorian Association of Multicultural Writers. He is a life member of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, by virtue of the fact that he is a 78er.
JOSEPH CARMEL CHETCUTI holds a MA Hons, in political science, from the University of NSW, an LLB Hons, from the University of Melbourne, and a Licentiate in Theology. He lectured at the Philip and Footscray Institutes of Technology (as they were called then) and the former Institute of Catholic Education (Ascot Vale).
Chetcuti was admitted, as a barrister and solicitor, by the Supreme Court of Victoria, in 1993, and, as a solicitor, by the High Court of Australia, in 1994. Between 1994 and 1996, he worked in the Townsville office of Legal Aid Queensland, practising in the areas of family and criminal law. He now works in several areas of the law including criminal, family, migration, and probate law. He has appeared before courts and tribunals in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.
Chetcuti ‘came out’ in late 1972 when he joined Cross-Section, a subgroup of the Campaign against moral persecution (CAMP), Australia’s first explicit gay political organisation. In September 1973, he agreed to be a contributor to Homosexuals Report Back (1974), a modest but important publication by Cross-Section, which was Cross-Section’s response to the Report on Homosexuality (Report of the Ethics and Social Questions Committee to the Synod of the Church of England Diocese of Sydney).
Sometime in 1973, Chetcuti briefly joined his first gay demonstration, most probably that of Saturday 15 September 1973, when around 300 supporters—a big crowd at the time—assembled at Sydney Town Hall, police eventually arresting 18 of the protesters. In May 1974. he and other members of Acceptance picketed the Sacred Heart Church in Darlinghurst. He took part in other demonstrations including that of 19 October 1975 outside Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral, following the decision by a Marist school in Eastwood to sack Michael Clohesy. In April/May 1976, he helped Graeme Donkin, a member of Acceptance who stood for the seat of Bligh, distribute How to Vote Cards.
Chetcuti is a 78er, having joined Sydney’s first gay Mardi Gras at Taylor Square on 24 June 1978. With other 78ers, he marched to Kings Cross in breach of the police permit—where police arrested 53 demonstrators—before moving on to Darlinghurst Police Station, staying there until the early hours of the morning of 25 June 1978. He also attended the Second National Homosexual Conference (17-19 August 1976) and the Fourth National Homosexual Conference (25-27 August 1978).