Peter Bonsall-Boone

At the age of 19, in 1957, Bonsall-Boone was convicted twice of homosexual activity after being arrested on separate occasions at a public bathroom and a Sydney train station where he went to meet other gay men. He later said that these convictions prevented him from his goal of becoming an Anglican priest; he was expelled from his theological college in 1962 when his criminal record was discovered. He met his life partner, Peter de Waal, in 1966, and they both became foundation members of the Campaign Against Moral Persecution (CAMP), one of earliest gay rights organisations in Australia.

In 1972, Bonsall-Boone and de Waal appeared in an episode of the ABC documentary series Chequerboard that featured them kissing briefly. Their kiss has been reported as the first kiss between a same-sex couple on Australian television. At the time, Bonsall-Boone was working as a secretary for St Clements Anglican Church in the Sydney suburb of Mosman; he lost this job as a result of his television appearance. In 1973, Bonsall-Boone and de Waal set up an LGBT help line called Phone-A-Friend from their home. In 1978, Bonsall-Boone participated in a protest that would later be recognised as the inaugural Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and was charged in the aftermath of the event.

When Bonsall-Boone was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, he said that his dying wish was to be able to marry de Waal. They campaigned parliament and wrote to the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 in an attempt to have same-sex marriage legalised, noting: "please do it quickly as Bon's time is fast running out!" Bonsall-Boone died on 19 May 2017, several months after celebrating his 50th anniversary with de Waal.