‘I was totally gripped wh fear’: quiry exam 40 years of gay hate crim | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• HATE CRIM AGAST GAY MAL: AN OVERVIEW
• NSW POLICE LOSE URT BID TO EXCLU STT JOHNSON KILLG OM GAY HATE QUIRY
• AVERAGE OF 20 GAY MEN BASHED EVERY DAY FOR OVER 40 YEARS, NSW QUIRY TOLD
• TOM HOLLAND 'UNAFFECTED' OM 'THE CROWD ROOM' GAY SCENE HATE
• PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• ‘I WAS TOTALLY GRIPPED WH FEAR’: QUIRY EXAM 40 YEARS OF GAY HATE CRIM
• THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

HATE CRIM AGAST GAY MAL: AN OVERVIEW

A bid by New South Wal police to exclu a high-profile killg om a gay hate quiry has been ath of US mathematician Stt Johnson is one of dozens of s unr the spotlight at a special missn of quiry to spected gay hate crim Sydney between 1970 and 27-year-old died after he was punched at a gay beat on Sydney’s northern beach. In the latt velopment, Stt Phillip Whe plead guilty to throwg the punch that ultimately ed Johnson to fall to his month, jtice Robert Beech-Jon dismissed “what appears to be an absurd suggtn [by police] that Dr Johnson killed himself” when sentencg Whe to ne years past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotnNSW police had argued Johnson’s ath was outsi the current quiry’s terms of reference on the basis the matter was not unsolved, the man rponsible for his ath intified as gay and a sentencg judge did not fd the ath to be motivated by gay the quiry’s missner, jtice John Sackar, on Tuday led s terms of reference were much wir and answers to qutns such as how and why Johnson died were still not urt did not make a fdg beyond reasonable doubt that Whe was motivated by gay hate, but did not le out the possibily, he is due to hand down his fal report next month.

Part of Pri Month is acknowledgg that while Amerin society has e a long way towards acceptg lbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenr, and queer folks, there’s still a long way to go and a lot of work for all of to do. Conversely, there are some lbians who pla about how gay men are ivolo and sex crazed, which cements the lbians' drive to stay an sular world that's way more female than trans people rent drag queens for havg male privilege and for donng the garb of the oppose sex as a performance piece, one they put on and off at will. And shockgly, there was a petn last year to remove the T om LGBT, the reasons behd cludg everythg om the alleged appropriatn of Stonewall history to the marked difference between sexual orientatn and genr inty, which supposedly should keep gays and transsexuals that's not all!

While gay men and women, drag queens, and trans people have all been proclaimed the "hot thg" at one pot or another, the media hasn't picked up on bi visibily and given the mass-appeal glow that uld help s acceptance. What's worse, bisexuals are routely disunted by gays and lbians, some of whom clearly feel that the "B" "LGBT" is strictly out of petty ms remds me of the environment I grew up as an Italian-Amerin, hearg some of the neighbors nstantly monize Jews, blacks, and other relig, ethnic, and racial groups orr to elevate themselv.

NSW POLICE LOSE URT BID TO EXCLU STT JOHNSON KILLG OM GAY HATE QUIRY

Assistant New South Wal police missner, Anthony Cranll, has told a landmark quiry that on average 20 gay men were bashed every day for a perd spanng more than four special missn of quiry, s send block of heargs, is examg the police approach to spected hate crim agast LGBTQ+ people between 1970 and 2010. “I beme aware … when I unrtook sexualy and genr diversy trag … and rmatn was given to me, that there were wrten rerds at the time of up to at least 20 reports per day of bashgs of gay men, ” Cranll said on then asked: “You, I prume, immediately appreciated that that was a much higher reportg sle than had been reported to the police? “Perpetrators were given a kd of social licence to ntue flictg vlence upon members of the gay muny, ” he royal missn-style quiry, tablished at the urgg of a parliamentary probe after the Parrabell report, has powers to pel wns to attend and to a fal report 2018, Cranll said the force’s past difference to gay bashgs had been upled wh a tac social tolerance of vlence directed at gay men and the LGBTQ+ muny the 1970s to past newsletter promotnafter newsletter promotn“It is clear and beyond qutn that levels of vlence flicted upon gay men particular were elevated, extreme and often btal, ” the report said at the also asked if police officers had downplayed, as recently as 2014, the level of gay hate murrs.

AVERAGE OF 20 GAY MEN BASHED EVERY DAY FOR OVER 40 YEARS, NSW QUIRY TOLD

"However, the latt episo, which was expected, ed uproar soon after s Holland's fans are quick to jump his fense by praisg him for takg a darg role and also poted to the prev Spir-Man actors' Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, on-screen gay characters after a trend NotMySpirman was started on Twter.

A fundamentalist pastor gave a sermon which he prayed for “every homo that exists” to suffer “a slow, paful ath” — ntug a trend which he and other right-wg pastors fixate on gay people when rantg about s and remptn. He has flouted the e of anti-gay slurs his sermons, lks the LGBTQ Pri movement wh pedophilia, and equently lls for gay people to be executed by the state (wh the Uned Stat beg a theocracy dited to rryg out those executns).

TOM HOLLAND 'UNAFFECTED' OM 'THE CROWD ROOM' GAY SCENE HATE

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law. The ernor and his supporters have labeled as a “groomer” anyone who believ children n learn LGBTQ+ people exist, argug that simply by talkg about gay relatnships to a child, you are sexualizg that child. He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”. The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia.

PREACHER ASKS GOD TO KILL GAY PEOPLE IN “SLOW, PAFUL DEATH”

”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program. ”The “don’t say gay” bill, Mter not, is very siar to what’s been passed Rsia, tetherg Amerin nservativ to their thorarian unterparts who have succsfully rolled back mocratic norms across eastern Europe. “I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

“I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.

But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia.

The fairy tal are important to the anti-gay right bee they form the basis of s claim that homosexualy is a social evil that mt be supprsed — an opn rejected by virtually all relevant medil and scientific thori. Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people. Others have ced a group lled the Amerin College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) to claim, as Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council did November 2010, that "the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a [moltatn] danger to children.

THE SOLUTN TO "GAY" INSULTS: FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Gregory Herek, a profsor at the Universy of California, Davis, who is one of the natn's leadg rearchers on prejudice agast sexual mori, reviewed a seri of studi and found no evince that gay men molt children at higher rat than heterosexual men. The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual.

Siarly, the Child Welfare League of Ameri's official posn wh regard to same-sex parents is that "lbian, gay, and bisexual parents are as well-sued to raise children as their heterosexual unterparts. ” Schumm, who has also argued that lbian relatnships are unstable, has ti to discreded psychologist and anti-LGBT fabulist Pl Cameron, the thor of numero pletely basels “studi” about the alleged evils of homosexualy. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn noted a 2000 fact sheet available on the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Psychiatrists, that alg wh gay, lbian and bisexual issu, that sexual abe do not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and intify as gay, lbian or bisexual than children who grow up and intify as heterosexual.

Siarly, the Natnal Organizatn on Male Sexual Victimizatn not on s webse that "experts the human sexualy field do not believe that premature sexual experienc play a signifint role late adolcent or adult sexual orientatn" and add that 's unlikely that anyone n make another person gay or heterosexual. Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at the Christian Grove Cy College, noted an analysis that “the rearch on sexual abe among GLBT populatns is often mised to make ferenc about atn [of homosexualy]. Anti-LGBT anizatns, seekg to promote heterosexualy as the healthier "choice, " often offer up the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physil and mental health of gays and lbians as reasons why they shouldn't be allowed to adopt or foster children.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

On the basis of the same obuari, Cameron also claimed that gay men are 18 tim more likely to die r accints than heterosexuals, 22 tim more likely to die of heart attacks than wh, and 11 tim more likely than blacks to die of the same e. Anti-LGBT anizatns have also tried to support this claim by distortg the work of legimate scholars, like a 1997 study nducted by a Canadian team of rearchers that alt wh gay and bisexual men livg Vanuver the late 1980s and early 1990s. Christe Mueller, profsor of history at Reed College, did a 1994 le-by-le refutatn of an earlier Abrams article on the topic and of the broar claim that the Nazi Party was "entirely ntrolled" by gay men.

Anti-gay activists, who have long opposed addg LGBT people to those protected by hate crime legislatn, have repeatedly claimed that such laws would lead to the jailg of relig figur who preach agast homosexualy — part of a bid to ga the backg of the broar relig muny for their posn. Anti-gay groups have been adamantly opposed to allowg gay men and lbians to serve openly the armed forc, not only bee of their purported fear that bat reads will be unrmed, but bee the ary has long been nsired the purt merocracy Ameri (the armed forc were succsfully racially tegrated long before Amerin civil society, for example). At the same time, gays and lbians have served openly for years the armed forc of 25 untri (as of 2010), cludg Bra, Israel, South Ai, Canada and Atralia, acrdg to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy thk tank at the Universy of California at Santa Barbara.

" Siarly, a 1985 survey of 6, 500 male Canadian service members and a 1996 survey of 13, 500 Brish service members each revealed that nearly two-thirds exprsed strong rervatns about servg wh gays. Dpe the fact that gay men and lbians have been servg openly the ary sce September 2011, anti-LGBT groups ntue to claim that openly gay personnel are g problems the ary, cludg claims of sexual abe by gay and lbian soldiers of straight soldiers. Though is te that LGBT people tend to suffer higher rat of anxiety, prsn, and prsn-related illns and behavrs like alhol and dg abe than the general populatn, that is due to the historil social stigmatizatn of homosexualy and vlence directed at LGBT people, not bee of homosexualy self.

‘I WAS TOTALLY GRIPPED WH FEAR’: QUIRY EXAM 40 YEARS OF GAY HATE CRIM

A report prented by the Council on Scientific Affairs to the AMA Hoe of Delegat Interim Meetg wh regard to reparative (“ex-gay”) therapy noted that most of the emotnal disturbance gay men and lbians experience around their sexual inty is not based on physlogil , but rather on “a sense of alienatn an unacceptg environment. Mark Hatzenbuehler, a socmedil scienc profsor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia Universy, said that the data gathered the study suggts that “sexual mori livg muni wh high levels of anti-gay prejudice have creased risk of mortaly, pared to low-prejudice muni.

Qazi Rahman, study -thor and a leadg scientist on human sexual orientatn, said: "This study puts ld water on any ncerns that we are lookg for a sgle 'gay gene' or a sgle environmental variable which uld be ed to 'select out' homosexualy — the factors which fluence sexual orientatn are plex.

THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

" In 1994, the APA noted that “homosexualy is not a matter of dividual choice” and that rearch “suggts that the homosexual orientatn is place very early the life cycle, possibly even before birth. The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics stated 1993 (updated 2004) that “homosexualy has existed most societi for as long as rerd scriptns of sexual beliefs and practic have been available” and that even at that time, “most scholars the field state that one’s sexual orientatn is not a choice … dividuals do not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual.

A number of "ex-gay" relig mistri have spng up recent years wh the aim of teachg gay people to bee heterosexuals, and the have bee prime purveyors of the claim that gays and lbians, wh the aid of mental therapy and Christian teachgs, n "e out of homosexualy. " Meanwhile, a more secular ve, the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy scrib self as "a profsnal, scientific anizatn that offers hope to those who stggle wh unwanted homosexualy. "Reparative" or sexual reorientatn therapy — the psdo-scientific foundatn of the ex-gay movement — has been rejected by all the tablished and reputable Amerin medil, psychologil, psychiatric and profsnal unselg anizatns.