The ath of Dr Dunn: the gay hate crime that changed Atralia | Atralian books | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE
• DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?
• PH FOR QUIRY TO GAY HATE CRIM TO VTIGATE CLAIMS POLICE TURNED BLD EYE
• WHEN GANGS KILLED GAY MEN FOR SPORT: ATRALIA REVIEWS 88 DEATHS
• 'A LICENCE TO BASH GAYS': 1980S CRIME WAVE REVISED NEW TV SERI
• TWO TEEN BOYS CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ATTACKG GAY MEN SYDNEY
• NSW ERNMENT ANNOUNC QUIRY TO SYDNEY'S UNSOLVED GAY AND TRANSGENR HATE CRIM, MURRS
• GAY BASHG
• MEANG OF GAY-BASHG ENGLISH
• 10 COUNTRI THAT COMPLETELY HATE GAY PEOPLE
• THE ATH OF DR DUNN: THE GAY HATE CRIME THAT CHANGED ATRALIA

GAY BASHGS, HOMOPHOBIA: FORMER P RELLS HORROR YEARS NSW POLICE FORCE

”The notor former police officer, Roger Rogerson, was based at the statn at the time, but the now-faiar stori of protectn money, pay-offs om crime boss and ps on the take at Darlghurst, Surry Hills and Kgs Cross police statns have missed another, arguably more signifint story: how police were allegedly bashg gay men. After the victim, the edor of a gay newspaper, wrote a posive story about Higgbotham and the Darlghurst police, he was seen as some kd of avenger and protector for the gay muny by at least two senr staff at the statn, who subjected him to a soul-stroyg bullyg mpaign, at s nastit durg the ‘taskg para’ at the mencement of each shift, when jobs were alloted. ‘” Higgbotham was not sulted by beg labelled a homosexual by his tormentors – for the rerd Higgbotham is heterosexual – but bee they were g that word to try to mean and stroy him.

DEEP WATER: WERE 30 UNSOLVED SYDNEY ATHS REALLY GAY HATE CRIM?

He has been wh the Victorian police for 29 years, pneerg work improvg practic for supportg sex crime victims the urt early as next week, a cisn will be ma on whether a judicial quiry will proceed to the large number of unsolved s of spected gay and transgenr hate crime aths between 1970 and 2010.

PH FOR QUIRY TO GAY HATE CRIM TO VTIGATE CLAIMS POLICE TURNED BLD EYE

As early as next week, a cisn will be ma on whether a judicial quiry will proceed to the large number of unsolved s of spected gay and transgenr hate crime aths between 1970 and gby league footballer, now actor, Ian Roberts, says the horrific anti-gay crime spree rollg across Sydney the late 1980s and early 1990s ntributed to his cisn to postpone his g out as gay (he had planned to e out at the end of 1989 football season, but didn’t fally do so until 1994) Roberts layed g out partially bee of the gay bashgs and murrs occurrg Wolter Peeters“The public backlash agast soccer player Jt Fashanu (who me out October 1990) also ma me hate, ” says Roberts.

”Higgbotham’s story, as well as Ian Roberts’ memori of the anti-gay crime wave Sydney the late 1980s, n be heard episo five of The Sydney Morng Herald and The Age’s podst, Bondi Badlands.

In 2012 the New South Wal puty state roner Carmel Forb overturned the suici fdg but uld not terme how he police have formed Operatn Parrabell, a team of eight tectiv who will apply an FBI measure of hate bias – creria to terme if a crime is motivated by bias agast, for stance, sexual orientatn – to see if as many as 88 Sydney aths datg om the 1970s onward, cludg 30 unsolved s, were gay hate s were marked suici or e unknown, but past police nclns are now beg lled to qutn.

WHEN GANGS KILLED GAY MEN FOR SPORT: ATRALIA REVIEWS 88 DEATHS

A new SBS vtigatn has unvered “ser mistak” were ma the ial vtigatns, cludg the misspellg of one ad man’s Johnson tells Guardian Atralia that applyg the FBI hate bias creria is unlikely to unver gay hate crim bee the strgent checklist requir s to be solved, perpetrators to be intified and their hatred of victims to be proclaimed.

'A LICENCE TO BASH GAYS': 1980S CRIME WAVE REVISED NEW TV SERI

Instead, he says, a better exercise would be to pull every police file on every ath near a gay Sydney meetg place om the 1970s to about 2000 and ask: was this se properly vtigated? The aim is to attract a natnal dience to the story, and to unver more possible gay hate crim and murrs producer, Darren Dale, says he was spired by hearg 2012 about the murr of Ahmed Ghoniem, who was found Sydney apartment wh multiple stab wounds and blunt trma juri. “I live Potts Pot [ Sydney], and I thought, if there is someone attackg and murrg gay men – more gay people livg there than I spect anywhere else Atralia – then how e ’s not any of the papers, ’s not been the news?

TWO TEEN BOYS CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ATTACKG GAY MEN SYDNEY

Shawn Seet, the director of the ld Canberra polil drama The Co, is at the the prent day, fictnal Detective Senr Constable Tori Ltigman, played by Yael Stone of Orange Is the New Black, her own DNA to see if match DNA found on a piece of lead pipg, which she spects may be her gay brother’s. His 1989 drowng had been rerd as a drama’s central ncerns are: Did the fictnal Kyle “Hammers” Hampton (Craig McLachlan) – a one-time member of a gay-bashg gang – play a role the men’s aths? Photograph: Sean O'Reilly/SBSThe ‘gay ATM’It was not until 2005, 17 years after Stt Johnson’s ath, that Steve realised his beloved brother might have died vlently: he had been sent a clippg about the vlent aths of three other gay men year the NSW senr puty state roner Jacquele Milledge found that the televisn newsrear Ross Warren, 25, and barman John Rsell, 31, had been murred two separate attacks 1989, most probably thrown off a cliff at Bondi’s Marks Park, which was known as a gay beat.

Photograph: Steve JohnsonSteve Johnson believ, along wh many others, that herent bias play a role both the mimal media verage of the stori and the public and police rponse to vlent crim agast gay people. “I’m unsure what role homophobia played the 1980s, ” he says, “but certaly seemed that the police systematilly avoid vtigatg the aths of gay men, or men prumed to be gay. His brother says this was an implsible ncln: many gay men have told his vtigatn that the area had been a popular beat sce the 1960s but gay men were often too sred to report asslts bee “police treated them like perpetrators, not victims”’s vtigatn also clud terviewg former gay-bashg gang members, who had sentially operated wh impuny bee there was still a “lot of hatred towards gays”, he says.

Legal observers say a judicial quiry to gay and transgenr hate crim New South Wal mt vtigate claims that police officers turned a bld eye or were volved the pots:The NSW ernment is settg up a judicial quiry to gay and transgenr hate crim between 1970 and 2010Former Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy says the quiry needs Royal Commissn powersAlan Rosendale hop the quiry will vtigate whether police were volved his attack 30 years agoA seri of btal bashgs and murrs Sydney brought terror to the LGBTI muny for s, amid failur to properly vtigate.

NSW ERNMENT ANNOUNC QUIRY TO SYDNEY'S UNSOLVED GAY AND TRANSGENR HATE CRIM, MURRS

The Perrottet ernment will set up a judicial quiry to gay and transgenr hate crim between 1970 and 2010, followg the remendatns of a parliamentary mtee that found NSW Police were different to such crim and failed to properly vtigate them at the time. "Gay crim were sometim not treated serly, where vtigatns were not done aquately, and I thk that will she a bright light on those ficienci, " he told 7. "If there are servg officers who turned a bld eye to what was happeng, or had any hand the missn of hate crim agast gay people, I thk they should have every reason to fear this quiry.

Johnson may not have been the only the 1980s and 1990s, the Atralian thori now say, gangs of teenagers Sydney hunted gay men for sport, sometim forcg them off the cliffs to their aths. But the police, many of whom had a reputatn for hostily toward gay men, often rried out perfunctory vtigatns that overlooked the possibily of homici, former officials and police officers the police New South Wal, the state that clus Sydney, are reviewg the aths of 88 men between 1976 and 2000 to terme whether they should be classified as anti-gay hate 30 of the s rema unsolved, and the police have not said how many of the killgs were tied to gangs.

GAY BASHG

Uniformed officers now march Sydney’s annual Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras Para, which drew a quarter-ln spectators last year and was attend for the first time by a prime mister, Mallm if the laws were changg slowly the 1980s — New South Wal crimalized sex between men only 1984 — society, cludg the police, was even slower to do so. “The police culture Atralia up to the early 1990s was hostile to gay men, ” Michael Kirby, a retired High Court jtice who served durg that perd, wrote an email. ”Rearchers who have studied the matter say the gangs were loose allianc of young men, teenage boys and sometim girls who looked for victims to harass and asslt at Sydney’s so-lled gay beats — plac where gay men were known to meet, cludg seclud spots on the cliffs.

“Any gay who was attacked would be seen as a foolish risk-taker if they reported that attack to police, ” Profsor Tomsen, there were some arrts and prosecutns. Acrdg to a report by Sue Thompson, a former state-appoted liaison between the New South Wal police and gays, one of the assailants told the police, “The easit thg wh a cliff is jt herdg them over the edge.

He was found below a gay hangout, but the lol police officer who rpond to the ll ttified that he had not known that at the police found no signs of a stggle at the cliff top, but there had been a storm that uld have washed such evince away. Johnson had died, sayg that while anti-gay vlence was a possibily, so was an accintal the current qut rum June, will hear new evince, the roner’s office has said. ”Follow Michelle Innis on Twter @MichelleInnisA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 4 of the New York edn wh the headle: When Gangs Killed Gay Men for Sport: Atralia Reviews 88 Deaths.

MEANG OF GAY-BASHG ENGLISH

"This was a [time of] sexual liberatn for gay men, and the plac where men went to fd their pleasure, people who hated gays went to fd their targets, " he said. "Society slow to tch up wh lawsHomosexual sex was crimalised New South Wal 1984, and the feral Sex Discrimatn Act - which mak an offence to discrimate agast someone based on their sexual orientatn - was passed the same that didn't mean that people were ol wh lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) people.

"I don't thk 's fair per se to say that police culture was volved gay murrs - I don't thk we have evince of that - but certaly, some police were volved gay bashgs, " he said. Society has changed a lot sce the spate of gay bashgs the many LGBTI Atralians feel still don't feel entirely safe and fortable speakg publicly about their sexualy.

()Laws help - but only up to a South Atralia and Queensland, 's still possible for a crimal to have a murr charge downgrad to manslghter on the basis that their gay victim was htg on them.

10 COUNTRI THAT COMPLETELY HATE GAY PEOPLE

The argument is that the acced uld be "provoked" to killg someone if they make non-vlent sexual advanc towards so-lled "gay panic fence" had been phased out other stat between 2003 and 2008, but remas on the books those two stat - meang 2016 's still possible to downgra murr charge when a gay man is the victim. 'Sometim feels like you're floggg a ad horse'Earlier this month, SBS aired the first of a four-part seri lookg at gay aths Sydney the 1980s, lled Deep Water.

Two teenage boys have been charged over a seri of alleged asslts central Sydney, which gay men were punched, kicked and pots:The alleged asslts took place weeks before Sydney's Gay and Lbian Mardi GrasOne cint was ptured on CCTV helpg police to track down two spectsTwo teenaged boys have been charged wh assltIn one cint, which took place on Febary 6, a 19-year-old man was allegedly beaten by one of the boys jt before 9pm Haymarket after tellg them he was say one of the teens wound down the wdow of a black Volkswagen Golf and asked the man if he was gay, to which he replied "y"'s alleged one of the boys jumped out of the r before punchg the 19-year-old the head and knockg him to the ground outsi the Oaks Sydney Castlereagh 's then alleged the man was repeatedly kicked, leavg him wh ser bisg and swellg to his say the victim's iend, a 20-year-old woman, was egged when she tried to tervene. Vlence targetg LGBT people often creas the lead up to Sydney's Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras, which will this year be held on March 5Detective Supertennt Rohan Cramsie said vtigatns were unrway to whether others were volved.

THE ATH OF DR DUNN: THE GAY HATE CRIME THAT CHANGED ATRALIA

”Steve Johnson would return to Atralia several tim, doggedly termed to prove his brother uld not have killed the way, Steve and a team of supporters and vtigators would learn of chillgly siar aths other astal of young men were turng up at the bottom of cliffs, not only at Blue Fish Pot where Stt had been found, but at another betiful astal spot the harbour cy’s the men simply vanished, their bodi never to be found, at a place lled Marks Park, which the 1980s was a killg ground for a gang of youths aged as young as 15 huntg gay Stt Johnson died, he had left his cloth neatly fold at the top of Blue Fish Pot. “Took off his cloth, laid down, and so somebody probably walked up to Stt while he was there and proposed sex, proposed somethg, ” Steve told Atralian began vtigatg whether Blue Fish Pot, like Marks Park, was a known as a beat among Sydney’s gay muny.

Homosexualy was only crimalised Atralia the two s between the start of the 1970s and the end of the 1980s, up to 88 gay men Sydney’s east and metro areas were documented to have disappeared spic circumstanc, or were the victims of 1985, 27-year-old French natnal Gill Mattai was livg was last seen walkg along the astal walkg track at Tamarama on September 15 that year by a neighbour.