‘Men were stterg everywhere’: quiry hears of strg of vlent cints at Sydney gay beats | Sydney | The Guardian

Contents:

• TWO TEEN BOYS CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ATTACKG GAY MEN SYDNEY
• MAN’S FURY OVER ‘PRAVED’ TOILET ACT SPARKS BATE OVER GAY BEATS
• GUILTY VERDICT FOR 1987 MURR SYDNEY 'GAY BEAT'
• THE BT LGBTQI + AND GAY BEACH SYDNEY
• NSW POLICE: HUNTG GAY MEN AT BEATS
• ‘MEN WERE STTERG EVERYWHERE’: QUIRY HEARS OF STRG OF VLENT CINTS AT SYDNEY GAY BEATS
• INQUIRY HEARS OF VLENCE AT GAY BEATS
• GAY BEAT TO TRIBUTE: BONDI'S MARKS PARK TO GET HATE CRIME MEMORIAL
• ‘TENNCY TO ASSLT HOMOSEXUALS’: ALLEGED KILLER GAY BEAT CRIME GRANTED BAIL
• THE 5 BEST SYDNEY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SYDNEY
• ATRALIA HAS LONG HAD A GAY BEACH SUBCULTURE BUT THEY HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN SAFE SPAC
• MAN ACCED OF HISTORIC MURR A SYDNEY PARK WOULD ALLEGEDLY 'SET UPON' GAY MEN, URT HEARS

TWO TEEN BOYS CHARGED AFTER ALLEGEDLY ATTACKG GAY MEN SYDNEY

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. Sourc have told the ABC the man was also asked if he was gay, and when he replied, "y", he was pelted wh eggs, which h him the eye and the cht. 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.

Sharg a screenshot of the post to the “Marrickville Rantg/Complats” page, she mocked the man sayg he had “accintally happened across a ‘beat’” — public plac where gay men meet for sex. ”One woman agreed, “The historil beats should be honoured for the role they played gay male life and culture this cy and others.

MAN’S FURY OVER ‘PRAVED’ TOILET ACT SPARKS BATE OVER GAY BEATS

Acrdg to an SBS Pri article om 2016, beats — which “explod” the 1960s and ‘70s — are “still around and very much a part of gay culture”. ”More CoverageOne man who attend beats on a “semi-regular basis” told SBS, “It’s simply bee a part of gay culture and some men — spe beg able to fd someone nearby on Grdr to f**k the fort of their own home — prefer to go cisg at a beat bee that’s what turns them on. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, young men were targeted a wave of bashgs and murrs of at popular gay beats across the related topics:Sydney.

(PR HANDOUT IMAGE PHOTO)A 36-year-old ld se is nearg s long-overdue ncln after a jury returned a guilty verdict for murr at a well-known gay beat Sydney's east. A NSW Supreme Court jury returned s guilty verdict on Wednday after hearg that Early had attacked the 43-year-old martial arts expert Randwick's Alison Park spectg he was homosexual. A post-mortem examatn revealed he died om severe head juri and a 1988 qut found Mr Keam died after beg stck by a person or persons Park had a reputatn for beg a gay beat, crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury as the trial verdict spe a wholly circumstantial se beg brought agast Early wh no wns seeg he had any ntact wh Mr June 2021 a $1 ln reward was offered for rmatn about the was arrted at a home Clayton, Victoria two months later and was extraded to NSW where he remaed for the Keam's hherto unsolved ath was one of 88 killgs between 1976 and 2000 recently reviewed by police probg potential gay-hate vlence and allegatns of prr intified as heterosexual, was divorced om one woman and a facto relatnship wh another, havg a child wh each.

GUILTY VERDICT FOR 1987 MURR SYDNEY 'GAY BEAT'

Beats ed to be a place where men uld meet before gay pri movements won the right to meet pubs and clubs. Beat ers have reported hourly patrols by several police vehicl, vert patrols on foot, the wrongful "banng" people om the area for 28 days, rogatory personal ments, threats to e pepper spray, e of unnecsary force, arrt whout charge and other homophobic behavur. In a letter to cy admistrators, LECD says that by regulatg sex public, the safety of homosexuals om "queer-bashers" n be better guaranteed.

THE BT LGBTQI + AND GAY BEACH SYDNEY

Communy Actn Agast Homophobia (CAAH) is mpaigng to end harassment of men Sydney beats and will provi onle rmatn for beat ers to bee better rmed of their rights when approached by police.

While Oxford Street is still the se of many of the longt-nng gay clubs Sydney, the fun isn’t relegated to Darlghurst alone. If you’re keen to really make a night of , keep an eye on the lik of Heaps Gay, Poof Doof, Hoe of Mce, Honcho Disko and Birdge (as well as the social media-elive Kooky) to fd out when their next soiree start planng your next night out, read on for our gui to some of Sydney’s favoure gay clubs, pubs and bars.

NSW POLICE: HUNTG GAY MEN AT BEATS

The ColombianOpen 9am ‘til 6am every day — y, you read that right — this sprawlg Oxford St hnt n always be unted on for a tipple the early 117-125 Oxford St, DarlghurstYou n fd all the tails for this year's Sydney Gay and Lbian Mardi Gras here. Men at a popular Sydney gay beat had to stter when a r reered towards them “like was on a kangaroo shoot”, an quiry has r’s headlights and an apparent spotlight were blazg as the r drove at men at Rhcutters Bay Park Sydney’s east the 1990s.

“It was a by Saturday night and men were stterg everywhere, nng like the dickens, ” Barry Charl said on 72-year-old longtime gay rights activist was givg evince at the New South Wal Special Commissn of Inquiry to LGBTIQ hate is vtigatg historil hate crim agast the queer muny, particularly a wave of gay hate homicis and other crim Sydney durg the Aids epimic of the 1980s. “While as a young man om Punchbowl ( Sydney’s wt) I had no ia how to fd a gay bar, beats were somethg I uld fd, ” he equented them between 1969 and 1998, visg at least 40 different on around sex was mostly anonymo and wordls, as the majory wanted to get over and done wh as quickly as possible. “Hangg around for longer than necsary was dangero, bee you knew you uld be apprehend, or were danger of vlence and some men were at risk of beg exposed as gay.

‘MEN WERE STTERG EVERYWHERE’: QUIRY HEARS OF STRG OF VLENT CINTS AT SYDNEY GAY BEATS

The unvarnished fact is that late at night, Marks Park, a grassy verge ppg the headland and the ncrete pathway skirtg the cliff face, had been a gay beat – a place where homosexual men would socialise and hook up – sce at least the late 1920s. Gangs like the Bondi Boys (otherwise known by their graffi tag PTK, or People that Kill) would prowl here, rryg out brazen acts of vlence; ’s likely that at least a few were serial offenrs; perpetrators of an anti-gay murr spree that swept across Sydney at the is no simple whodunn; volv a tangled tale of hate crim volvg multiple spects, gangs prisg up to 30 members, some of whom circulated among other gangs across Sydney, posg a dark mosaic of murr.

This is a lot more than n be said for the other men killed here, or for that matter, the vast majory of other murrs of gay men blightg Sydney at the a year to the day earlier, on another eezg night July 1989, Ross Warren, a handsome, charismatic weatherman and newsrear om WIN-TV Wollongong, vanished on this headland the early hours of a Saturday morng. ”In what was perhaps another watershed moment this year, a 75-year-old man was arrted for the murr of Raymond Keam, a martial arts expert and father of two who was found beaten to ath January 1987 at Alison Park, Randwick, then a well-known gay beat Sydney’s east.

INQUIRY HEARS OF VLENCE AT GAY BEATS

As Sue Thompson, a former state ombudsman’s vtigator who joed the police force 1990 to ordate s liaison wh the gay and lbian muny, tells me the podst: “Cliffs were the easit weapon; you didn’t have to rry anythg wh you.

”For Thompson, beg a liaison officer was eply personal: one of her close iends, a gay man, had been murred only months before she took the role, and she was ls than imprsed wh the police rponse. “Thgs did not change magilly 1984 [when homosexualy was crimalised NSW], ” Thompson outled one of her reports. It was my job to brg peace between police and the gay and lbian muni and effect anisatnal change police culture.

”If there remas any doubt that gay men’s liv were seen as of ls value at that time, look at how the murrs were vtigated by the Bondi police. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Sydney’s gay and lbian muny was unr siege (bashgs and murrs of gay men were also happeng Melbourne, Brisbane and Alai, but not on the same sle).

GAY BEAT TO TRIBUTE: BONDI'S MARKS PARK TO GET HATE CRIME MEMORIAL

Activists splattered red pat over 11 cy buildgs, cludg state parliament, the Downg Centre urt plex, and the headquarters of Channel 10 and The Sydney Morng Herald, then loted Jon Street, class were sprgg up ner-cy gyms and muny groups, and a group of gay volunteers – some of them former members of the army, navy and police force – began foot patrols along Oxford Street and Darlghurst Street foot patrol RtersStill, the murrs ntued.

In May, one of their own, social science teacher Wayne Tonks, was murred his Artarmon apartment by two young men (not his stunts) was outrage when the so-lled gay panic fence, a cel wrkle the law that enabled killers to claim an alleged sexual advance provoked them to a murro rage, was ed the murr trial of Christopher McKnon, arrted for killg Mrice McCarty, a technician wh the Atralian Ballet, April 1991. ”Parkhill nces that the culture of the NSW police force reflected broar societal norms of the time, although possibly exacerbated by a mostly male staff and the AIDS crisis, which provid those wh an agenda agast gay men wh the perfect ammunn to stigmatise the LGBTQ muny even more.

‘TENNCY TO ASSLT HOMOSEXUALS’: ALLEGED KILLER GAY BEAT CRIME GRANTED BAIL

Earlier this year, the fdgs om an 18-month parliamentary quiry, Gay and Transgenr Hate Crim between 1970 and 2010, found that the NSW Police Force had failed s rponsibily to properly vtigate historil hate crim.

My book on the murrs, Bondi Badlands, was published back 2007, and over the years one qutn has ntued to hnt me: what turns young men to murrers of gay men? The pop-psych explanatn we so equently hear – that those who m vlent offenc agast gay men mt have suffered sexual or physil abe themselv – don’t necsarily hold up to close scty.

Make no mistake about this: the men, like so many others at the time, were slghtered bee they were gay.

THE 5 BEST SYDNEY GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS SYDNEY

(PR HANDOUT IMAGE PHOTO)Men at a popular Sydney gay beat had to stter when a r reered towards them "like was on a kangaroo shoot", an quiry has r's headlights and an apparent spotlight were blazg as the r drove at men at Rhcutters Bay Park Sydney's east, the 1990s.

"It was a by Saturday night and men were stterg everywhere, nng like the dickens, " Barry Charl said on 72-year-old long-time gay rights activist was givg evince at the NSW Special Commissn of Inquiry to LGBTIQ hate is vtigatg historil hate crim agast the queer muny, particularly a wave of gay hate homicis and other crim Sydney durg the AIDS epimic of the 1980s. Dcribg himself as a "beats queen", Mr Charl said he was aware that vlence agast gay men at beats was occurrg before the equented them between 1969 and 1998, visg at least 40 different on around Sydney. "Hangg around for longer than necsary was dangero, bee you knew you uld be apprehend, or were danger of vlence and some men were at risk of beg exposed as gay, " he Charl listed a strg of vlent acts he wnsed or experienced at beats, tellg the quiry he managed to sprt over the footbridge away om the r at the Rhcutters Bay cint.

ATRALIA HAS LONG HAD A GAY BEACH SUBCULTURE BUT THEY HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN SAFE SPAC

Another time an adolcent boy h him wh a tree saplg om the park, which was later the scene of a bashg murr of a gay outled his years of activism, notg a gay solidary Sydney rally phed the marchers back and began arrtg people after they cid to lay a wreath at the war memorial, to memorate gay and lbian service people. "Durg the early 1980s, the gay muny's growg visibily and nfince also meant growg vlence agast he rejected opns that the advent of HIV/AIDS gave rise to more anti-gay vlence wh beg ed as an exce or jtifitn.

Marks Park south of Bondi was for s a known gay beat Sydney's eastern suburbs where multiple men were savagely bashed, robbed and some s, cliff-si park will bee a memorial to those men after was chosen as the se for a monument to victims of the cy's wave of gay hate crim om the 1970s to the 1990s. "The memorial will be built a natural amphheatre-like space, created by a slope the ground and a clter of tre, on the Tamarama si of the will face south, towards the ocean and Waverley Warren, Stt Johnson and John Rsell were victims of Sydney's s-long gay hate crime wave. "LoadgMr Parkhill said would also help raise greater awarens of the gay hate attacks and serve as a remr of "the importance of valug and celebratg diversy our muny".

The uncil will ll for tenrs before a public nsultatn Park, a former notor gay beat, is on the Bondi to Tamarama Jam BrickwoodCr Sally Betts said anisers of Sculpture by the Sea, the yearly two-week public art display that the park, should be nsulted over the memorial's the meetg, Cr Wakefield said the anisatn had been nsulted but the memorial was ultimately a matter for the uncil and ACON. A NSW Police review of 88 spic aths Sydney between 1976 and 2000 found almost a third were the rult of crim volvg spected or nfirmed gay-hate Force Parrabell this year found evince of gay-hate bias or spected bias 27 s, while 23 of the aths also rema unsolved.

MAN ACCED OF HISTORIC MURR A SYDNEY PARK WOULD ALLEGEDLY 'SET UPON' GAY MEN, URT HEARS

A 76-year-old man acced of murrg a father of four at a known gay beat Sydney’s eastern suburbs 35 years ago has been granted bail on a $1 ln surety.