Atralia has long had a gay beach subculture but they haven't always been safe spac | Gary Nunn | The Guardian

Contents:

• BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S
• A GAY DAY …SYDNEY
• BONDI MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS OF GAY HATE CRIM DRAWS HUNDREDS EMOTNAL LNCH
• SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• ATRALIA HAS LONG HAD A GAY BEACH SUBCULTURE BUT THEY HAVEN'T ALWAYS BEEN SAFE SPAC
• ACTN ROUNDUP: GAY JAM BOND CHARACTER; VENOM’S ‘COMG OUT PARTY;’ ‘QUEER FAY’ OF ‘MARVEL’S ETERNALS’
• GAY BONDI TRAVEL GUI
• SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

BONDI RISE MEMORIAL HONOURS VICTIMS OF SYDNEY GAY HATE CRIM DURG 1970S TO 1990S

"It was part of life beg a gay man Sydney at the time, you were aware of the hate crim … uld've been me, rather than the people I know, " Mr Wotherspoon lived through the 70s to 90s, a dark chapter of the Harbour Cy's history where dozens of mal were sla btal fashn. (ABC News: Harriet Tatham)Gay men, or people spected of beg gay, were beaten parks, hurled om cliffs or had vanished om cy's streets s barely probed by law enforcement.

The Rise memorial honours those that were targeted transphobic or homophobic attacks.

A GAY DAY …SYDNEY

It was a well-known gay beat— a place men met for sual sex — which Warren floated the ia that Warren had staged his own disappearance.

It would take over 10 years before thori lked his spected murr wh many other gay killgs. "The gay newspapers were reportg hate crim but the wir thori didn't pay any attentn … was jt bshed unr the rpet, " Mr Wotherspoon said.

(ABC News: Harriet Tatham)Liberal MP Shayne Mallard chaired the parliamentary mtee rponsible for remendg the legal a victim of a homophobic asslt himself, he said was time for those rponsible to be serve time. Bondi Beach is the most gay-popular beach Sydney. Wh the knowledge that this beach is famo for s surfg and is popular amongst the young and trendy folk (and gays) I cid to head there to soak up the Atralian sunshe and take what this – seemgly more relaxed – part of Sydney had to offer (and to hopefully see some gays).

BONDI MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS OF GAY HATE CRIM DRAWS HUNDREDS EMOTNAL LNCH

Still, I was termed not to let the weather dampen my spirs and head off for my day at the beach (and to see some gays). – This is what happens when you’ve been stuck on a ship wh no gays for the past 4 months! A grey gay, grey, on a grey day.

Hence, "a gay day ... The openg of the Bondi memorial to gay and transgenr victims of hate crim provoked strong emotns at Marks Park Tamarama on Saturday, cludg for David McMahon. “I never saw vlence until happened to me, ” he was an emotnal rponse to the openg of The Bondi Memorial: Rise at Marks Park Tamarama on Rhett WymanMcMahon was one of several gay men who were asslted or murred at Marks Park durg a s-long wave of vlence agast LGBTQ people Sydney.

SYDNEY GAY & LBIAN MARDI GRAS

“I wasn’t gog to e today, but I cid, yeah, I should make an appearance, ” he Deputy Coroner Jacquele Milledge said was hard to image Marks Park was once the huntg ground of gangs of btal dividuals rponsible for bashg, robbg, rapg and murrg men “simply bee they were gay” Rhett WymanSeveral hundred people, cludg survivors of hate crim and victims’ fai, gathered the scenic park for the openg of The Bondi Memorial: Rise.

Speakers clud former NSW puty roner Jacquele Milledge who led a 2005 qut to the aths of gay men, cludg Rsell, that were not aquately vtigated by the police. She found Rsell and two other men had probably been murred by gay-bashg gangs. “It’s hard to image this betiful part of Sydney was once the huntg ground of gangs of btal dividuals rponsible for bashg, robbg, rapg and murrg men – targetg them simply bee they were gay, ” she said.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

“A place where at least three gay men lost their liv. ”LoadgCallaghan said “so-lled poofter bashg” had long been a feature of Atralian society, but ramped up the late 1980s durg the HIV/AIDS epimic and the rise of Sydney as a gay mec. “One of the tramarks of a gay hate crime is s relentls ld-blood celty, ” he said.

”ACON print Jt Koon said the unveilg of the memorial was an important step the journey towards healg and jtice for gay and transgenr victims of hate said he hoped the upg Special Commissn of Inquiry to LGBTIQ Hate Crim, announced April by NSW Premier Domic Perrottet, would shed further light on “this dark chapter” Sydney’s history.

“To those we have lost and those who survived, to their fai and loved on, your bravery propels our ntued efforts to eradite homophobia and transphobia this state and beyond.

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

Sydney Gay & Lbian Mardi Gras – WorldPri 2023 |. NSW Police effectively reversed ronial fdgs about three potential gay-hate related murrs Bondi whout speakg to dozens of persons of tert or tellg the roner, an quiry has ’s special missn of quiry to LGBTIQ hate crim has heard police set up the secretive Strike Force Neiwand 2015 to revtigate the aths of Ross Warren, John Rsell and Gill Mattai, who died or disappeared the 1980s around Bondi’s Marks Park, a known gay Rsell, Ross Warren and Gill The Sydney Morng HeraldTheir aths had already been the subject of a police strike force and ronial puty state roner Jacquele Milledge found 2005 that Warren and Rsell had died after meetg wh “foul play”, while the e and manner of ath of Mattai was untermed. Threats to throw victims off the cliff face “was a Mod Operandi of some gay hate assailants” around Marks Park at the time of the men’s disappearanc and ath, she said.

Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay. Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021.

ACTN ROUNDUP: GAY JAM BOND CHARACTER; VENOM’S ‘COMG OUT PARTY;’ ‘QUEER FAY’ OF ‘MARVEL’S ETERNALS’

Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league. 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.

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.

GAY BONDI TRAVEL GUI

”“Thgs did not change magilly 1984 [when homosexualy was crimalised NSW]. ”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.

The gay muny’s mistst of police at the time wasn’t helpg to quell the vlence. “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.

SYDNEY GAY AND LBIAN MARDI GRAS

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).

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.