Between 1976 and 2000, there were 88 deaths that police in New South Wales, Australia are considering reclassifying as antigay hate crimes.
According to The New York Times, police officials claim teenage gangs in Sydney would hunt gay men for sport, sometimes pushing them off cliffs to their deaths.
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These gangs were young men and occasionally women who prowled around for potential victims to harass. But initial investigations were often “perfunctory,” since, at the time, the police held openly hostile views of gay men.
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One such case is the death of Scott Johnson (pictured) in 1988, an American citizen whose body was found at the foot of a cliff in Sydney, in an area notorious for suicides.
At the top of the cliff, Johnson’s clothes were discovered folded neatly in a pile alongside his watch, student ID, and a $10 bill. The overall consensus was that Johnson had killed himself.
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His brother Steve continually put pressure on authorities to investigate the crime as a murder, and 28 years later, a new inquest finally overturned the original finding of suicide, but coroners still reached no conclusion regarding the death.
Last month, Steve Johnson told WCVB that upon discovering “there were three other cases of gay men that died at cliff sides that had probably been attacked by marauding teen gangs, I collapsed.”
There will be new evidence heard in June, and Steve Johnson hopes it will inspire other investigations into these deaths, regardless of the outcome.
“There was clearly a pattern to these deaths,” says Margaret Sheil, whose brother Peter was also found dead at the base of a cliff in 1983.
Today, it is extraordinary to think that we would not have had an open discussion about what happened. And if we had, it might have prevented it happening to someone else.
“We can now see that predators were attacking gay men,” says Ted Pickering, the police minister for New South Wales in the ’80s.
“And they were doing it with the almost-certain knowledge that the police would not have gone after them. That was the police culture of the day.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Tomsen, a criminologist at Western Sydney University, doesn’t think the review is any sort of adequate response.
“It may be tempting for the police to concentrate on merely relabeling crimes rather than doing fresh detective work to solve them,” he says.
PerryBrass
I spent a month in Australia in 1995, and was surprised how much anti-gay violence went on there—despite Sydney’s Gay Mardi Gras being one of the top tourist attractions of the entire country, and the seeming openness of so many people toward gay people. The openness was one side of the coin, the violence another. The country has a frontier history, like the US, that is also very male centered and dominated—so there’s a lot of “matism,” that is, your closest friends are other males, your “mates,” and that is threatened by any kind of gay rumor around it.
But many gay men told me about weekend nights when Australia Rules Football, known for its macho brutality, was happening, and gangs of kids sought out gay men to harm and even kill. One memory that rang out to me in particular was being trapped in a car in Sydney with another gay men in the midst of a surging crowd of football fanatics. My Aussi friend said, “I’m afraid we’re going to get bashed.” I said, “Not if I can help it.”
The idea that he was just accepting the threat of this violence really shocked me.
Nothing did happen, but I’ll never forget that.
Perry Brass, author of THE MANLY PURSUIT OF DESIRE AND LOVE.
Andy
Let’s be fair though, you could pick just about any country in 1995 and point to the homophobia of the time. I’ve just lived in Oz for 6 years and encountered no homophobia whatsoever. Quite the opposite (and it wasn’t Sydney). England, where I’m from, was also very different in 1995.
Jack Meoff
I grew up gay in Sydney and while there were hate crimes against gays in the 80’s and 90’s of which I was a victim myself it was no more so than other countries during that same era. I see your post as nothing but shameless self promotion Perry.
TimberWolf
What tragic and sad loss of life over complete Hate what is wrong is its teens out of control which stems from the home and school Law enforcement, lack of respect for all life. As our technology evolves into higher tech advances are civil rights and lack of civilized respectful behavior goes backwards with less and less humanity and understanding .
Arconcyyon
It´s barbeiry théc end the itmes ! City Meterologic Climatic post Card Tuor SidneyAustrlin my forever . LéoDiTinnicic . Diamnet´sBlue .
Kangol
Look at the brutality the white British settler colonialists in Australia inflicted upon the Aboriginal people, and the foot-dragging Australia has engaged in before finally apologizing for over a century and a half of war, displacement, murder, and so on? Inhumanity of one kind breeds inhumanity of other kinds. It’s good to hear that this heinous aspect of Australia’s treatment of LGBTQ people is coming to light, and I hope the government and its citizens ensure that it never happens again.
Jack Meoff
Oh my god seriously! We could look at American history and draw comparisons with the American treatment of the native Indians or violence against gays in previous decades. Your post is alarmist and ill informed. I would suggest looking in your own backyard first.
cancorv
Jack, are you sure Kangol is American?
I’m reading “Days without end”, whose main character and his boyfriend perpetrate the crimes against native Americans that you refer to. It won the Costa prize this week.
Yes, we Australians have nothing to be proud of re the treatment of Aborigines, just as our current treatment of refugees is profoundly shameful.
Chris
I hope they catch and punish the perps. There should be no statute of limitations on these sorts of crimes.
ChrisK
I don’t see why not if the police are now classifying them as murders.