Gay man murdered in Adelaide

By Alison Dellit

ADELAIDE -- A homosexual man was murdered here last week, exactly 21 years after the infamous drowning of Dr George Duncan.

Duncan, a gay professor at Adelaide University, was bashed and drowned in the Torrens River in 1972. The murder sparked outrage and demonstrations in the gay community that finally resulted in the decriminalising of homosexual sex in South Australia.

A commemoration service at Adelaide University on May 10 was addressed by former premier Don Dunstan. The service received considerable publicity on the major news channels on Monday night. In the early hours of Tuesday morning the body of Alan Lampard, a known homosexual, was found floating face down in a pond, near a homosexual beat.

Despite the obvious similarities between the two murders, police have dismissed suggestions that there may be a link.

Superintendent Lister has stated that since Lampard was also Aboriginal, the attack may have been prompted by racism, or simply a casual robbery. However, they are investigating the possibility of it being a homosexual bashing.

Kenton Penley of Lesbian and Gay Community Action said the gay community believed that it was “a hate crime” and asked for the support of the community in trying to track down the killer or killers.

Many people were concerned over the treatment of the story by the Advertiser. It ran the headline, “Warning To Gays”, and proceeded to advise gay men to stay away from the beats. The article then went on to publish the location of the beats.

It is the first time that the location of the beats has been published at all. Sabina Nowack from the youth organisation Resistance said “The whole tone of the coverage in the Advertiser, combined with the printing of the location of some beats, is simply an invitation for gay bashers to attack people. It is putting the blame back on the victim.”

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