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BRIEF
Cops target gays again

Dale Mills, Sydney

4 May 2007

— Speaking on behalf of the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project, Adrian Lovney told the April 26 Sydney SX newspaper that the NSW Police’s lesbian and gay liaison officer program was “utterly inadequate”.

In April, a 23-year-old heterosexual man, who was perceived by his attacks to be gay, was called hate-names on Sydney’s Oxford Street, and was then bashed unconscious. He suffered serious brain injuries and the perpetrators have not been caught. Police have pleaded limited resources, but this does not seem to apply to what is perceived by many as police harassment of gay venues. Lovney said that “when our community see eight to 10 officers regularly traipsing through gay nightclubs on the pretext of looking for drugs, while people are continually being bashed by homophobic thugs and no arrests are made, then growing community anger is justified”.

Large police raids on gay clubs get no or minimal media attention. One gay-sponsored three-day P&O cruise of the Tasman Sea, which left Sydney on March 30, had its 1200 passengers searched by police sniffer dogs on boarding. Only one passenger was found in possession of an illegal drug with intent to supply.