Today, Saturday Jan 26, is Australia Day is also the Reclaim the Right Vigil being held in Sydney. The Vigil is being held in response to a perceived increase in homophobic violence along Sydney's Oxford Street and to reports that an attack on Craig Gee and his partner Shane Brennen was handled inappropriately by the police.

Superintendent Daryl Donnolley of Surry Hills LAC has said about the handling of this case:

“I can take you back blow by blow on everything that has happened. When stuff is entered into the system it’s timed and dated. We were reluctant originally to publish CCTV [footage of possible assailants] for legal reasons because it does affect the investigation process. There were a lot of things done that were never reported.”

Are the majority of these attacks just alcohol fueled violence, that would happen anywhere, anyway? Are we as a community crying wolf?

Allegations that Aboriginal people were responsible for the attack on Gee and his partner were also incorrect, Donnolley said. “What we published was that the people who used his credit cards [were of Aboriginal appearance]. We never at any time said that Aboriginal people committed the assault. The victims identified the attackers as Caucasian males.”

The police have maintained for months now that they have not seen any significant rise in specifically homophobic related crimes.

Acting Central Metropolitan Regional Commander Paul Carey says it is difficult for officers to ask victims whether they believed a crime was motivated by homophobia, especially if the victim had not voluntarily stated their sexuality.

“It is a sensitive topic that can lead to allegations of police either making inappropriate assumptions about someone’s sexuality or, on the other hand, not treating a crime as a hate crime,” he said.

It is easy then to assume that many attacks are classifieds as a general assault and "slip under the radar" and go unreported as homophobic crimes. Putting aside the allegations of police mishandling of the Craig Gee attack no can argue that street violence in general has been on the increase in Sydney over the last 12 months. George Street in particular has been a hot spot of violent drunken attacks.

This asks the question, how do we know that the drunken idiots from George Street haven't just wandered up to Oxford Street (only a short walk away) looking for another place to drink. Once they get there, they target whoever is around them. Every single weekend there are reports of alcohol related violence in Sydney's CBD. Are the majority of these attacks just alcohol fueled violence, that would happen anywhere, anyway? Are we as a community crying wolf? 

The police have maintained that they have not seen an increase in reports of directly anti-gay motivated attacks along Oxford Street. Maybe we are tackling the wrong issue entirely. Oxford Street, Sydney was once the gay hub of Australia, but in the last 5 years, since the closure of the Albury Hotel it has seen a dwindling of gay venues and gay friendly businesses.In 2008 it has become just a strip of $2 stores and large chain coffee shops. The hey day is over, except people are still behaving like it wasn't. People are still expecting to be in the same environment they were in 5 years ago. WRONG.  Wake up people, it's changed. If we want it back, then we need to let the council know. They need to turn it back into the gay hub it once was, or we need to move on and as a community create a new one. If we don't want the violence, then maybe we should set up outside the city. The inner west has always been a great location for the GLBT community, why not create our new GLBT community there, away from the violence that threatens Sydney's CBD every week. We shouldn't be picketing for more police presence along Oxford Street, we should be picketing for a new GLBT community.

Last week Maxi Sheilds wrote in the Sydney Star Observer about how happy she was about the huge police presence on Oxford Street over the weekend but it was spoilt by our own community. She reports: "
Two officers were trying to detain a violent intoxicated patron on Taylor Square. Quite obviously the bouncers had notified the officers and they were doing their job. We want them to do their job, don’t we?
But the foul abuse the police were getting from the groups of gay boys watching was disgusting. Is it better to have no police presence at all? Why should they bother doing their jobs if all they are going to get is, “Fuck off, you pigs.” I just don’t understand."

We demand protection and yet we treat the protectors like they are the ones doing the attacks and the police are out there still looking after all of us. We are our own worst enemy.

It's time to look at this problem the way it is. Oxford Street has changed. Violence in Sydney is everywhere in the city not just on Oxford Street. Instead of attacking the police and blaming them we should be focusing our energy on creating a new GLBT place for us, away from where the violence is. Go west I say, inner west and let's turn Newtown into the new gay mecca of Australia.

Happy Australia Day everyone.

Tags: gay australia, glbt community, homophobia, homophobic