The unveiling of on June 4 drew more than 150 members of the LGBTIQ+ community, including survivors of gay hate crimes and their friends, lovers and family.
Designed by artist John Nicholson, Bondi Memorial: Rise is situated on the headland of Marks Park in Tamarama and is dedicated to the victims and survivors of deadly homophobic and transphobic violence perpetrated on the LGBTIQ+ community from the 1970s to the 1990s in New South Wales.
An estimated and many people were assaulted during this period. The real number of murders is probably much higher, as many did not go to the police for fear of homophobic reprisal.
Greg Callaghan, author of the book and podcast series told the gathering that, as Sydney became an 鈥渋nternational gay beacon鈥 during the late 1980s with the promotion of Mardi Gras, 鈥渂ecause of stigma surrounding HIV-AIDS and criminalisation ... anti-gay violence was taking place all over鈥.
Callaghan said the headland at Marks Park 鈥渂ecame a deadly epicentre鈥 where 鈥渁t least three gay men lost their lives鈥.
, a 27-year-old Frenchman went missing in 1985; , a 24-year-old TV presenter was murdered in 1989 and John Russell was murdered in 1989, aged 31.
Marks Park was a gay beat 鈥 an outdoor area where gay men have casual sex or meet gay friends. 鈥淭he gay haters knew where to go,鈥 Callaghan said. Bigoted young men and women in gangs hunted in packs: some threw men off cliffs, entrapped and beat them to death in public toilets and murdered them in their homes.
Kritchikorn Rattanajurathaporn, a 31-year-old Thai man who had only been in Sydney for four months, was set upon by youths using a claw hammer. He was murdered in at Mackenzies Point in Bondi South in July 1990.
Callaghan wrote in the last October that Rattanajurathaporn鈥檚 murder was a 鈥渨atershed moment for Australia鈥檚 LGBTQ community鈥. A聽large protest was organised outside NSW Parliament and buildings were 鈥渟plattered with red paint鈥.
Former NSW Deputy Coroner Jacqueline Milledge, who led the 2005 inquest into the deaths of gay men inadequately investigated by police, told the memorial: 鈥淭he police response to the murders was dismissive. They said suicide, accident, misadventure.
鈥淩oss Warren鈥檚 mother had to plead for a death certificate from the police for closure for 10 years,鈥澛爏he said. 鈥淚 was a police officer in the 1970s [when] homophobia was [rife] in society and the sentiment of the police force reflected this.鈥
Survivor of a gay hate crime David McMahon whose experience is recounted in the SBS documentary told the gathering: 鈥淚 was jogging in Marks Park when a gang started bashing me. There were women in the pack. They dragged me towards the cliffs and said they鈥檇 throw me over where they did the other one鈥. McMahon escaped and went to the police who placed him in a cell, while jeering at him.
There have been various attempts to investigate gay hate crimes, including 鈥溾 in 2016, when NSW Police reviewed 88 possible gay-hate deaths. Criminologist Stephen Tomsen criticised it in a submission to the 2018 NSW Legislative Council, saying the operation expressed 鈥渧iews that most victims were 鈥榩aedophiles鈥欌.
The 鈥済ay panic鈥 defence was also deployed to deliver lighter sentences to perpetrators of homophobic and transphobic violence. South Australia became the last state to outlaw the common law defence of provocation to murder only in December 2020.
Rick Feneley in the SBS investigation reported that police failed to check even basic details for some of the men who had been murdered. 鈥淭he NSW Police Force has admitted its officers may have made serious mistakes while re-examining potential gay-hate murders among a list of 30 unsolved deaths,鈥 he said.
The NSW Parliament鈥檚 report聽, released in April last year, found that 鈥渢he NSW Police Force failed in its responsibility to properly investigate cases of historical gay and transgender hate crime and this has undermined the confidence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGTBIQ) communities in the NSW Police Force and the criminal justice system more broadly鈥.
The report recommended that parliament investigate 40 years of unsolved gay hate deaths. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet appointed to lead an inquiry into 88 unsolved murders committed against LGBTIQ+ people from 1970 to 2010. Such an inquiry was a key recommendation of a 2018 parliamentary committee into gay and transgender hate crimes, which found NSW Police聽were indifferent to such crimes and failed to properly investigate them at the time.
[Rachel Evans is a long-term LGBTIQ rights campaigner.聽Rallies for LGBTIQ rights are being organised on June 25 in and .]