Lesbians Targeted As 'Fair Game' in Spate of Hate Crimes
In an inquiry into the numerous hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people in Australia between the 1970s and 2000s, a spotlight has brought attention to lesbian targets of the violence.
While most of the evidence and cases involve queer men, Carole Ruthchild gave evidence as the first witness from the lesbian community at New South Wales Special Commission Inquiry — the commission investigating the hate crimes, according to the Australian Associated Press.Ruthchild is the former advisor to the attorney general on LGBTQ+ subjects.
In 2008, her activism on LGBTQ+ rights led to her being inducted into the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby Hall of Fame.Although homosexuality in New South Wales had been decriminalized in 1984, it didn’t change how queer people were targeted. “Whether you were outrageous or looked just like everybody else and they just happened to know … you couldn’t be out and open and not get a bad response,” Ruthchild said.“We didn’t have to hide – it wasn’t the 1950s – but being in public could draw attention,” she explained.
Ruthchild said that men would attack women if the women rejected the men's sexual advances, the Australian AP reports. “If you weren’t there with a man, you were seen as fair game really,” she said. “Even if you were with another woman or several women, men seemed to think it was their right to come and want to buy you a drink – as if we were just sitting there waiting for a man.”She previously participated in the 1992 Off Our Backs report which detailed some of these violent experiences that lesbians experienced.
