Dr Wilson Wong reflects on the lessons we still have to learn from historical cases of anti-gay discrimination
LGBT history month is just over and through myriad lectures, films, performances, exhibitions and meet-ups, we celebrated and commemorated the many LGBTQI* men and women who, at great personal cost, led the way for equality under the law.
But to those who think all’s well in 2017, think again. LGBTQI people are still marginalised, and attitudes that are toxic and a danger to society continue to lurk. Even today, there’s pejorative currency in labelling someone ‘gay’ – as seen when a major British daily newspaper labelled one of the High Court judges who were determining the constitutional rights and responsibilities for activating Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union “an openly gay ex-Olympic fencer”. The instances of discrimination based on sexuality and sexual identity are persistent as recent cases such as David Cary's legal battle with the Met Police demonstrate.
One headline in The New York Times caught my eye in February: ‘When Gangs Killed Gay Men for Sport: Australia Reviews 88 Deaths’. The article reported that the Australian authorities acknowledged that, in the 1980s and 1990s, gangs of teenagers in Sydney hunted gay men for sport, sometimes forcing them off cliffs to their deaths. The police minister for New South Wales in the late 1980s, Ted Pickering, felt that “they [the teenage gangs] were doing it with the almost-certain knowledge that the police would not have gone after them. That was the police culture of the day.”
In describing Sydney police’s culture at the time, Justice Kirby said: “I do not believe that this extended to a general conspiracy to back off professional investigations of murder.” It was, he felt, “an attitude of complacency and indifference. Certainly not the motivation of energy to track down the murdered.” It’s also useful to note that New South Wales only decriminalised sex between men in 1984.
The article got me thinking. None of those cases were considered for further investigation as crimes. As a consequence, valuable evidence wasn’t collected. Leaving aside overt prejudice, could The New York Times report be an example of where perhaps there is an insidious or persistent myopia, or blindness, towards the LGBTQI population? Are we – lulled by legal protections and fabulous annual Pride festivals – inattentive to a large number of the population who, while not overtly anti-LGBTQI, still perceive these communities as marginal? By not engaging with the spirit of equality, our complacency risks all the progress to date. Witness the populist sentiment against immigrants in the UK, continental Europe and the US.
There are several effects we know of that can potentially explain the apparent inattention or myopia.
There is, at a very basic level, the issue of group think. The tendency of the police to stereotype gay men as low-life criminals engaged in disgusting activities meant that there was a particular power dynamic between the police and this group. Rather than victims of crime, the gay men were seen a perpetrators of crime and so undeserving of the protection of the police.
Fatal leaps from the cliffs were not uncommon, then or now. Confirmation bias, or the tendency to look at information that supports existing beliefs, could have played out here. Found naked and battered by the rocks below, Scott Johnson’s clothes were found on the cliff neatly folded with his digital watch, student identity card and a $10 note. No wallet and no note. It looked like a suicide, so it is probably a suicide. As psychologists will tell you attention is a personal thing – you see that which you are attuned to receiving.
These effects highlight that merely having a rule, policy or procedure in place isn’t enough to ensure inclusion. It is the responsibility of organisations to create a culture that embraces the spirit of these policies (whether these be against discrimination, bribery or negligence). Understanding ‘myopic’ effects and repeatedly highlighting these issues is the responsibility we all share.
There is no excuse for professional negligence and deliberate cover-ups, but I am more forgiving of unintentional myopia, because this affects us all. This news report highlights how human we are and that ending blindness on LGBTQI issues is an ongoing campaign. Next time you think LGBT history month may have passed its sell-by date, remember Scott and David, and all those who continue to fight for equality – not just in law, but in the hearts and minds of their neighbours, too.
* Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex
Dr Wilson Wong is head of insight and futures at the CIPD. If you want support from the CIPD on LGBTQI issues, contact diversity adviser Dr Jill Miller or the LGBT+ and friends network