NCJ Number
228435
Date Published
2009
Length
50 pages
Annotation
This report explores aspects of safety and hostility as perceived and experienced by participants at large-scale gay and lesbian events held in Australia.
Abstract
Although event organizers, police, and public officials involved in planning and regulation stressed the order and goodwill of these occasions, results show that there is a steady undercurrent of hostility, abuse, and unreported violent attacks at these events, particularly in the aftermath of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG). Survey participants felt notably unsafe or threatened in relation to post-event interactions at the SGLMG parade. Hostility, abuse, and attacks reflect sexual prejudice as well as the more general safety issues of large night-time events: mass discomfort, collective intoxication, drug use, late-night transport, and finding an optimal degree of crowd supervision and surveillance. Although event planning and policing have done much to reduce serious violence in the immediate context of the event, there is room for further direct consideration of the concerns and suggestions of event participants of the sort that are raised in the report. Data were collected from an Internet-based questionnaire survey that sought information concerning participants' perceptions and experiences of hostility, threats, and violence before, during, and after these events. Figures, appendixes, and references