Media coverage of the early years of the HIV epidemic contributed to the high level of violence against the LGBT community in NSW in the 1980s, an inquiry has heard.
The special commission of inquiry is investigating suspected hate crime deaths between 1970 and 2010, which remain unsolved, and was established this year following recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry.
This week's public hearings are exploring the social, legal and cultural factors affecting the LGBT community in the 40-year period.
Brent Mackie, peak LGBT group ACON's director of policy, strategy and research, today gave evidence that the 1987 Grim Reaper advertising campaign was designed to put HIV "on the agenda" but had a "particularly damaging" effect on gay people.
He said it "alienated" those with HIV because it didn't include information about how HIV was transmitted, safe sex practices or what to do if you were HIV positive.
Mr Mackie said it was such a major campaign that it still resonates in the Australian psyche today.
He said at the time it whipped up "hysteria" and resulted in many people perceiving gay men themselves as Grim Reapers, while rhetoric in the media and from some politicians also didn't help.
"Is it your belief that AIDS was considered to have played a role in motivating assailants, there appeared to be a correlation between media coverage of AIDS and the level of violence?" Counsel Assisting Christine Melis asked.
"It is my belief that it certainly contributed," Mr Mackie replied.
"I don't think it was the sole reason ... but it certainly contributed.
"The atmosphere was far harder in the second half of the 1980s, I think, especially as there was a lot of disinformation around HIV."
The inquiry was also shown a 1993 ACON report which followed increasing reports of police and council surveillance at gay beats between 1988 and 1992.
It showed police practices sometimes involved "punishment by spectacle", where beat users were not only arrested but "made an example of" in front of members of the public.
The report said some police practices were "unnecessary", including instances in Albury, Penrith and St Marys where offices had allegedly informed suspects' families or employers that they had been apprehended at a beat.
"It was quite shocking and devastating for the people involved, really devastating," Mr Mackie told the hearing.
He said that report resulted in initiatives to assist police in patrolling beats, as well as improving the relationship between police and beat our outreach workers and beat users.
The inquiry, led by Justice John Sackar, continues.
