We sent our complaint about the homophobic thug bouncer at The Oxford Hotel the other night not only to the pub but also to Alex Greenwich, the gay NSW independent in the state parliament here.
He's replied and I'm posting the reply here as it has very useful information for anyone else who's suffered homophobic discrimination as we did.
We've decided to contact our social worker at ACON and go see the Anti-Violence Project they have going there. We can show them the below email and take their suggestions if we want to take things further.
Honestly, I've drank at a lot of pubs over the decades including some very rough ones, but I've never seen a bouncer charge at someone like that. He obviously didn't appreciate two "fags" standing up to him.
Dear Peter and David
Alex has asked me to get back to you. I’m very sorry to read about your experience and the homophobic abuse you received from security officers. This is very rare in the feedback we receive about inner city venues.
A number of local liquor accords are now sharing information about banned/excluded patrons and this is being encouraged by government to ensure that people who have caused problems in one venue don’t go on to do the same in others. It appears that this has backfired in your case if they have all targeted people who did not cause problems.
I hope that the Oxford Hotel management properly reviews your complaint and responds to you. There is useful information about security guard rules at www.lawstuff.org.au/nsw_law/topics/police/article8. The NSW Police Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate is the authority responsible and I understand that you can begin the complaint process with the local police.
You may also wish to check with the Anti-Discrimination Board about the homophobic abuse: www.antidiscrimination.justice.nsw.gov.au/Pages/adb1_makingacomplaint/adb1_makingacomplaint.aspx
You may also wish to get in touch with the ACON Anti-Violence Project, who monitor and work with police and venues to prevent homophobic and transphobic hate crime, telephone 9206 2116.
If you wanted to follow up further in a formal way, I recommend getting some advice from LawAccess 1300 888 529 or one of the Community Legal Centres www.clcnsw.org.au/clc_directory.php about how best to get a positive outcome.
BTW, we've still not heard a peep from the Oxford apart from banning us from their premises. So we get called fag by their bouncer and get banned when arguing about it. The Oxford has gone to shit.
Unfortunately we still have a way to go for the cultural change needed for equality and fair treatment. I hope that your reporting helps prevent any future incidents.
RegardsRoy Bishop JPElectorate Officer for Alex Greenwich MP
Independent Member for Sydney
58 Oxford Street Paddington 2021
Telephone 9360 3053
*Update: A very quick response from our social worker at ACON. Great to have support. Is this whole thing starting to snowball?
Hi Peter,Thanks for getting in touch. I am so sorry to hear about this experience and would be happy for you to come in with David for a de-brief if you’d find some counselling helpful in this case. We could look at all the options for next steps you may want to take and make a plan together. The worker from the Anti Violence project is away next week, however, I could give you some info about how they work at ACON if this would be useful.
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