In a dark period of New South Wales’ history from the 1970s to 2000, numerous gay men were documented to have disappeared in suspicious circumstances, or were known to have been killed in New South Wales. Smaller numbers of transgender women were documented to have also been killed.

In response, a list of 88 suspected anti-gay homicides was compiled between 1990 through to 2015 largely by the NSW Police Force Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officer Program Coordinator, Sue Thompson, and NSW based Criminologist, Professor Stephen Tomsen, who conducted vast research into gay hate crimes. More information about the formation of this list is included in the methodology section of this Report.

These killings are the subject of this report. Many were brutal, including stabbings, strangulation, bludgeoning, shooting, sexual assaults and frenzied attacks. Some were crimes shaped by prejudice, targeted towards people based on their perceived homosexuality, and in some cases fuelled by HIV stigma. Almost 30 of these cases remain unsolved.