Man caught spray-painting ‘bash a gay’ graffiti in Sydney
Protests in Australia (SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Police in Sydney are on the hunt for a man caught spray-painting homophobic abuse on a building.
Two women were walking through the area of Alexandria when they spotted the man spraying graffiti on a wall.
As Laura Hunter and April Long passed by, they noticed the message read: “Bash a gay today.”
Speaking to AAP, Hunter told the Australian Association Press that the man said he had been “robbed by a gay man once”.
The man wore a hat pulled down over his eyes and his identity is unknown.
A NSW Police spokesperson said officers from Redfern Police Area Command were investigating the vandalism and called for anyone with more information to come forward.
Sydney celebrating legalising same-sex marriage (Cole Bennetts/Getty Images)
It came after almost 13 million Australians (79.5%) voted in the country’s non-binding postal ballot to endorse the law.
The motion was approved almost unanimously by the House of Representatives, after passing the upper chamber the previous week.
Royal Assent was given to the same-sex marriage law on 8 December following on from a historic postal vote earlier in the year which saw more than 61 percent of Australians vote Yes for same-sex marriage.
The postal vote led to same-sex marriage being legalised (Scott Barbour/Getty)
The process to legalise same-sex marriage which included a non-binding postal vote was criticised by the United Nations Human Rights Council and LGBT rights campaigners, however.
The council said Australians were put “through an unnecessary and divisive public opinion poll.”
Homophobia also remains a problem. Earlier this year, a non-profit legal group filed an anti-discrimination case against 25 people over hate speech — including the words “burn all faggots” — during Australia’s Marriage Law Postal Survey.
The LGBTI Legal Service lodged the complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland after receiving funding from the state government to investigate potential hate speech.
The service said it had collected more than 220 examples of hate speech, ranging from individuals posting on social media to neo-Nazi groups distributing posters on university campuses.
