Image: Garry Wotherspoon
One of Australia’s most respected LGBTQIA+ historians an 78er Garry Wotherspoon has resigned from the NSW Police Force’s LGBTQIA+ Consultative Committee, saying recent police operations on Oxford Street during Pride Month made him question why he was still serving on a body intended to improve relations between police and queer communities.
Wotherspoon submitted his resignation to Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker, the committee’s police co-chair, after learning more about the police operation outside Oxford Street venues earlier this month, which prompted complaints from Sydney MP Alex Greenwich and Lord Mayor Clover Moore to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
In a joint letter to the LECC, Greenwich and Moore wrote that reports from patrons of Universal Sydney, Kinselas and Palms described police as “aggressive, intimidating, disrespectful and unprofessional”.
“I am writing to advise you that I am resigning from LGBTQIA Consultative Committee,” Wotherspoon wrote in his letter.
“There seems little point on being on a Committee aimed at ‘improving relations between police and community’, when, at the same time, police raid venues that are an integral part of our communities.”
Speaking exclusively to Star Observer, Wotherspoon said the decision came after hearing details from Greenwich and Moore’s office about what had unfolded on Oxford Street.
“Once I started to get details from Alex and the Lord Mayor’s office about the police raids and very unprofessional behaviour there… It harked me back to 24th of June 1978 — utterly, utterly unprofessional police behaviour — and I thought, what am I doing on the committee? On the one hand, we’re doing all these good things, on the other hand, the left hand is stabbing us in the back.”
The NSW Police LGBTQIA+ Consultative Committee was established in 2024 following recommendations from the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTQIA+ hate crimes, with the aim of rebuilding trust between the force and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Wotherspoon stressed his resignation was not directed at the committee itself or its police leadership.
“The committee themselves are really great. I have great respect for Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker and Superintendent Darrin Batchelor,” he said.
“But the troops on the ground are a very different kettle of fish.”
His resignation letter references the optimism surrounding the committee’s formation.
“It is ironic that Police Minister Yasmin Catley said, when this Committee was set up in 2024, ‘I know that the NSW Police Force, under the leadership of Commissioner Karen Webb, is deeply committed to learning from the past and continuing to strengthen its relationship with the LGBTQIA+ community into the future.'”
Instead, Wotherspoon believes the Oxford Street operation echoed one of the darkest chapters in Sydney’s queer history.
“Yet what happened recently harks back to the early 1980s, when those notorious police raids on Club 80 occurred; it sends a chill when our communities have so much more to be concerned about.”
Wotherspoon also questioned the priorities behind the operation.
“I would have thought that there are more pressing issues for police to turn their attention to – protecting the lives of NSW citizens – rather than harassing people who are having a victimless night out.
“And all for one arrest.”
He told Star Observer the outcome simply did not justify the scale of the operation.
“The visuals we have of the level of harassment of people… – and the poor drag queen out the front getting strip searched in public! Unbelievable. It’s just contempt for the citizens of this state.”
Wotherspoon also questioned how the operation could occur while senior police continued publicly committing to reform.
“Dealing with Leanne and Darren Batchelor, they’re so good, they so want to make the force move forward,” he said.
“But on the other hand, behind the scenes, the boys club just doesn’t give a fuck.”
The historian also said he is not the only committee member reconsidering their position.
“Half a century later, what’s changed?” Wotherspoon said.
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