Burgess returned later to check on the destruction of the fire.
Judge Ingram went to great lengths to argue that, in his view, this was not an attack on the queer community but a mere coincidence that the building happened to be occupied by the queer community. Judge Ingram put the blame on the arsonists’ “mental health state at the time”.
He held that the arsonists “were clearly seriously affected by their reduced mental and intellectual capabilities”.
Their sentences included a raft of conditions intended to assist them to address their mental and intellectual difficulties needs but Judge Ingram declined to disclose what those were.
The judge reduced Burgess’ 18-month prison sentence by 50 per cent. Burgess will serve nine months in prison due to the lack of another residential facility. The judge sentenced Phillips to six months of home detention.
On July 1, Burgess told the police that he got involved in the arson because Phillips promised to give him $100. He told the police Phillips told him the fire “will teach them for being gay”.
On July 6, Phillips admitted to the police that he had planned the arson attack with Burgess. He claimed that Burgess told him “he was going to burn those f****s to the ground”.
In light of the claims in the Crown summary of findings, Judge Ingram said that, in his view, the arson attack was far from a deliberate attack on the queer community.
I am perplexed by his comment. His comment dismissing the suffering felt personally by the queer community is not an isolated event in recent judgments.
Only a month ago, Judge Quentin Hix discharged without conviction two white men who pleaded guilty to an anti-Semitic and anti-queer hate crime on Gloria, a pink church of queer celebration in Greymouth. Gloria was vandalised with the statement “House of God not of Gay”, a Bible reference that condemned queer people to death and a burnt rainbow flag was staked in the entranceway.
I am starting to sense a pattern of apathy from the judiciary towards the safety of queer people. There has been a rise of violence from cisgender heterosexual white men towards queer people, or as this case frames it, towards buildings that happen to be occupied by queer people.
Our judiciary needs to start treating attacks on the queer community seriously. These attacks are felt deeply and personally by the queer community. Young queer people are five times more likely to attempt suicide than young non-queer people. We feel even more unsafe when the people empowered to enforce the law do not protect us.
The queer community is being left traumatised by these constant attacks, as these men either walk free or serve inconsequential sentences. I fear that there is a generation of queer people growing up watching attacks on people like them and learning the authorities do not have their back.
Shaneel Shavneel Lal (they/them) was instrumental in the bill to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand. They are a law and psychology student, model and influencer.
