Garry Burns

Garry Burns is an Australian lawfare activist, serial litigant, and LGBTIQA+ activist. He is known for complaints and litigation in relation to homosexual vilification against public figures such as Jeff Kennett, Bob Katter, and Israel Folau. His cases have tested provisions of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 and the jurisdictional limitation of tribunals.

Personal experience of hate crimes In 1988, amidst a series of gay hate crimes across Sydney, three young people dragged Burns to the cliffs off Bondi's Marks Parks and threatened to throw him off for being gay. According to Burns, this experience - and other gay-hate crimes - left him with post-traumatic shock disorder and motivated him to "ensure hatred and vilification are not part of the Australian psyche".

Activism and public commentary Burns has been one of Australia's best known LGBTIQA+ activists, receiving both praise and criticism for his advocacy.

In 2010, Burns stated he would "throw a tantrum" outside Labor MP Kirsten Livermore's office if she did not address homophobia. This instance followed a Roy Morgan study that revealed 45% of her electorate thought that homosexuality was immoral. In 2013, he called on the NSW State Government to defund ACON after a rise in the state's HIV infections. In 2014, Burns claimed that Ian Thorpe had kept his homosexuality hidden because of the fear of "losing huge sponsorship deals."

In 2020, Mark Latham introduced a private member's bill in NSW Parliament to change the way that complaints are handled by the anti-discrimination board, in part due to Burns' litigation. Latham stated in an interview with the Catholic Weekly that gay activists had been targeting Christians and other vulnerable people in the community through the anti-discrimination laws.

Australian Federal Elections

In the 2007 Australian Federal Election, Burns volunteered for George Newhouse, who was the Labor candidate in the seat of Wentworth, running against the incumbent and future Prime Minister, Malcom Turnbull. During the campaign, Burns allegedly verbally abused and intimidated Turnbull's wife, Lucy Turnbull. The following day, Burns sent an email to Malcolm Turnbull stating that there would be more angry homosexuals like Burns attacking Turnbull in public because of his "fascist leader" John Howard, whom Burns accused of treating gay people as second-class citizens. He described Turbull's wife as a "middle-aged, well-dressed 'fag hag' impersonator of a wife" and Turnbull as a "weak and pathetic excuse for a human being. Burns was subsequently sacked from his volunteer position. In the 2010 Australian Federal Election, Burns considered challenging Turnbull if someone provided him with the necessary funds. He criticised Turnbull for "poncing around the place wanting to become prime minister".

Complaints and litigation Burns has lodged over 100 complaints to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, including 36 vilification or victimisation complaints against Queensland Senate Candidate Bernard Gaynor during a period of 32 months. In 2020, Burns stated that he had won around 62 out of 65 proceedings.

The elements of homosexual vilification under NSW Anti-Discrimination legislation are that it is:

A public act, That could incite hatred, serious contempt, or severe ridicule towards a person or group, Because of the homosexuality of that person or group.

Burns v Dye (2008) Background: Mr. Burns alleged that, while living in a public housing block, he had been abused and harassed by his neighbor, Mr. Dye, because of his sexuality.

Arguments: Burns accused Dye of discriminatory behavior, including multiple accounts of verbal abuse, homophobic graffiti, and smearing faeces and urine by his front door. Dye acknowledged that he used the terms "faggot" and "poofter" in relation to Burns, but argued that they are part of popular vernacular as general terms of insult, rather than having a meaning exclusively related to homosexuality. The terms were likened to the use of "bastard", which previously referred to a person born outside of marriage, but has become a general insult.

Judgments: The Tribunal found that verbal abuse occurring in an open hallway constituted a form of public communication because other residents and guests could overhear it. However, it did not meet the required threshold for incitement because Dye was so visibly drunk that he did not "enjoy any position of respect or influence". The Tribunal found that Dye had drawn a large penis on Burns' front door with the words "fag lives here, faggots should die", which breached anti-vilification law because it was considered public communication, and met the requirement for incitement because it promoted killing homosexuals. The depositing of faeces and urine on Burns' doorstep did not constitute vilification because even if it constituted public communication, it was not directly linked to Burns' sexuality. The Tribunal ordered Dye to send an apology letter to Burns and pay him $1,000.

A minority Tribunal member, Antony Silvia, argued that all allegations had been proven and that Burns should have been awarded $15,000. Burns stated that the judgement was a bittersweet victory. He said: I'm a good person, I'm a decent person, I want to make society a better place for people. I don't want people put in boxes, put on the mantelpiece and knocked off by those who have hatred in their hearts. After the broadcast, he wrote a letter to Laws calling him a fascist, very unattractive, a right-wing reactional bigot, a creature of hate, and Adolf. Burns stated that he sought a public apology and a $10,000 donation to an HIV/AIDS charity. Radio 2UE was ordered to make a public apology on air and in three metropolitan newspapers, and pay Burns reasonable costs on a party-party basis. This reasoning has subsequently been adopted and applied in other cases.

Burns v Radio 2UE Sydney Pty Ltd (No 2) Background: In November 2004, 2UE presenters John Laws called Queer Eye For the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley a "pillow biter" and "pompous little pansy prig". Laws said it was intended as tongue-in-cheek humor.

Judgement: The Tribunal unanimously agreed that Laws' comments incited severe ridicule against homosexual men, but that free speech provisions in the Anti-Discrimination Act protected Laws. A dissenting tribunal member, Ms Mooney, stated that the insulting tone and degree of harm the comments may cause was not reasonable, so she thought that Laws had not established a reasonable free speech defense. Laws also agreed to give airtime to the Lesbian and Gay Anti-Violence Project.

On the same day as Laws' apology, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras office was vandalized with the words "pillow biters" and "pompous pansy prig" written in pink spray-paint. Considering the offices were newly established with no signage identifying the Mardi Gras tenancy, The Star Observer stated that a member could have come from the gay community to prove a point.

Judgment: The Administrative Decisions Tribunal found the skit was tasteless, offensive, and unfortunate, but that it did not incite hatred or severe contempt or serious ridicule of homosexuality. Queensland Senate candidate Bernard Gaynor endorsed Corbett's statements and was suspended from Katter's Australia Party for saying he would not allow gay teachers to educate his children. In a submission to the NSW inquiry into anti-discrimination laws, Gaynor claimed he had received 37 complaints against him by Burns between 2014 and 2020. Burns stated: I'm like a vicious Rottweiler... I've got hold of his leg and I'm not letting go until the bones and blood are bare Judgement: NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. found Corbett had vilified homosexuals with her comments. She was ordered to apologise in writing to Burns and publish an apology to the gay community in the Sydney Morning Herald, but did not comply.

Injunction: Burns started proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court to require Corbett to comply with the previous orders, but the court stated that the tribunal did not have the jurisdiction to deal with Corbett or Gaynor because they were not in New South Wales. The appeal was unanimously dismissed, the court finding that chapter three of the Constitution would be undermined if a state tribunal had jurisdiction over acts interstate. Katter's brother, Carl Katter - who is openly gay - described it as "hatred and bigotry". Burns stated that the ad depicted homosexual people as being dirty and perverted.

Burns v Smith (2018) Background: In April 2018, on a Facebook post by Bernard Gaynor, Blair Smith had commented that Garry Burns advocated for pedophile rights and pedophile inclusion in rainbow communities, and stated that Burns was a "filthy piece of human filth [that] needs to be put down, just like we do to sick animals". Burns reported Smiths' post to the NSW Police and contacted Smith to state that he would seek compensation and an offer to retract the comments. Smith then contacted Burns and threatened to smash his head in.

Arguments: Smith told the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW that he had confused Gary Burns with another person called Garry and conceded that Burns had not advocated for pedophiles.

Burns v Folau (2019)

Background: In 2019, Rugby player Israel Folau posted on Instagram, warning that "hell awaits homosexuals." He also made comments linking the recent Australian Bushfires to the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2017. Burns stated that Folau's statements on transgender and homosexual Australians could negatively impact teens who may suffer from low self-esteem. Folau argued that the complaint was "utterly hopeless". Principal Member Anne Britton rejected Folau's argument that the complaint was "hopeless", but the complaint was declined for being vexatious. Board President Annabelle Bennet described it as a "flagrant abuse of process such that no further actions should be taken". She found that Burns had lodged the complaint to pressure Folau into settling, rather than using the processes afforded under the Anti-Discrimination Act. She also noted that Burns had disregarded the confidential nature of the proceedings by issuing a media release with the statement:Fellas, I'm just like a vicious Alsatian dog. Once I grab hold of the leg, I don't let go until the bone is bare and bloodied. One way or another, I will get that remedy from Mr Folau. Sunol had previously made various online comments, including that the gay and feminist lobby were "anti-God" and that "faggots are all wicked evil people and God will burn Sydney to the Ground because of the evilness of these fags." A former University of Wollongong lecturer, Henry Collier, had lodged a complaint, and the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that five of Sunol's posts were generalizations of a highly insulting and offensive nature, constituting homosexual vilification. The case was the first time that an internet publication was tested to constitute a "public act" as defined in the vilification law. Sunol was ordered to refrain from commenting on the topics and ordered to pay Collier's costs. In 2014, Sunol was ordered to pay Burns $4,000 to burns after online comments accusing Burns of being a child sex abuser and "lying faggot". According to a friend of Sunol, by 2018, Burns had submitted 77 complaints against Sunol, leading to 24 tribunal or court matters and 29 days of hearings.