Not our kind of hate crime

Abstract

Implicit in hate crime is the premise that certain types of violence can be usefully articulated through the concept of hate. This article seeks to raise some questions about hate as a heuristic device for understanding homophobic violence. It sets the scene for this discussion by providing a brief overview of the ways in which the concept of hate has been introduced into Australian legislation. In many accounts of homophobic violence hate is reduced to a question of fear, to the perpetrator's fear of his own homosexual desires. Drawing upon the specific example of violence by heterosexual men towards lesbian women, the article argues for a somewhat different angle on the relationship between hate and fear. In highlighting the significance of narratives of heterosexual love to anti-lesbian violence, it asks, what kinds of fear might we see if we looked at homophobic violence through the concept of love? To do so does not require us to reject the concept of hate but, rather, to acknowledge that love and hate are intimately entwined with each other.