Jeff Whittington (Inverlochy Place, 1999)

In the early morning hours of 8 May, 1999, the police found a young man who had been beaten to near death on Inverlochy Place. He died in intensive care, hours later. He was 14-years-old.

It's understood that Jeff was targetted that night by his attackers for his appearance: his nails were painted bright green, and his hair was dyed purple. While Jeff lay in hospital, his attackers, two men in their twenties, returned to the last place they were partying that evening to brag about beating up a "faggot".

The death of Jeff Whittington is a somber reminder of our recent history, and also a reminder about the violence that a radical life can incur, even if radicalism is defined by merely looking and acting as you choose to look and act in defiance of societal expectation.

Jason Meads and Stephen Smith were found guilty for murder on 3 December, 1999.

Later in the tour, you will walked past the headquarters of the Dorian Society, who were radicalised in the event of the death of Charles Aberhart in 1964, whose teenaged attackers were acquitted of manslaughter.

Want to learn more?

PrideNZ.com provides a historical timeline of crime against LGBT people of New Zealand: http://www.pridenz.com/historical_events_crime.html

Image Credit

"Faces of Innocents", series at Stuff.co.nz: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/faces-of-innocents