Greens Establish Parliamentary Inquiry Into Violent Dating App Attacks On Gay & Bi Men

The Victorian Greens have successfully passed a motion for a parliamentary inquiry into the scale and scope of anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes across Victoria, focusing on a series of terrifying attacks against mostly gay and bi+ men, using dating apps like Grindr and Scruff. 

On Wednesday, Aiv Puglielli, the Greens’ equality spokesperson put forward a motion calling on the upper house’s legal and social issues committee to investigate the scale of such crimes, as well as the state’s current response and support available to victims.

“No person in our community should fear for their safety, for being who they are, for loving who they love. I think that’s a principle that we would all aspire to have as the norm across Victoria,” Puglielli told Star Observer.

“Right now we are seeing this hatred being fuelled and proliferated in dark corners of the internet where somehow there are people out there who think that it is a normal and acceptable thing to do to go out and physically assault a fellow person for being who they are or loving who they love. It’s really distressing. And as a queer person, on a personal level, I find it quite terrifying that people are being subjected to this kind of violence.”

This move comes after a spree of violent attacks targeting gay and bisexual men all across Australia and internationally since 2024. 

Over 35 people have been arrested in relation to such incidents, Victoria police confirmed in a statement. Police said the alleged offenders – most aged between 13 and 20 – had used fake profiles on dating apps to lure their victims.

Police alleged in a statement that men were “then allegedly assaulted, robbed, threatened and subjected to homophobic comments”. Sometimes videos of the assaults have been recorded and posted on social media.

During the June 2025 sentencing of a 19-year-old Victorian man who met and assaulted two people after speaking to them on the gay dating app Grindr, the court heard he admitted to police he had been inspired by vigilante-style videos he had seen on TikTok.

“Right now it feels like there are these far right, insidious parts of the internet where this behaviour seems to be espoused and people are being radicalised into committing these acts and then they’re doing it and sharing it online to other people, who then go and do the same heinous things,” says Puglielli. “It feels like these networks and these spaces are expanding and proliferating faster than our laws can keep up. That’s why the inquiry motion was really needed.”

Inquiry to address violence facing the whole LGBTQIA+ community

While the police language has specified attacks on gay and bi men, it’s worth noting that this only comes from the reported incidents – which are only the tip of the iceberg. Puglielli notes that the inquiry has been set up to examine violence that’s facing the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly, including any LGBTQIA+ users of these dating apps.

“I take the sharing of data and understanding the breadth of violence that’s facing the LGBTQIA+ community more broadly, it’s something that we really need to grapple with, and that this inquiry will have to examine. We’re not just talking about gay and bi+ men. We’re talking about transgender and gender diverse people. We’re talking about many community members who’ve been subjected to violence in a range of formats,” says Puglielli.

“We know that transgender and gender diverse people have experienced targeted hate and even violence for many years now. And that hatred is escalating for many parts of our community. And so I think within the scope of what this inquiry will consider, all of these matters will be on the table. There’s an interrelationship between a lot of this hatred that is out there.” 

Puglielli hopes the apps themselves will engage as stakeholders before the inquiry, noting that the safety of the platforms are in everyone’s interest. He also acknowledges that there’s a lot of complexity around these issues of hate crimes, radicalisation of young men, and the rise of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment, but that complexity should not be a reason that parliament shy away from looking at these issues more closely.

“This inquiry allows us to examine the full scale and scope of these issues. By having a parliamentary inquiry process, we can properly hear the expertise and the evidence of people who engage in the process, and across all parties who engage. We can actually look at those solutions and make recommendations to the government for reform. It’s really disturbing. It’s distressing.”

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If you feel distressed reading the story, you can reach out to support services.
For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.