An ABC investigation has unearthed horrifying vision of gay and bisexual teenagers being beaten unconscious in Sydney. The teenage boy perpetrators are reported to be supporters of Islamic State (IS).

The ABC journalists consulted and interviewed me for the piece, including showing me all the videos they’d obtained. The vision was sickening – but not surprising.

My research examines how people and communities become targets when otherwise distinct extremist ideologies converge around a perceived common enemy.

We are seeing ideological convergences across Islamic extremist, far-right and other grievance-based movements that frame both Jewish Australians and LGBTQIA people as threats. Antisemitism will be under the microscope during the royal commission, while Victoria is holding a parliamentary inquiry into attacks against LGBTQIA people.

With that in mind, the attacks in Sydney are not merely an abhorrent anomaly. Incidents like these are foreshadowing future, more severe violence, unless something is done to curb it.

Reviving thousands of years of hate

Violent, homophobic attacks are unfortunately nothing new, including in Australia.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, dozens of gay men were murdered in Sydney by youth gangs, who would lure the men to secluded places.

Some were mistakenly labelled as suicides. As a result, a lot of perpetrators were never held accountable.

This, combined with the stigma attached to being LGBTQIA in Australia, and policing strategies that members of these communities felt unfairly targeted them, led many to distrust law enforcement.

There’s good reason for this. History is littered with examples of discriminatory policing, including the 1994 raid on a Melbourne gay nightclub, where patrons were........

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