Lesbian women were seen as "fair game" if they weren't in the company of a man and faced violence when they turned down sexual advances, an inquiry into unsolved LGBTQI deaths has been told.
In the years after NSW decriminalised homosexuality in 1984, Carole Ruthchild said lesbian women still faced severe backlash simply for being themselves.
"We didn't have to hide - it wasn't the 1950s - but being in public could draw attention," the former adviser to the attorney-general on LGBTQI issues said in Sydney on Friday.
