Mr Eian said he was tired of the negativity surrounding homosexuality and decided to speak out.

"Friends of mine keep on telling me to be careful with talking too loud about these issues, but I don't really worry too much about taking the brunt for a case I strongly believe in,'' he said.

While Mr Eian has never been attacked physically because of his sexuality, many others have not been so lucky.

An Australian Institute of Criminology study found 74 gay people were murdered in NSW in the past 20 years.

Senior Constable Shane Markham is one of 135 gay and lesbian liaison officers (GLLO) stationed at police stations throughout Sydney.

The officers work to develop and nurture trust between local police and the GLBTI (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community.

Another part of their role is to encourage a decrease in crime and violence and the fear of crime and violence within the gay community.

Senior Constable Markham said hate crime in general was under-reported.

"It [gay hate crime] does happen, but a lot of it is not reported for reasons unknown,'' he said.

"We want to stress you don't have to speak to a GLLO all officers are trained in hate crime of all kinds. You can report it to any police officer and the GLLO will do the follow-up with that person.''

Superintendent Donna Adney, the commander for the Surry Hills local area command and the corporate spokeswoman for GLBTI for NSW, understood the reluctance of some victims of gay hate crime to come forward.

"Someone who is not openly gay may not want to sign a statement and go to court as they may not want to out themselves,'' she said.

"There are a lot of intricacies surrounding the bisexual, transexual, intersex community that the GLLOs help other police understand.''