“Good afternoon, April. You have been identified as committing the offence of offensive language at Belmore Park on Sunday 20 September. A criminal infringement notice has been sent to your address. Regards, Sgt. Tessadri.”

This text popped up on my phone days after I attended a protest against homophobia.

A coalition of right-wing Christian groups and bigot extraordinaire Fred Nile had organised a rally in Sydney city to “thank God the recent attempt to redefine marriage failed”. They described same-sex parents as “infertile relationships where children are acquired rather than conceived”.

Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) organised a snap rally to confront them and speak for the vast majority of the population who support equality.

“When I say same-sex, you say marriage: Same sex! Marriage! When I say equal, you say rights: Equal! Rights! When I say bigots, you say fuck off: Bigots! Fuck off!”

This chant, a favourite at equal marriage rallies, provoked threats of a crackdown from the police for “foul language”, supposedly because kids were around. Outraged at the hypocrisy and biased censorship, I took the megaphone:

“They want to stop us calling these dinosaurs fucking bigots, which they are. Who’s harmed from hearing the word fuck? No one. How many children and teens hurt themselves, kill themselves from having to hear the hate over there? Every week, every day.”

The chants continued, and more activists took to the megaphone. When the rally ended, the cops swarmed in. Both rally organisers had $500 fines slapped on them. $500, for fuck’s sake (literally).

Knowing I would be targeted, I managed to leave unmolested. But they used video footage to identify me and track me down. Such are the lengths NSW police will go to to punish left-wing activists.

Cat Rose, chair of the rally and a convener of CAAH, said she had never experienced such tactics from police:

“This is totally unprecedented in all the years I have organised pro-LGBTI rallies. It’s such an attack on free speech. The bigots came with signs saying ‘90% of paedophiles are gay’ and listened to speeches saying ‘Protect your children from them’ and yet we’re the ones deemed offensive for telling them to fuck off?”

Most who received infringement notices will be appealing against the punishment. We will not be silenced.