Surprise! Homophobia still exists

Even in a marketably queer-friendly city like Vancouver, people are still sipping the gay haterade

By Rachel Braeuer
Photos by Mark Burnham

Over drinks last week, a friend was shocked to hear that I’d experienced homophobia in Vancouver. She was even more shocked to hear that it wasn’t an isolated incident. I don’t know whether to chalk this up to well-meaning NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) or the fact that I have some pretty sweet straight friends; either way, I’m here to be the killjoy and inform you that yes, homophobia does still exist, even here in fair Vancouver.

You’ve no doubt heard about the kids in Sullivan, Indiana trying to have a “traditional” prom. Yes, I know, this isn’t about Vancouver, but hold on. I’ll get back to us. This one kills me. If you live in a town that’s so backwoods it feels the need to try to have a no-gays-allowed dance, then just have your regular prom. I’m sure the number of intolerant assholes in attendance will be sufficient to keep the gays at home.

There’s a reason Valentine’s Day queer prom nights like the People’s Prom are so popular: a lot of LGBT teens didn’t feel comfortable going to their proms; now as adults, they revel in the opportunity to dress up as they would have liked, get bad pictures taken in front of a Hawaiian sunset backdrop, and drink legally spiked punch.

This story has died down a bit, and some students have defended their high school, saying that the group organizing this is a fringe group of fundamentalists. They have continued to affirm how accepting their school is, even as a neighbouring school’s special-ed teacher, Diana Medley, has publicly stated that she doesn’t think gay people have a purpose in life, compared being gay to being disabled, and then said that LGBT kids attending prom is “offensive.”

Dave Springer, the no-gays-at-prom group’s school’s principal said “a girl could go [to their prom] with another girl if they didn’t have a date or that was their choice.” The rhetoric here of “choice” and Springer’s initial hope that this hypothetical girl is just a sad loser that would rather go with a girlfriend than a real live choice-making queer negate his attempt at acceptance. I know for these small town kids that’s about as good as they can realistically hope for, but for the love of rainbows, they deserve better and shouldn’t have to settle for disdainful tolerance from their mentors.

Across the globe next year, Sochi, Russia, will be hosting a cast of queer athletes for the 2014
Olympics. Despite my general feelings surrounding the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, I will admit that the Pride House they had for queer athletes was a definite high note, showcasing the need for and normalizing acceptance in sports. Presumably, though, we won’t be seeing any of those at Sochi. A handful of regions in Russia, including St. Petersburg, recently passed legislation that made LGBTI “propaganda” aimed towards minors illegal. This ambiguous legislation means that anything that equates being gay with being normal is illegal; it assures that even in areas where having sex with someone of the same sex is legal, Russian youth will know that being LGBT is icky, despite being legally protected. Maybe the kids from Sullivan should have a destination prom in Russia (though everyone knows that Communists are worse than gays!)

In an issue that hits closer to home, The Owl, the University of Regina’s pub, came under fire last fall when a trivia host saw fit to use homophobic slurs. A student wrote an op-ed piece in the student newspaper, The Carillon, and then received backlash for saying that the host’s use of the word “faggot” made him feel isolated and afraid.

It’s hard to imagine this happening at the SFU pub. I haven’t spent a tonne of time there by any means, and while I’ve definitely heard choruses of “Ugh, gaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!” coming from individual tables, I still can’t imagine language like that getting used by an event host. But maybe that’s my own willful NIMBYism acting up. Vancouver hardly has a clean rap sheet when it comes to hate crimes. In 2009, Shawn Woodward left Ritchie Dowrey permanently brain damaged because he hit on Woodward — while at a gay bar. “He deserved it. The faggot touched me,” Woodward said after sucker-punching Dowrey in the back of the head on his way out of The Fountainhead. Woodward was convicted of a hate crime, but after serving a year and a half is now out on day-parole, living in a North Vancouver halfway house.

In 2008, Michael Kandola broke Jordan Smith’s jaw in three places after he hurled homophobic slurs and punches at his face. Smith was walking down Davie Street, holding another man’s hand, prompting the attack. “Why are you faggots holding hands?” Kandola rhetorically asked while the attack was underway. Kandola’s 2010 trial was a landmark case for the LGBT community: it is one of the first times an attack was deemed a hate crime in a court of law, despite the VPD treating numerous previous attacks as hate crimes.

I remember feeling a hollow victory when I read the news. Yes, we’d gotten the hate crime designation which established a legal precedent, but how excited can you be over a gay bashing? The statistics on sexual-orientation based hate crimes are pretty dismal in Vancouver. In 2010, we topped the charts, accounting for 26 per cent of the sexual orientation-motivated hate crimes committed. The VPD has stated that these hate crimes have been on the decline since 2010 with 2012 being an all-time low, but some question the reliability of statistics. The Transit police force, for example, had no reported gay bashings on file as of Sept. of last year, despite there having been attacks reported to news sources.

Hesitation to label something homophobic or hateful seems to be gaining popularity. It took a Twitter outrage last year for Aaron Poirier to be taken seriously when he was harassed for being a “fag” by another YMCA patron in the lockerroom. Despite the fact that the man threatened to punch Poirier and then harassed Poirier and his partner on a second occasion, the Y was happy to allow the harasser to maintain his membership based on a second-chance protocol. “We view this as an opportunity to teach the individual in question about appropriate behaviour and acceptance of all people regardless of their sexual orientation,” a spokesperson said initially. After pressure from the community, however, the YMCA offered an official apology and will be undergoing queer competency training.

This is a sad example of one of the problems that I see as reinforcing homophobia. There isn’t a lot of room for straight people to ask genuine questions to LGBT people about all things LGBT without being told they’re assholes simply for asking. I feel for you, straight people. I know you mean well while you’re asking those questionable questions; I can see you working up the nerve to ask them for weeks before you do, asking them in your head first in those awkward silences in our conversations.

In defence of those who refuse to answer your questions, the first time someone asked me, “How did you know?” the conversation devolved into “So you’ve been with men? You’ve had sex with men? Oh, well, then you’re not really gay.” When a former boss asked me, “How do your parents feel about this?” (for the record, they were more phased by me losing my keys one night than by my coming out) she concluded the conversation with, “Well. If it was my child I’d have
a big problem with it.” You can imagine the derisive look that accompanied that last bit. While you might not be a raging homophobe, we can’t always tell that.

Many of us don’t want to answer your questions in case they’re a smokescreen for disapproval. But then again, if you can’t ask questions, how are you supposed to learn? In the Y’s case, Qmunity offered their services, but unfortunately there isn’t always someone willing to slog through how-to-not-be-a-homophobe-101 with the commoners.

I’ll throw you a freebie: stop saying “gay” (and calling people faggots or a variation of that). I know many think of this as queers and libbers being overly PC. “I don’t mean ‘gay’ like ‘homo,’ I mean it like bad,’ ” some defend.