electradaddy:
A 17-year-old lesbian teenager was physically assaulted in Calgary, Canada last week, and police are considering the attack a possible hate crime.
The teenager, who is not being publicly identified for her own safety, was getting off the bus Thursday night near her home in New Brighton, when she says four teenage boys jumped her, punching and kicking her while yelling homophobic slurs. The teenager suffered a black eye, split lip, cuts on her cheek and forehead, and one of her eyes is swollen shut.
“I’m pretty shaken up,” the out teenager told CTV. “It’s hard not to be scared. This is my neighborhood and I’ve always felt safe in it, and now I don’t.”
The 17-year-old said that one of the attackers recorded the assault on his phone, and she hopes the video appears online to help bring her attackers to justice. Sadly, she also says this isn’t the first time she’s been subjected to antigay harassment.
“I’ve had people throw things at me and play ‘pick on the lesbian on the bus,’” she said, “and put gum in my hair, but nobody has physically assaulted me until now.”
All kinds of wrong.
Ugh. Just ugh.
Please notice - The girl says she’s had people throw things at her & put gum in her hair yet she also says she’s never been physically assaulted until this horrific incident.
In my world, when someone throws things at you or puts gum in your hair, you are being assaulted, perhaps not beaten, but assaulted, nonetheless.
It amazes & saddens me how, at a young age, we just learn to accept the way people mistreat us & then convince ourselves, “it’s really not that bad.”
Also the police consider it a “possible” hate crime? I’d say it’s pretty definite.
