A day after Statistics Canada named Calgary as the national leader in hate crimes, local police say the city’s gay and lesbian community is taking the brunt of it.
A further look into the numbers revealed the country’s gay and lesbian community is facing violent hate crimes at an alarming rate, and Calgary police diversities unit Cnst. Lynn MacDonald said the city is the same.
“Usually the numbers are pretty consistent across the board,” MacDonald told Metro. “Unfortunately, we are definitely seeing a number of violent crimes committed against the gay, lesbian and transgendered community.”
While the Stats Canada report revealed that the city is leading the nation in race and ethnicity crimes, MacDonald said that is in the property damage category whereas most gay hate crimes are personal attacks.
MacDonald said most in the community are too afraid to report crime, so those numbers may actually be a lot higher.
“The community is still reluctant to come forward though because if they do they are outing themselves and a lot of them aren’t ready to do that.”
One usually openly gay man who is too afraid to identify himself said he was attacked outside a local gay bar one night “just because he was gay.”
“It is scary. You actually never know who is out there to get you for really, no reason at all,” he said.
