So last night I was in the metro (which is unusual). Wearing a bag with some rainbow buttons on it. A bunch of kids, standing between me and the staircase/emergency phone), saw it and started mocking me and chanting “kill the faggot, kill the faggot”.
Grand total: :mad:
Got on the train and went home. More fear than harm, as the Quebecois say, but I’m a little pissed, and I remember where you’re supposed to report even verbal harassment so they can keep track of it. Whoever “they” is - our local gay and lesbian anti-violence project closed down last year when the government cut its funding.
Grand total: :mad: :rolleyes:
So I call the local gay support hotline. I figure they definitely will keep track of it - I remember we kept track of the nature of the call when I worked at such a line. The nice lady offers her sympathy, congratulates me for wanting to speak out. They do, indeed, record the nature of the call. Do they keep statistics about it or give those statistics to anybody official? Um, no.
Grand total: :mad: :rolleyes: 
She’s definitely on my side though, and says she’ll bring it up at the next staff meeting. I’m sure it’ll go through now that we don’t have any real anti-violence initiative. Any rate, she lets me know that the police station in the village has some kind of initiative regarding homophobic harassment and assault. Even though I wasn’t injured and don’t intend to/can’t file an official complaint, I should call them anyway cos they keep track of this. Too many go unreported and I don’t want to add to that or to an illusion of safety.
So I call the police. The fellow working the desk doesn’t seem to have heard of any specific initiative at his station. He says I should call my local police station, tell them, they’ll do a report and submit it and it’ll be included in the official stats.
Grand total: :mad: :rolleyes: :dubious:
So I call the police in my neighbourhood. This snippy constable says that 1) why am I calling, since the metro station where this happened isn’t in their (my) neighbourhood; 2) they can’t do anything about it since I wasn’t injured; 3) chanting “kill the faggot, kill the faggot” wasn’t really a threat, it was just a “protest;” 4) they get insulted all the time and don’t complain about it; 5) what did I expect her to do about it.
Grand total: :mad: :rolleyes: :dubious: :smack:
I call the gay line back. She’s astonished the police wouldn’t take down any information about it. She grumbles about the lack of any anti-violence project any more. She promises to call some people and find out if there are any resources, and for me to call back at 8:30.
Okay. Some people chanted “kill the faggot” at me. It’s not the end of the world, relatively speaking; they didn’t shove me in front of a train. But still, what in the world are we doing in this city where we don’t even have anyone who keeps track of this sort of thing? What happened to the police’s vaunted commitment to liaising with the gay and lesbian community and keeping track of our concerns?
I don’t want to make a huge screaming deal about this, but I don’t want it to just vanish into the ether either, because that’s what makes it look like this sort of thing doesn’t happen anymore and everything’s just ticketty-boo here in Homoslovakia.
Well, now to call back the gay line and see what the nice lady has come up with. I’ll see what I get.
