Do you frequent Church Street? Do you like to meet guys on Grindr?
Are you living in fear?
According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail you are terrified because ‘unease has been growing in recent years as a result of a spate of missing-person cases that remain unsolved.’
Tu Tanh Ha’s article is blatantly homophobic: filled with unproven speculation and misinformation.
Yes, it is true that queer people (gay, trans and lesbian) have been, at times in the past, beaten and killed by homophobic and transphobic people. And yes it’s also true that recently there have been posters in the gay village for a missing man --Andrew Kinsman. And it’s true that recently a woman named Tess Richey was killed near Church Street.
But are queer people scared to go out on Church Street? Should they be?
The answer is a resounding ‘NO.’
The article in the Globe and Mail seems to lay all the blame for one young woman’s death on Crews and Tangos, and blames the disappearance of Andrew Kinsmen -- with no proof -- on online dating apps. First of all, the writer calls crews a ‘village drag bar.’ In actual fact Crews and Tangos -- as anyone who hangs out on Church Street knows, is a bar that, like many other bars on Church Street, features drag queens. But its clientele is made up mostly of younger bi and straight people of all genders, many of whom are just ‘out’ or experimenting with their sexuality. Secondly, just because a woman who visited Crews and Tangos was tragically killed is that the bar's fault?
And when it comes to gay online dating apps, are they dangerous -- as this article says -- because gay men aren’t properly introduced online to their sexual partners?
Who says? Where’s the proof?
Why is the Globe and Mail publishing this garbage and fermenting fear and lies around queer institutions and organizations?
I don’t know. But it sure seems like somebody at the Globe and Mail doesn’t like us.
This is an era when all around the world people who are threatened by terrorists have decided not to live in fear but instead bravely party as usual, no matter what the threat.
But the Globe and Mail is implying that queers should stay home.
It’s negative propaganda about our community, and I, for one, don’t like it one bit.
