Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Homophobia in the neighbourhood
John Toner of the Indy reports on the high levels of abuse that one couple receive on a daily basis:
A gay couple have told of their constant struggle with homophobia in Haringey.
Teacher Siobhan Wesley and her partner, charity worker Patricia Macleod, say they are subjected to threatening sexual and homophobic abuse in public on an almost daily basis.
The pair live separately in the Green Lanes area of Haringey but spend a significant amount of time together as a couple in public.
This has exposed them to an escalating level of threatening sexual behaviour from people, predominantly men, and violent threats and abuse purely because they appear together in public as a gay couple.
Ms Wesley, 29, said: “All the time this happens, we’re just walking along the street and we get people yelling sexual insults at us, men shouting what they’d like us to do to them and people just screaming ‘lezzers’ at us.”
Recently the couple were saying goodbye at the end of Siobhan’s street when a man exposed himself to them and began to sexually insult them for no apparent reason.
I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that it is upsetting to read of this homophobic behaviour in the neighbourhood.
What should be done, as Ms Wesley suggests, to make local people aware that "queer people exist in this area, that it’s completely normal and that the comments they make are offensive and against the law."
UPDATED Sat 11th April
From GayHarrin website
Report it!
The local police station for Harringay can be reached on:
If you have witnessed or experienced harassment, report it by calling the Anti-Social Behaviour Reporting Line:
- Name
- Address
- Email address /telephone no.
- Brief description of people involved, location and what was done or said.
Tags for Forum Posts: homophobia
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Well I leave this discussion for a day and 8 pages later, I find myself wondering how far we have answered the original question
"What should be done..?"
To those of you who have shared your experiences and those of your partners, daughters, thank you. Your efforts are not wasted and careful attention is being paid to what you have been through, how you feel about it. I shall be collating these separately and also to those if you who have offered sympathy and support, again thank you, since being believed and finding people who want to hear what you say is important whenever you are the victim of any kind of crime. While not losing sight of the homophobia, it is clear that street harassment is directed at a wider target and that what was experienced by Ms Wesley strikes a chord with many women (and their partners and fathers).
To those of you who have offered your theories as to why or why not this happens, I wonder how far your eagerness to speak has suppressed the voices of those I mention above as they seem to have gone quiet in the second half of the debate. Would you share your experiences if you fear someone will stamp all over them by implying they didn't happen in the way you've experienced or that your way of expressing your experiences will end up in you being told you are more offensive to the reader than *the abuse that actually happened* to you? Whose voices are more valid here? Can I suggest that we listen more and judge less?
If you're still with me and have not gone off to furiously write how offended/angered you are with me for the previous paragraph or how wrong I am, let's come to those responses in which I am most interested since they may help us to move the debate forward. Those people who have offered ideas (Harringay Pride? why not?), and actual support (thank you Pam and Wise Thoughts) as to ways to combat this. Men are part of this process too ( see this protest in Turkey after male violence and female attire became a big issue) naturally but let's keep it constructive.
Ideas so far:
- Some kind of mass presence on the street - thoughts on this?
- Filming in the style NYC experiments - anyone want to work with Pam on this?
- Working with groups like Wise Thoughts to campaign - other groups?
I'll add in my own ideas of a public meeting to share experiences and making better use of elected representatives and police resources to report and log it. Maybe a social media campaign?
Any more ideas or knowledge of projects (Blackstock Road had problems that police pledged to clamp down on-anyone know if this worked?) where this has been tackled?
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I've updated the original post with useful info and phone numbers taken from the GayHarrin website. I think one thing we can start doing right away is taking it seriously enough to report it.
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Permalink Reply by docdee on
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All the above sound like really good ideas Liz - the film & mass presence creating publicity, piggy backing on the independent article. It would be great if these could be actioned. Happy to help in anyway. The harassment documented is horrendous. My partner & I have lived here for many yrs, & haven't experienced homophobia....yet....However we don't walk down green lanes everyday!
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Yes I know Pav. That's why I posted it. But do read about Özgecan Aslan and #sendeanlat about which they were part of a larger protest. Food for thought?
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Permalink Reply by Lauren on
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A pal of mine told me she raised the issue with her MP Stella Creasy in Walthamstow and said she was very supportive. Not sure what the outcome was but I can hook you up on Twitter if you want to ask her Liz.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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In answer to your " what should be done? " is this something the LCSP could help with ?
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Of course John, I was assuming people would actually read my post (as you have) - some people will probably not get this far and continue to pursue their own course through this thread regardless. That's the internet for you I suppose.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Pav, Catch 22 closed down because a group of young straight guys thought it was fun to take it over and make fun of the queers. It was a horrible and frightening place.
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Definitely those Turkish restaurants would be complemented by a bar called Lesbos-Midilli where the songs of 'burning Sappho' could be accompanied by lyre and kithara into the wee small hours. Who would have thought that Sappho's soulful odes and occasionally lonely angst might not find an echo among Turks and Greeks along Green Lanes more than two and a half millennia later?
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Did you know Sappho is to blame for changing the nature of poetry so we end up with schlocky pop songs? Check 21 mins in, here.
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I suppose since poor Sappho is just scrolls of gaps interrupted by accidental fragments, she can be turned to any purpose. If only Hugh had launched HOL back in 7th cent BCE she'd have better archives.
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Not so sure OAE. She probably would have written long rants about yet another Thracian restaurant opening up and the terrible road sense of goat herders.
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