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 Antoinette on
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"In your f***ing dreams" is a useful stock answer... and I do think a well-placed swear word is appropriate in these situations...
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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I spotted a pamphlet on the floor warning about 'promotion of homosexuality in schools' up Seven Sisters Rd this morning, so yes, I suspect that this problem is rife locally.
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Yeah, this is what I thought. I regret not picking it up in a way - but I was late for work that day!
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This thread will clearly run and run and gets a bit confusing when the comments aren't chronological. Right can I stand back and make a couple of points from what seems to be a minority perspective- at least nobody's raised either as an issue.
On the last thread I contributed to, I found myself defending Philip Fox against a sea of hostility. This time I'm going to defend not a person but a place- Green Lanes. It's a long, long road but we're clearly talking about one section- between the Salisbury and the bridge. It's a glorious stretch of road, the centre and pride of Harringay, and I don't really recognise it from many of the comments here.
It's a vibrant hub of shops and cafes and restaurants buzzing by day and buzzing by night. I've walked its length many times over many years. I'm neither female nor gay but I must regularly walk behind those that are, and I've never witnessed anything like this. Maybe a long lingering look as someone seen to be attractive walks past, a complicit smile between friends, but nothing offensive.
And please before I'm also attacked I'm not denying that these things must have happened, but not all the time. Green Lanes is our pride and joy with local businesses that people patronise from outside the borough. Let's be objective but not completely negative about the place.
My second point is that while people here are agonising around difficult issues of race, gender and sexuality nobody, except me briefly earlier, has introduced religion as a factor. The religion of the long term Anglo-Saxon and Celtic residents of these isles and the religion of many of the post World War II arrivals, religions that are closely related though they seem to have forgotten that fact, have both displayed toxically hostile attitudes to women and to gay people.
Religion deserves its fair shame of blame.
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Ian it has some interesting shops and a few good restaraunts but most of it is a dump, full of sat dishes and estate agents boards and scruffy shops. I really don't think it is worthy of the term 'great'.
It certainly could be but it would take more than a new pavement and a sign.
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"Great" being in inverted commas sounds as if you're quoting me, Richard, but I didn't use the word. I used "glorious" and "vibrant" which aren't quite the same. It's a bit tacky but fun too. Like the seaside resorts of my youth, like the Palace Pier at Brighton. We shouldn't be too dismissive of such places.
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I had to look that one up. First used in 2006 I see- a bit recent for me.
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Further thought. Try imagining you were seeing it for the first time- Green Lanes, at night maybe and you'd just moved to London from Wellingborough or Newton-le-Willows. I think you'd find a bit of magic there. That's what we should all do once in a while- try to see things afresh uncluttered by familiarity. Because we know what that breeds, don't we.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Some of us can't afford to move - capital gains tax, estate agents' fees and two sets of solicitors' fees, Stamp Duty. And the same accommodation in a nicer area would cost more.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Stillman on
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it's not that these things don't happen, it's just that making of unbalanced comments paints a wholly inaccurate picture. it does the 'cause' no good and unfairly tarnishes the area.
let's challenge the bad stuff that is happening, certainly - but don't gild the lilly to ill effect.
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