A series of articles in local print media in June indicated that the number of hate crimes against lesbians and gay men had doubled over previous years.
The general number of hate crimes reported to police increased 35% between 2007 and 2008, with gay men being the focus of the most violent attacks.
While such crimes are under-reported, of the 1,036 hate crimes noted (based on race, religion, disability, and gender), 159 were due to the victim’s sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation.  Of those, 75% were classified as “violent.”
Local activist Melissa Luhtanen, a lawyer with the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre and who was also involved with the Calgary Police Services’ Sexuality and Gender Diversity Committee (also known as the GLBTQ Liaison Committee) believes the legalizing of same-sex marriage in 2005 contributed to at least some of that increase.
“Part of the reason,” she was quoted in a June 15th Calgary Sun article as saying, “is there is a lot more visibility....Especially in Calgary, there’s been a big change that has somewhat been forced on Albertans.  They were quite against same-sex marriage and...fought it more than other provinces.”
There is an element of truth to that since the Klein government threatened, amongst other tactics, to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to block equal marriage in Alberta.  It proved to be little more than the usual bluster.
I think the issue of equal marriage, rather than same-sex couples getting married themselves, could very well have contributed to the situation.  It was certainly a rancorous debate with some of the more outrageous comments coming from the social conservative element in Alberta.  Such comments as “what’s next?  Marrying your dog?” indicated a high level of anger/resentment/opposition and, it can be argued, are the surface symptom of a very deep antipathy - or one might even say hatred.
I also think, however, hate crimes towards the GLBTQ communities goes beyond issues around equal marriage.
In recent years, the annual Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade has increased in attendance numbers and in visibility.  Once relegated, by organizers, to a quiet Sunday in June and a discreet march from downtown to Bridgeland by - perhaps - a hundred or so folk back in the early 90s, it blossomed into a far more visible presence, and a much larger parade, through the Beltline district and along 17th Avenue SW.  In recent times it has moved to be along Stephen (8th) Avenue.
While most Calgarians appeared just fine with this, and even attended the parade and festival, there was always an element that was anything but fine with it, and would show up with their placards condemning “sodomy” and sometimes trying to provoke celebrants.  They were generally ignored or, at most, viewed with a certain degree of amusement by most individuals involved in the parade or watching it.  In all the years the event occurred, there was only one incident of a participant being provoked to react against what he perceived as harassment, and threw a punch at a well-known anti-gay activist.
However, these anti-gay protesters are but one aspect of anti-GLBTQ elements.  While they are relatively harmless, so far, others are not.  As with any movement there are those within it who crank things up a notch or two.  Sometimes it’s organized, like the Westboro Baptist Church and their leader Fred Phelps, and sometimes it just appears spontaneous.
Of the 57 hate crimes reported to the CPS in 2008, 43 were racial in nature, eight religious (usually anti-Semitic), and six involved sexual orientation.  And that is just reported incidents.  A large percentage of these crimes go unreported and not just from within the GLBTQ community, but all communities victimized by these sorts of crimes.
Part of the problem is that proving a crime was motivated by hate, as defined by Criminal Code, is difficult.  The section dealing with hate crimes (section 319) is very specific but even at that, deciding motivation of a perpetrator is a tricky business.  Who knows what someone is thinking or believing or feeling unless he or she states it?  Some, like various White Supremacist groups, do articulate it; others just attack.  In instances where a gay man is being attacked and being called a faggot or other derogatory terms, that speaks to the motivation of the attackers and the judge can take that into consideration during sentencing.
And there’s the rub....the judge can take it into consideration.  There is nothing that says he or she has to.  Additionally, the hate crime aspect is only dealt with in the sentencing phase.  One does not get charged or arrested for “hate crime”, one is charged and arrested for assault or vandalism or any number of offenses and, during the course of the trial, the Crown Prosecutor may choose to pursue the hate crime aspect.
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course.  Police services have progressed a considerable distance in the last 20-odd years.  It was not uncommon for police, regardless of the individual officer’s own point of view, to regard a bashing as a “street disturbance” or a “robbery” or simply in terms of an assault, ignoring or simply not aware of the overtones to it.
As Constable Brian Denison of the Calgary Police Services’ hate crimes division points out, “If [the victim] experience[s] what a hate crime is, they’ll know it...it’s pretty evident that there is a hate motivation behind it.”
We always knew what a bashing was and it had nothing to do with being robbed or getting involved in a ‘street disturbance.’  It certainly is not overstating the case to suggest gay-bashings are little different than anti-Jewish pogroms.  Both are designed to put the individual “back in his place” and send a message to the community itself, and the message is one of control and fear.
In recent years, many police departments across Canada have instituted liaison committees with the GLBTQ community in an effort to better understand the issues and as a vehicle to better, or at least higher, reporting.  The latter aim has continued to remain elusive, however, as individuals who have been bashed or harassed continue to be reluctant to come forward and file a police report or, if they do file a report, often are reluctant to follow up on pressing charges or seeing the process through.
Part of this is a continuing mistrust of authority, which is not surprising given the long history between various GLBTQ communities in North America and various police and other legal authorities.  In many ways, it is analogous to the experience of any number of other minority communities that have experienced less than optimal service from police.  Such a history takes years, even decades, to resolve and there will always be individuals who will never trust the police when it comes to issues around their own sexual orientation.
While the social climate in Alberta, and in Calgary specifically, has improved significantly this is still a conservative city and, not surprisingly, our GLBTQ community reflects that.  Your average gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans Calgarian tends to be somewhat conservative as well.  I think it is safe to say we are not like the communities in, for instance, Vancouver or Toronto that tend to be (generally speaking) somewhat more ‘activist.’
What this results in, on an individual level, is a reluctance to create an issue and a tendency to “just move on.”  Add into the equation that not all GLBTQ Calgarians are “out” with family or at work, preferring to keep their personal lives personal, and it is not difficult to understand why there is such a low reporting of such crimes against us.  The fear of being outed in some manner is a barrier, despite assurances from authorities.
In this regard, our community is unique.  A person of colour, for instance, is clearly a person of colour with family and community supports in place as a matter of course.  Someone who is Jewish or Muslim rarely tries to keep their Jewishness or the fact they are Muslim a secret and often will have similar supports in place.  When members of these communities are targeted for attack, even if there is a residual distrust of police, the thought of not following through is rarely something that would even occur to them.  If there is a reluctance to pursue this aspect it generally has to do with something other than the reason they were targeted to begin with.
In the case of someone who is gay, lesbian, bi, or trans the situation is a bit different.  Often it is not obvious what one’s sexual orientation or gender identity might be and unless it is raised with the police, or there are obvious indications sexual orientation/gender identity might be the issue, the responding officer will assume otherwise.  It is incumbent upon the victim, then, to inform the police of at least the possibility of being targeted on the basis of sexual orientation/gender identity.  Many don’t or won’t, and therein lies the problem.
One can try and change things on a societal level - and significant steps have been taken in recent years on that level - but individuals will continue to respond based on real or perceived concerns within their own lives and experience.  If one is convinced following through on charges related to being bashed will, in essence, open a whole can of worms for them, then they will not follow through.  Any injuries can be attributed to those not in the know, such as family or coworkers, as the result of a “mugging” rather than a bashing.
Since bashings are analogous to pogroms, beating up some faggot or dyke has little to do with the individual, and everything to do with who that individual is perceived as being by her or his attackers.  The reaction of the Neanderthals who are doing the bashing is based on a hatred of anything “queer”, and has nothing to do with the person’s personality, beliefs, or even really behaviour.  To the basher, what they are attacking is not “a person” with family, home, career, friends, or a life, but little more than a cipher; some queer, period.  It could have been anyone.
In order for things to change, they have to change on an individual level.  This starts with you, with me, with each of us.  If I refuse, for whatever reason, to speak out or take responsibility for seeing justice done, who will?  The systems are, finally, pretty much in place to facilitate justice in such cases but if the individual refuses to take advantage of them, then nothing changes.  The police can only do so much.  If one refuses to press charges, there is not much the police can do.
This was frequently the situation faced by police with domestic violence.  A call would be placed by a woman (usually) being abused by her partner.  Police would respond only to find she didn’t want to press charges or have the abuser made to leave the domicile, or spend some time in jail.
What is typical of domestic violence is the repeating of the violence.  Police often responded numerous times to the same individuals and each time would find a reluctance to press charges.  What we now have in Canada and the parts of the US is the ability for the police to lay charges regardless of the wishes of the individual being abused.
On the surface, this would appear to be somewhat Big Brother-ish, The State usurping an individual’s right to decide for themselves what to do.  I suppose an argument could be made for that.  However, what the result of these new powers has been is the removal of the threat to an individual’s well-being and often to their life, and the ability for the victim to seek support, counselling, and move on to a healthier, certainly safer, way of living.
I don’t know if having the police able to go ahead and press charges in a possible hate/bias crime scenario, over-ruling the victim’s wishes in this regard, is the way to go.  There are a lot of factors to consider and it is possible the police might not understand that by doing so they are essentially outing the victim thereby victimizing him or her further.  It really does come down, I would argue, to each of us gaining a better understanding of the importance of following through when such a crime happens to us; not just for our own sense of self worth and gaining a sense of closure, but on a broader scale as well.  Each time one of us stays silent, it gives tacit permission for the creeps who hate us to act on that hate and to do so with, they believe, impunity.