by Jeremy Hainsworth, Canadian Press

Reposted from 365gay.com -Posted: August 25, 2005  3:00 pm ET

(Vancouver, British Columbia) Criminologist Doug Janoff says violence against homosexuals in Canada is more ``frenzied'' and intense than that perpetrated against other victims of violent crime.

``The violence is real, it is intense and it really needs to be taken seriously,'' Janoff says.

In his new book, Pink Blood: Homophobic Violence in Canada (University of Toronto Press), Janoff says the gay community has to work to ensure that the law is applied to those crimes in the courts and by police forces.

``There's no watching the protectors, the police who are supposed to be protecting us from this violence,'' says the Ottawa-based author, who has a master's degree in criminology from B.C.'s Simon Fraser University.

``We need to start asking very hard questions . . . demanding that these laws that are supposedly in place to protect us are actually going to be utilized.''

The book opens with a list of 100-plus gays who have died violently in the past decade. Janoff says he fears some people may not be able to get past the details of some of the deaths.

``They have a really hard time sitting there and reading about the bodies being burnt beyond recognition, or the body being kicked to the point where the victim was no longer recognizable, or the body being mutilated and thrown into a garbage dump,'' he says. ``I need to present that evidence so people can take it seriously.''

Perhaps the most horrific death was what Janoff calls the ``frenzied killing'' of David Curnick of Vancouver. The 54-year-old teacher was found dead in his apartment in 1994 after being stabbed 146 times with his own kitchen knife.

Janoff likens the situation that gays face in court to that of women who are sexually assaulted.

``What you see a lot of is almost demonization of homosexuality once it gets to the courtroom,'' he says. ``(It's) not dissimilar to the way women who are sexual assault victims can be victimized in the courtroom with questions about their own morals or sexuality.''

Violent assaults against gays are often not framed as hate crimes, and ``the whole question of sexuality is lurking beneath the surface,'' Janoff says.

He adds that almost no judges take advantage of legislation allowing for stiffer sentences for hate-motivated crimes.

``We have this problem of the inability of the system itself to even acknowledge the homophobia that is inherent in many of these crimes,'' Janoff says.

Sociologist Gary Kinsman of Laurentian University, one of Canada's foremost researchers on gay issues, says Janoff's book is unique.

``There's been a fair amount of research in the States but very little in Canada,'' Kinsman says. ``This . . . (is) the first book-length treatment of this topic in the Canadian context.''

Kinsman says homophobic violence is ``a widespread, pervasive social problem.''

``It's about time that someone actually investigated it,'' he says. The book can help put the issues into the public realm so society can begin to grapple with the roots of violence toward gays and lesbians, Kinsman adds.

At the core of Janoff's research is a simple question: Why does gay bashing occur? He says it's to keep gays in their place.

Poignantly, Janoff closes with the case of two New York gay men who were bashed by 15 thugs just feet from the door of Toronto's Royal York Hotel. When told of the beating, the director of New York City's Anti-Violence Project asked: ``If we can't go to Canada and feel safe, where can we go?''

``Where indeed?'' asks Janoff.

©Canadian Press 2005

Comments

Written by suz on 2005-08-27 22:10:27 - Not sure if anyone remembers (or paid attention)  Awhile back (i think last summer or the summer before) - I posted on actupinsask - an article about a gay man that had just been killed in La Ronge - and the whole article - while suggesting that it was a hate crime - framed the man as 'asking for it' because he was so openly sexual and would approach straight men... ect.. ect..  So i think the comparison with rape victums was deffinitely appropriate in that case...

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