Hello my name is Zak, one of the nine youth in Serve! One of the major projects we are doing is Don’t Just Sit There, Stand Up Together which is tackling homophobia in Toronto. We are creating a Zine for youth, service providers and anyone in Toronto who wants to change the situation. One of the parts that I have had the privilege of doing is research on is the issue to find out the statistics on hate crime and what homophobia looks like.
The results of the research have been very interesting and shocking to me. It surprised me how extensive homophobia is and how much violence queer people they face. They are discriminated even in major institutions such as school, health care and the police. These are institutions that queer youth do not feel comfortable in and are at risk--especially schools. In order for them to get a proper education they need to feel safe. The other institutions also have a history of homophobia towards queer youth who come in contact with them. However they are all trying to change the situation by putting in policies and programs.
The statistics on hate crime were also stunning. Most stunning was how under reported these crimes are and the violent nature of them. For example, 53% of reports to the 519 Community Centre were not forwarded to police. Also most crimes police deal with do not go convicted. The statistics by far underestimate the extent of hate crimes targeting the queer community. Also they face more violence than most other groups. Most of the crimes they deal with are assaults. This means that their identity puts them at physical at risk. This project has provided me the opportunity to learn about these issues. Without this project I would have never learned about these issues that are very relevant in Toronto. Look out for the Zine.
