September 8, 2010

[Victoria, British Columbia] A 22-year-old man says he is “definitely afraid of being alone on the streets now” after he was allegedly gaybashed in the early morning hours of Sept 2 as he was heading home from a Victoria gay nightclub. Josh Brighton, who recently moved to Victoria from Ottawa to serve in the navy, had just left Paparazzi and was attempting to hail a cab alone around 1:45am at the corner of Douglas and Johnson streets — a block away from the club — when he heard two men call him “faggot.” “I said, ‘Yeah, I am gay,’ and I asked them if they had a problem with that,” Brighton told Xtra. “They said, ‘Yeah.’” He says the two men then allegedly started hitting him. Brighton says he attempted to run back to the club for safety, but the men gave chase.

Read more at Daily Xtra


UPDATE - February 24, 2011:

Last fall, Josh Brighton — another gay man who had moved to Victoria to serve in the Navy — left Paparazzi around 1:45 a.m. on Sept. 2. He was a block away at the corner of Douglas and Johnson, attempting to hail a cab alone, when he heard two men call him “faggot.” As reported in gay culture magazine Xtra, Brighton told the men that yes, he was gay, and asked if they had a problem with it. Two men then allegedly started hitting him. Brighton attempted to run back to the nightclub for safety, but was chased by the men, who knocked him down, hit him repeatedly on the head and shouted slurs. Brighton made it back to the club and survived the incident, but suffered moderate injuries. Sgt. Jamie McRae of Vic PD told Xtra the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, and said, “We usually want to get video first. When we have something like this, when it’s reported after the fact, the first thing we do is to find video from the nearby businesses. Unfortunately, [Paparazzi’s] video surveillance stream does not record outside the club.” Hamilton says, six months later, police were never able to make contact with Brighton and dropped the case.

Read more at Monday Mag