Discrimination still ‘alive and well’ in Saskatoon, according to LGBTQ group

Members of Saskatoon’s LGBTQ community regularly face discrimination despite a recent report highlighting the low number of hate crimes in the municipality, according to an organizer of the city’s pride festival.

“It would be naive to think that it doesn’t happen on a daily basis,” Danny Papadatos, the festival’s co-chair, said Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of people that are still muzzled, there’s a lot of people that are terrified to say who they are.”

READ MORE: Saskatoon ranks below national average in reported hate crimes

Papadatos said he commonly has homophobic slurs yelled at him while he’s driving his vehicle, which features a rainbow on the side.

“Somebody took the time to speed up beside me, roll down their window and give me the thumbs down and the middle finger and then speed off,” he said of a recent incident.

Statistics Canada released a study on Tuesday that found Saskatoon was in the bottom half of Canadian cities when it comes to the rate of police-reported hate crimes in 2015. The report also stated that incidents targeting sexual orientation declined nine per cent across the country from 2014 to 2015.

READ MORE: Alberta and Edmonton see highest rise in reported hate crimes in Canada

Discrimination is becoming more subtle, “however that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt just as much,” according to OUTSaskatoon education & operations manager Amanda Guthrie. The organization serves as a community centre for the LGBTQ community.

“We may not be experiencing as many hate crimes as in previous years, but that doesn’t mean that discrimination isn’t alive and well here in Saskatoon,” Guthrie said.

“It’s in the way that people are excluded from certain spaces, it’s the way in which transsexual students don’t have their proper, correct name used in class by their teacher.”

OUTSaskatoon works with Saskatoon businesses and schools to create inclusive spaces across the city. In 2016 more than 4,500 people received some form of education from the organization, according to Guthrie.

“Learning about the LGBTQ community is appropriate for all people of every single age,” she said.

“People are seeing that education is necessary as a means and a tool to create inclusive environments.”

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Papadatos applauded the organization’s efforts and said he ultimately hopes there will be a time when Saskatoon’s residents reach an understanding to positively co-exist with each other, despite their differences.

“I might not agree with something, but I am not going to outwardly project that onto the people around me and the people that I disagree with,” Papadatos said.