How do you react to people throwing around gay slurs? Do you interject yourself into the situation. The mayor of Manchester, England decided to do just that. While walking into a Justin Bieber concert he heard such a conversation and decided to speak up.
Austin-Behan, who was sworn in as lord mayor in May, said he was walking to the arena and saw the two girls arguing with a ticket tout when one of them allegedly said: “I’m not paying that to see a dirty gay.”
He added: “As I walked past them I thought ‘I’m not happy with that’ so I turned round and said: ‘Do you think that’s appropriate, in this day and age?’ That’s when the barrage of comments came back [saying] ‘Am I gay? Am I gay? Am I a dirty faggot?’ and all that sort of stuff that started coming out.
“I was annoyed. I wasn’t shaken up, I was annoyed. Because it was a Justin Bieber concert there was a lot of young people there, and it was a mix of people. I was more annoyed that people could go to a gig like that and feel they could get away with saying things like that.”
…
“I’m quite a strong person, I can take that. But if people are still saying those things about someone’s sexuality, I find that really offensive and hurtful. It’s important that we stand our ground and that we demand the respect we should get. It may seem trivial to some people, a bit of name-calling, but it’s highly offensive.” – theguardian.com
After these supposedly older teenage girls spouted off, Austin-Behan took to Twitter and released this.
What would you have done? Would you have interjected? What would you have said? Austin-Behan went one step further and reported the incident to the authorities.
The lord mayor of Manchester has said he was subjected to a barrage of “really offensive and hurtful” homophobic abuse at a Justin Bieber concert on Sunday night.
Carl Austin-Behan, Manchester’s first openly gay lord mayor, said he was called a “dirty faggot and a dirty gay” by two young women before the sold-out gig at Manchester Arena.
Speaking to the Guardian on Monday, the former RAF serviceman said he had reported the alleged hate crime to police. He said the offenders appeared to be in their late teens. – theguardian.com
Do you think he handled the situation correctly?
Should he have made it more about the teens' word usage in regard to Justin Bieber and not interjected his own sexuality?
Does making it personal with involving yourself make the agrument more in the moment and more powerful and effective?
Do you think these girls should be charged with something? What would be the crime?
In your country, if someone calls you a dirty faggot, is that a reportable crime?
For those of you wanting to know more about Austin-Behan, here's an interview from LGBTVManchester released in July 2016.
h/t: theguardian.com