A Toronto gay man says he was assaulted and verbally harassed by a woman while walking his dogs on Nov 6, but has not yet filed a complaint with police.
Kevin McDonald says he was walking his three miniature Schnauzers at 7:30am with his partner along Queen St E in the Beaches when a woman stopped her car and started yelling at them.
McDonald says the woman initially started yelling about the dogs, then started screaming, “You’re just a couple of faggots” over and over. McDonald says his partner told her to mind her own business and keep driving, at which point she yelled, “Come over here and make me, you faggot.”
McDonald says he walked over to the car and told her to drive away. He says the woman leaned out of the car and hit him in the face, then got out and started shoving him. McDonald says he then spit in the woman’s face.
“I very childishly spit at her,” he says. “That was stupid. It’s not right, there’s no way I can say that’s right. I’m really embarrassed about that.”
McDonald says a passerby tried to intervene until she realized it was the driver who was the attacker.
“The driver was out of control in a blind rage, red-faced and looking like something from the last five minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark,” wrote McDonald in an email. “She began to scream, ‘Fucking faggots,’ deny she hit me and came at us again.”
McDonald says the woman retreated when she realized his partner had taken a photo of her licence plate and were going to call the police.
“She got scared and insisted she had nothing against gays because she had gay friends,” he wrote.
McDonald says the woman claimed to live in the building next to his apartment, although he didn’t recognize her. He says the couple moved into their apartment in August and have lived in the Beaches for about a year and a half.
He says nothing like this has ever happened before.
McDonald says he called the police at 55 Division, who he says were very helpful.
“They said I need to call and file an official complaint and they’d send a squad car over to take a statement,” he says. “The officer said, ‘If you believe this is a hate crime, make sure you tell that to the responding officer.'”
But as of Nov 17 McDonald had not filed a complaint, saying he was too busy with work and his dog was sick.
“Because of Toto’s illness all weekend we weren’t able to contact the police,” he said in an email. “It’s been very draining and stressful. I’ve just returned from the vet now and gone straight to work until tonight. I had to miss this morning and Friday morning as well with Toto. It’s unfortunate timing-wise but my priorities right now really need to be getting Toto better and catching up on work.”
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