BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – A late-night attack on a 17-year-old Calgary lesbian near a bus stop in New Brighton is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
According to CTV News, the teenager, whose name is being withheld at the request of her family, alleges that a group of four boys kicked and punched her and targeted her with homophobic slurs during the attack that left her with a concussion, black eye, split lip, a cut to her forehead and a sore back.
She also alleges that one of the teens filmed the attack on his phone.
The teen told CTV that she’s “pretty shaken up” and that it’s “hard not to be scared.” She also noted that while it’s not the first time she’s confronted homophobia, she had never been physically attacked until last week. “I’ve had people throw things at me and play ‘pick on the lesbian on the bus’ and put gum in my hair, but nobody has physically assaulted me until now,” she says.
She says that she’s never hidden her sexuality and that she mentors other gay teens at her school.
CTV reports that police are uncertain whether it was a targeted attack or a random incident.
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