Gay holiday destination accused of discrimination

By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • July 21, 2006 - 0:00

The increase in tension between the straight and gay community appears to have coincided with a planned vote in the state Legislature on an amendment to ban gay marriage

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For once gay people aren't being heckled instead they're turning on the straight people in a popular American gay holiday destination.

Provincetown, dubbed New England's summer gay capital has seen a rise in harassment and discrimination of gay people in recent years.

They've been targeted as "breeders" and "baby makers."

Local police Chief Ted Meyer told Reuters that straights complained of being called breeders and said that a woman who signed an anti-gay marriage petition was assaulted by a gay man. The gay community has also been accused of racism in relation to their treatment of Jamaican workers.

The increase in tension between the straight and gay community appears to have coincided with a planned vote in the state Legislature on an amendment to ban gay marriage.

Gay campaigners have created a website, KnowThyNeighbor [sic] publishing the names of those who are supporting the amendment. At least two locals claim to have been verbally abused since their names were published online.

"There are still a lot of straight people who treat gays badly," Steve Bowersock a local artist told Reuters. "If there's a straight couple and I hear them in the background going 'oh fags', I'm like 'hello, where the hell do you think you are?' So in turn I get mad," he said.

"If I see someone nervous like a big butch guy, and you can just tell he's a redneck, I'll grab my partner and I'll kiss him. It's not being mean, but 'hello you're in our town'."

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