By Cynthia McQueen
The Oshawa Express

Jane Currie and Anji Dimitriou are not alone. At a rally held in their honour more than 500 people from Oshawa, Toronto, Sudbury, Calgary and Newfoundland came to support the couple and to speak out against crimes of hate. Children at Gordon B. Attersley Public School witnessed the lesbian couple being verbally and physically assaulted while picking up their children from school. Wayne Harrison, vice-president of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) travelled from New Brunswick to bring a message that they will be working to have this crime “upgraded to a hate crime to prevent the horrific and brutal assault of Anji and Jane” from ever happening again.

Seconding that emotion, Reverend Dr. Brent Hawkes who received the Order of Canada as a gay and lesbian, transsexual, transgender rights activist thanked Currie and Dimitriou. Dr. Hawkes praised Currie and Dimitriou for being open about their relationship saying, “It used to be that interracial couples used to have to hide their relationship. It used to be that Jewish people would change their last names in order to be accepted. And it used to be that gay and lesbian people would change the gender reference to our ‘partner’ at work. Those days for interracial couples are over. Those days where Jewish people had to change their last names
are over. And those days where gays and lesbian had to hide there relationships, that day is over. Equality in law must now be made equality in practice.”

“There are voices of hate in all of our cities and there are voices of hate in all of our religions and those voices of hate sometimes incite violence or sanction violence. We can disagree with each other without being hateful … So we want to hear from the voices of inclusion and we invite religious leaders in particular to speak out for inclusion.” An emotional Currie faced the crowd. “Eleven days ago, my life, our lives, your lives were forever changed. Now is the time for change. No more fear. No more anger.

No more hate. I don’t want our children, anybody’s children, to be scared of who they are or what they are, regardless.” Both her and Dimitriou said they weren’t going to cry, but when they looked out over the crowd of support they were overwhelmed.“I want to thank each and every one of you beautiful people that are here this evening. The people in front of me and the people behind me, you’re all fantastic an d you have no idea how much your gestures have not gone unnoticed,” said Currie. And the support doesn’t end in Canada, “I don’t know if you guys know that this has gone worldwide. It’s not just here.

It’s gone to the (United) States, Australia, Turkey, Scotland, England, Costa Rica even Madrid. And everybody knows what happened, but now it’s time to stop it from happening again to anybody. You guys showing up here just prove that we can change and we will change. We want to change all hate laws. We’re talking about everybody. We don’t care what race, what religion, what gender, it doesn’t matter, hate is hate.

Thank you very much and thanks for showing up and you know what we will make a change – absolutely,” said Dimitriou. One of those supporters, also a rally organizer and a women working to make change is Udana
Muldoon, local organizer of Durham Queer Parenting.

Muldoon and her partner were bashed on so many occasions that they moved out of their Oshawa home the same day of the rally. For Muldoon and her partner, the attacks never caused them physical harm, but they did include namecalling like Currie and Dimiritou
experienced, defacing their pride flag and their home, animal feces thrown on their property and more. Like Currie and Dimitriou, “we thought this was unbelievable,” said Muldoon.

In response to these acts of hatred, Mayor John Gray said, “We have and can overcome hatred in the past, because hatred does not define who we are.

We, the members of the Oshawa council will not sit back and allow anyone to sully the name of our city and our people.”“An attack motivated by hatred to gays and lesbians sends a message of hate and fear to gay and lesbian people and our families and our friends.

Because of this, our laws need to be strengthened to send a clear message that such attacks will not be tolerated,” said Gray.“You are going to make a difference. This event has changed us. It’s shaken our community and robbed us part of our innocence,” said Mike Shields, president of Canadian Auto Workers. Repeating the sentiments of Currie and Dimitriou whose son witnessed the event, Shields went on to say, “Children should never bear witness to the horrors like those at Attersley (school).”

To cheers from the crowd, Shields rallied the crowd into frenzy by saying, “We will not tolerate hate in any form. Equal is equal.” Supporters rallied in the rain to stand in solidarity with the couple and in support of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and transgender people, their families and their friends. Jayme Harper, local PFLAG representative and one of many organizers of the rally said, “I think it’s the largest gathering (for gay and lesbian, transsexual and transgender people) ever in our community.”

The Rally in Support of Peaceful Communities was held in front of city hall in Oshawa this past Friday. To support Currie and Dimitriou join the Facebook page “We Stand in Solidarity with Jane Currie and Anji Dimitriou.”