Harassment through late teens
1988
Derek describes persistent homophobic harassment and gay bashing from an older boy.
“At the age of 15,16, there was
an older kid in the street who accused me of being gay, he was 19 and
he was a milkman in the area that I went to school in (Kingstanding on
the Sutton border). He was going around asking kids whether they knew
me and he said that he was going to get me queer bashed and everything.
One thing I never did was really kind of cower down to him. I was quite
defiant. I wouldn't fight him, I would just stare him out. I found the
whole thing very stressful more the psychological part because it went
on for so long. Even when I was 18, 19 and going out to straight pubs
people were saying ‘So and so says you're gay’. I live in a cul-de-sac
so I had no real choice but to walk past his house. I remember phoning
the police in about 1990 after he got his mate to punch me while I was
taking my two dogs for a walk. He wouldn't do anything but get his
mates to attack me. In the end it just put me to the limit where I
offered his mate out for a fight but he wouldn't fight me. Even when I
was 20 he was going around telling people I was queer. Ironically now
that person is a Police officer like myself. I think he was infatuated
by me. I think now that he saw something in himself that he didn't
like. Apparently he's married now that they have no children but that's
always quite questionable”.
Contributed by: Derek, 35