Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Gay Clubs Should be Safe

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Half-staff LGBT flag in DCThe shooting at the Orlando gay club over the weekend is horrendous. That Latinx LGBQT-identified people were attacked and killed in a space that was supposed to be safe is disheartening and enraging. We mourn the victims and stand with the survivors and the families affected.

We stand with those who strive for equality, acceptance, and a world where people are not hated, harassed, abused or killed because of their identity.

As a HuffPost blogger Denise Frohman wrote:

“We know homophobia didn’t end with marriage equality. We know the shooting in Orlando didn’t happen overnight — we have a cultural problem that perpetuates homophobia, racism, sexism, and Islamophobia in our schools, our streets, and on our televisions.

We are the work we have to do.

I want feel safe everywhere I go. I want liberation for all of us who live under the threat of violence…

I mourn those killed in Orlando, their families, their partners, and the peace of mind we cherished in these spaces. Tomorrow and the day after, we will work, as we’ve always done to reclaim space, even the ones we built for ourselves.”

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West Philly Conversations about Street Harassment

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Check it out! And many thanks to FAAN Mail co-founder Nuala for letting me know about it.

“Conversations From The Bench is a collaborative web-video series addressing important social justice issues in a participatory documentary format.

In Episode 2, we go “Under The El” in West Philadelphia to start conversations with passers-by about street harassment,“catcalling”, questions of having to grow up too fast, and if the way a woman dresses defines her…This project was a collaboration between four grad students from the University of Pennsylvania (located in West Philadelphia) and four West Philadelphia High School (WPHS) students as part of a class entitled “Social Change Through Participatory Filmmaking”.”

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“Will I get shouted at on the street today or will I be hunted down like an animal?”

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My girlfriend (now ex) and I were sat at a pier close to the Snowdome. We weren’t holding hands or anything and a group of children suddenly started chanting “filthy lezzers!” at us and started throwing rocks at us. I managed to chase them off, but the annoying thing was that this area wasn’t even in a busy public place, it was our one safe place and it had been ruined by some bigoted children.

Other occurrences include a man slapping another partner on the ass and saying, “Ooooh I want in on that, a good shafting will straighten you f****ts out” whilst we were shopping in Farmfoods.

Even after I promptly asked what the hell was wrong with him, nobody stepped in, they simply stared as I tried to defend my partner. He just said, “Well you should’ve chosen to be straight ennit you’re just asking for it’ and promptly walked off.”

Furthermore I’ve had beer bottles/cans thrown at me from car windows whilst walking home (along Lower Gungate and the Ashby Road), the passengers would shout “f***ing lezzers piss off you c**ts” and other derogatory remarks to my partner and I, usually involving rape/death threats.

Children with water pistols and rubbish around where I live would try to assault my partner and I as their parents would sit and watch, doing nothing until I said something, but even then it would be, “Oi f**k off you pedo’s or I’ll phone the coppers on ya.”

In recent months, since I appear more masculine now, I’ve had men threatening to beat me up and rape me. Some groups of men have even tried to follow me home, which has resulted in some evenings where I’m forced to run down side alleys in order to get out of their sight so I can get away. I run home heart pounding in my chest and it makes me scared to even leave my own house as there’s been increased reports of abductions within our area It leaves me thinking, “Will I get shouted at on the street today or will I be hunted down like an animal?”

It just isn’t right, women and LGBTQ+ folks shouldn’t be being harassed at all. It’s 2016 for crying out loud, surely as a society we should be moving on from these everyday degradations?

JB

Location: Tamworth, UK

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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“Harassed on a daily basis”

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I am a female that is harassed on a daily basis where I am living, and it seems to be the entire neighborhood that is doing this to me.

If I’m not being attacked with sexually suggestive behavior, then I’m facing shame one way or another. I am treated as though I have no common sense and made to believe that everything I know is not how it is. When I talk to anybody, it’s automatically taken as if I am flirting as if I want them to have sex with me. When I say I’m not into it and didn’t mean to come across that way as politely as I can, then it turns to shaming me and calling me a whore, or thinking I must believe that they are not good enough for me.

– Tired of being harassed

Location: California

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea.

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Tunisia Street Harassment Study

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In 2016 in Tunisia, the Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women interviewed 3,000 randomly selected women, aged 18 to 64, from 200 urban and rural geographic areas across the country. 53.5 percent experienced psychological or physical violence at least once in public spaces between 2011 and 2015. Their experiences included being followed by men to being insulted or sexually harassed. 41 percent of women reported having experienced physical violence in public.

“A recent international study found that Tunisia is the only country in the Arab world and Africa where women report being harassed both for dressing religiously and for dressing too liberally. Street interviews conducted by Tunisia Live in April found that Tunisian women of various backgrounds consider street harassment “part of our daily lives.” “

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