Montrealers hold queer ‘kiss-in’ to protest gay bashing on busy street corner
MONTRÉAL (CUP) — The purple and yellowish bruising around her eyes was returning to the normal shade of pink, but the emotional wounds will take a lot longer to heal, Joelle Perras said Jan. 28.
A week after Perras and her partner, Brooke Morrison, were assaulted on the corner of Saint-Denis and Mount-Royal for kissing in the street, the two returned with almost a hundred supporters and a horde of media to kiss in public without fear of persecution.
“I think it could have been irresponsible for us not to have done anything in the face of what happened to us,” said Morrison. “People wouldn’t know about it, and this kind of incident could repeat itself.”
The two took questions from the media in the minutes leading up to 4:15 p.m. and then joined roughly 20 other same-sex couples in a kiss to denounce what took place.
Marli Williams couldn’t believe it when Perras phoned with the news of what happened earlier in the week. “I didn’t even know stuff like this still happened, I thought stuff like this was over,” she said.
The 21-year-old outdoor education student drove several hours from her University of New Hampshire campus to attend the Friday kiss-in. “I was shocked and appalled when I heard about it, but (the assailant) couldn’t have picked a worse person to do this to; Joelle has shown amazing courage in turning this horrible event into a positive denunciation of gay-bashing.”
The attack has left an indelible mark on Morrison, who said, in the future, she would be more aware of her surroundings, but added she wished she didn’t have to.
The couple kissed only once on the corner, and Perras rejected catcalls to re-enact the moment for camera operators who showed up late for the event.
“It’s the last time we’re kissing today-on the street,” she said, as she walked away hand in hand with Morrison.
-Dave Weatherall
CUP Québec Bureau Chief
