Darcy Daniel was born and raised in Kamloops. After being verbally assaulted multiple times while walking in downtown Kamloops with his boyfriend, he is speaking out about his experience about being gay in the city.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Tracy Ratzlaff

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KAMLOOPS - Growing up in Kamloops, Darcy Daniel says he learned quickly that his sexual orientation and the way he dressed occasionally brought negative attention when he was out in public.

Daniel is gay and society has come a long way in accepting members of the LGBTQ community, especially in recent years. But there are still daily struggles for some community members, like Daniel. He says he was recently the victim of two verbal assaults in downtown Kamloops. 

It was last weekend on Saturday, July 21 when Daniel and his boyfriend were running errands along Victoria Street when he was approached by a man shortly after 1:30 p.m.

"The first gentleman asked us for change and I said no, and then that's when it started to happen with all the negativity and faggot comments," he says.

And shortly after that, Daniel says another incident took place, except this time it escalated.

"Probably like 10 or 15 minutes later outside of McDonald's downtown, as I was at the ATM, some guy walked passed me and said something in the regards of 'fucking faggots are disgusting,'" Darcy says.

Daniel says the anti-gay slurs continued while the man was in close vicinity of him and his boyfriend.

"I had to walk past him again and so, of course, he was still spewing off or whatever, so him and I ended up getting into it, I wouldn't say it was an altercation but he was screaming at me more than I was raising my voice," he says.

Daniel says the man threatened him and his partner several times during the encounter.

"He was threatening to beat the shit out of both of us, and just kept going off about how disgusting gay people are and telling us that he was going to smash our heads out," he says.

The Kamloops local says growing up in the city, he constantly had to deal with anti-gay slurs being yelled at him when he was out in public. 

"I grew up here and I was raised here. I had to fight all the time growing up my whole life here," he says. "Being called a faggot has always been the only thing people have against me."

Daniel says the comments he received last Saturday were hurtful, but it's not something new to him. He says after living in several cities across B.C. including Vancouver, Langley, and Kelowna, his hometown is where he has experienced the most homophobic comments.

"I've lived in a lot of places and it's sad the place I call home is where I get the hardest time," he says. "I grew up in Brock and North Shore most of my life and I can just walk down the street to go get a slush from the store and people will yell from their window, 'fucking faggot'." 

Since the incident took place, Daniel turned to social media to post a video on his Facebook to share his experience. The video has been viewed more than 12,000 times, but Daniel says he still is looking to reach more people.

"It was great to see how much support I got, but if anybody was to look underneath it, at least 90 to 95 per cent of people who responded were women," he says. "Women aren't really the ones who are running down the street calling me a faggot and trying to beat me up, it's the men."

Daniel says the lesson he wants people to take from his experience, is for people to be more accepting.

"I think it needs to start with parents, people need to start telling their sons especially that it's okay to be how they want, it doesn't make you less of a man to be gay," he says. "If you want to walk down the street wearing a dress, feel free and do what makes you happy."

Kamloops Pride Director Sam Numsen says these types of incidents are isolated, but they do happen in the community.

"I just want to hit home that these are isolated incidents, we don't hear of them happening too often," Numsen says.

Numsen says the organization focuses on hosting events to show members of the LGBTQ community are accepted and supported in Kamloops.

Daniel says he wants to do more in the city in helping teach tolerance and acceptance towards gay men.

"I would love to start doing more stuff with drag in the city, for gay youth and for gay people in general," he says. "Gay youth especially need a safe place where they feel like they can be who they are."

Daniel says the incidents that took place downtown are nothing new, but for his partner, it's a different story.

"It's left him feeling anxious and for me, words only have as much power as you allow them to have," he says. "For me, it wasn't a big deal..but like I said, this is nothing new. I just want to be a voice for people who feel like they don't have one."

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