Lesbian couple berated in homophobic, racist rant in Richmond parking lot
Posted February 18, 2022 9:24 pm.
Last Updated February 21, 2022 7:21 pm.
Two young women locked themselves in a car in a Richmond parking lot Thursday, calling police as a stranger screamed homophobic and racist insults at them while banging on the window and trying to get into their vehicle.
CityNews has agreed not to name them but to instead call them Sarah and Rory to protect their identities.
Sarah, says she’s felt more guarded, and less safe in her community since it happened. She says it was a shocking, and upsetting end to what was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill errand to get groceries at Broadmoor Shopping Centre. Rory was pulling out of her parking spot when another car almost hit hers.
“The girl in the car just started screaming out her window, and they were slamming on their horn,” Sarah says.
The couple had taken separate vehicles to the store, so Rory’s continued driving to another part of the lot.
“They started following us, drove up right behind us, and just followed us right to my car. As soon as she pulled up next to my car and they pulled up on the other side of her and just started screaming and yelling at us,” Sarah says, adding she could see her girlfriend was getting frustrated.
“I said, ‘Babe, just calm down. It’s okay, just ignore them.”
Sarah says thinks that might have been the moment the other woman realized they were a couple, and began berating them. So Rory started filming.
In the video the woman calls them “gross,” makes crude remarks about sex acts, and says “you’re brown.” Rory identifies as Indigenous. The woman approaches the couple’s car, yanks on the handle, and proceeds to make a series of vulgar remarks and gestures while repeatedly saying “you’re gay.”
“I was pretty scared so I was like, ‘Lock the doors right now. I don’t know what’s about to happen here.’ She was trying to get into our car and slamming on the window and I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to call the police because, obviously, she’s not going away,'” Sarah tells CityNews.
“After the video ends, I got pretty upset. I was on the phone with the cops, I was getting a little bit emotional, kind of tearing up.”
Sarah hunches the other woman realized she was calling the police, and that she drove away. But then she looped back.
“I was still on the phone with the dispatch person and the driver, who was the one who came up to the car, she was across the street from us. She kind of walked into the street and was giving us the finger and still yelling at us.”
The police arrived a couple of minutes later, according to Sarah. They took a statement, noted the license plate number of the other car, and then said they would try to locate the driver.
A little while later, the police called Rory and told them they had found the person responsible.
“They just said, ‘Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about it. They didn’t damage the car and they didn’t hurt you.’ There’s nothing we can really charge them for. Obviously, we were upset but I guess we felt there wasn’t really much we could say to that. So we just said, Okay,” Sarah says.
“We decided we weren’t really okay with that. So we wanted to see what other ways we can get the information out there and see what we can maybe do about it. We want to get the word out there because we don’t want it happening again.’
In the moment Sarah said she was fearful but calm, and focused on making sure she and Rory were safe. Now, she says she is angry, frustrated, and feels a little less welcome in her community.
“We’ve lived in Richmond a long time and we get the odd stare here and there but neither of us has ever experienced anything like that where someone is trying to physically get to us and potentially hurt us,” she says.
“I can’t believe that happened….I leave the house a little bit more aware than I ever have before.”
In a statement to CityNews, Richmond RCMP says they are “vigorously investigating the incident.”
