In what is being touted as a world-first, the province of Quebec has launched an
official registry
to track acts of homophobia. With funding from the Quebec Justice
Department, the campaign is being administered by Montreal's gay
helpline,
Gai Écoute.
Gai
Écoute’s anonymous and confidential Registre des actes homophobes will
document complaints ranging from name-calling in schools to
psychological harassment at work and physical assaults against gays,
lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. The registry will not be
used as a tool for a new homophobia police, McCutcheon said. “We will
refer people (who fill out the registry’s forms) to existing resources,
like youth protection officials, the human rights commission and the
police,” he said. “We do not plan to intervene directly.” Based on the
number and type of calls Gai Écoute gets, McCutcheon said he expects
there might be hundreds of complaint-worthy cases for the registry. “We
notice it especially in calls from outside of Montreal, in smaller
communities. Sometimes it’s a student who got mocked at school or a
teenager with parents threatening to throw the young person out."
After
two years, Gai Écoute will analyze its data and make recommendations
to the provincial government. Quebec's anti-gay groups are,
predictably,
screaming.
Georges Buscemi, President of the Montreal-based pro-life and pro-family group Campagne Quebec Vie, told LifeSiteNews
he saw the registry as a “means to instill a climate of oppression and
fear to anyone who disagrees with any of the opinions of the
homosexualist movement in Quebec.” “Anyone who might believe that a
homosexual act is unacceptable at a moral level” is being sent a warning
“that they will end up on a list,” he said. “A list to be used for a
future purpose which in my opinion is to punish.” Buscemi gave examples
of possible reprisals being the loss of charitable status for churches
or teaching positions for professors. “It’s the beginning of a soft
persecution,” he said. “It is really about inciting a climate of fear
using the media, especially with the presence of the police. Any
criticism will be interpreted as homophobia and eventually down the road
there will be consequences.”
Reposted from Joe
In what is being touted as a world-first, the province of Quebec has launched an official registry
to track acts of homophobia. With funding from the Quebec Justice
Department, the campaign is being administered by Montreal's gay
helpline, Gai Écoute. 
