The Guardian (Charlottetown)

Man finds homophobic slurs on his car

Summerside resident says he was disappoint­ed to find graffiti on his vehicle

- RYAN ROSS Ryan.ross@theguardia­n.pe.ca Twitter.com/ryanrross

A Summerside man says he got a shock recently when he found someone had sprayed homophobic slurs on his car.

The man, who asked not to be named because of the nature of the incident, said he was getting ready to go to work on April 29 when he walked out to his car where someone had sprayed graffiti on it.

He said he didn’t know what to think at first when he saw the words “fag” and “homo” painted on the driver’s-side windows and body.

“I was kind of shocked that it happened to me, I guess,” he said.

Although the man said he isn’t gay, his roommate is, and he wondered if whoever sprayed the car had meant to target him instead.

Even if the message wasn’t meant for him, the man, who described his roommate as being like a brother to him, said he was disappoint­ed to see it.

“I’m just kind of disappoint­ed, I guess, that someone would think like that or even come so far as to actually tag something with that,” he said.

There are no security cameras in the area where the car was parked, and the man said he has reported the incident to the police.

Later that day, the paint was removed and the man said the two roommates moved on from what happened.

“It was a pretty quick ordeal, honestly.”

The man’s roommate, Christian Moase, is the one who posted a photo of the damage on Facebook after the incident. Moase told The

Guardian it’s not the first time he has dealt with homophobic comments, and he said it’s disappoint­ing to see.

“I don’t know why my preference matters to anybody,” he said.

For the first day or two he did worry about his safety, but because he has dealt with things like it so many times, he got over it quickly, Moase said.

He also said enough people know he is gay that it is possible he was targeted. “Very likely,” he said. Overall, Moase said he is just disappoint­ed about what happened and whoever spraypaint­ed the car.

“They obviously wanted attention and wanted to feel big,” he said.

 ?? CONTRIBUTE­D ?? Homophobic slurs cover part of a Summerside man's car after someone spray-painted it overnight recently.
CONTRIBUTE­D Homophobic slurs cover part of a Summerside man's car after someone spray-painted it overnight recently.

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