Juliet Leigh and Lindsay Curnow at this year's Big Gay Out Residents and visitors of the popular Northland holiday destination of Mangawhai are being urged to come forward if they know anything about what is being described as the 'grotesque' harassment of a lesbian couple, who are even more determined to leave town as fresh juvenile hate speech has been scribbled on their fence. "God hates dikes + qeers" is the wording of the latest graffiti attack Mangawhai Heads women Lindsay Curnow and Juliet Leigh have been subjected to, six months after the packing shed of their home-based business Blooming Bulbs was destroyed in a suspicious arson. The fire was preceded by similar hate graffiti. Curnow says it's sickening: "We thought the bastards had gone away." While the graffiti has been reported and documented, without clear leads she doesn't think there is much the police can do. As she tries to keep her humour up she has told GayNZ.com Daily News she wishes real life police work was like it is in the TV shows. "We need Bones or somebody to solve this one." However the women have sold Blooming Bulbs and are planning to put their house on the market in spring and move back to Auckland where they will be surrounded by glbt friends. Mangawhai resident and Kaipara District Councillor Julia Sutherland is saddened that Curnow and Leigh they are leaving the district, saying it's a great loss. "They were running a really successful business here and that's been lost to Mangawhai, because I understand they've sold that. And they're just good and constructive community members who don't feel that they can live here safely, and I just think that's appalling." Sutherland hopes and believes the harassment is a bizarre exception in what is a friendly town full of hardworking people. "The whole thing is really quite grotesque. These people are living their own lives, they're working hard, they're doing well by their neighbours, they're doing well by the community and they should be allowed to get on with it." The councillor called the women to tell them how appalled she was when she heard about the graffiti yesterday. She is urging anyone who knows anything at all about the crimes to speak up. "I don't know if it's a coincidence or not that this happened in the school holidays. It happened in the school holidays last time I think. And sometimes people have too much time on their hands and are just wanting to do some mischief or think they're being clever or whatever on earth it is. But it's just the hurtfulness that goes with this that is the worst thing." Sutherland says the whole thing is appalling and very sad. "And it's a very sorry reflection on this community which is not at all like that. This community is full of really worthwhile people who work hard. The number of volunteer activities and the things that are being done around here by people putting in hard work and private effort for public good is just amazing and so this isn't typical at all of how things happen in Mangawhai ... so when you get something that's just plain nasty, it just leaves a sour taste in your mouth." The fence which has been hit with the poorly-spelled scrawl is a newly-built replacement which was put up with the help of volunteers who held a working bee at the women's home, made up of by a crew from ANZ Bank's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) and Friends Network, members of the Gay Auckland Business Association (GABA) and volunteers from the glbt community. It was led by GABA member and ANZ staff member Craig Bonnington, who says the bank's crew are abhorred to hear of this incident and their thoughts are with Lindsay and Juliet. "ANZ believes prejudice of any kind is wrong, and we strongly support diversity in the community and at work," he says. "We are keen to help again and have already received requests from staff wanting to don their painting clothes and gumboots and remove this and any future graffiti." In the meantime an enraged Leigh has changed the grafitti to read "God loves dikes + qeers", while adding a curse for the taggers below. Any information about the harassment of the women or the arson can be passed on to police anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 28th July 2011 - 12:30pm