Gordy Lockhart: YouBeYou founder on the string of dating app assaults in Invercargill

There's growing calls for a string of dating app attacks in Invercargill to be treated as a hate crime.

Two 15-year-olds and two 16-year-olds have been charged with aggravated burglary, after four alleged incidents in which people were lured to secluded locations through dating apps and attacked.

YouBeYou founder Gordy Lockhart says it appears to be a targeted attack, taking advantage of gay men's vulnerability.

He explained the LGBT community are typically more alone, have less family and support networks - and have to meet people in places like parks.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is kind of serious stuff. Police of warning about
a social media trend that involves people filming a text
on gay men in public. There have been a series
of attacks. If you've been following the news, you'll have
seen it in the cargo. Four teenagers have been arrested
so far. One man was sent to hospital and critical
condition at least, and the police are worried that this
could turn fatal. Gordi Lockhat is the founder of UBU,

(00:20):
which is an advocacy group for rural queer people and
with us Hi Gordy.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hi Kurla, how are you heither?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm well, thank you. Why are people doing this?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's an interesting one. As you said, it's a bit
of an online a space of issues that have come
from this, and I think the biggest problem that we
have is the identification of the real crime. And there
was a similar issue that happened in Toronto a couple
of years back, and the issue was that, of course,
you were using an app that is as yet unnamed,
but it does appear to be an act called Grinder,

(00:50):
which is a gay dating app to lure gay men
to an environment where buying their attacks. Now, ultimately that's
a heat crime and not describing it as such is
complicity in the crime itself. We can't cure a crane
by not naming the crane. And my worry is that
SOFI and police have not described it as such, and
in doing so, they're not dealing with it as they

(01:12):
really should. So ultimately, what's causing the crime is one thing,
but how we deal with it is another.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, But but do you know why these young people
are doing I'm assuming its young people, right, teenagers, that
obviously is But are they doing it because they just
they're bored and they want to hurt somebody or do
they particularly want to hurt gay people? Water is it.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
A bit of colony, bit of column be lately? I mean,
you know, why would you use an app specifically targeting
the LGBT community?

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Can I answer that question for you? Is it because
you're is it because you know you're more likely to
get somebody to come out? You know what I mean?
Like a gay man is more likely to meet you
in the park than a straight woman.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Let's just say, well, yeah, but you could to consider
why that's the case, right. You could look at the
elserbat community and typically they are arguably more alone, have
less family around them, have less support networks, and therefore
have to do those sort of things in order to
meet people for whatever if we're doing.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But the reason I'm asking this, Gordi, is because there's
also an online train that has been drawn to my attention,
which is like a pedophile hunter thing, which is completely different, right,
So where they're trying to find they're trying to find
people and besh them map because I think the pedaphiles
this isn't unrelated to this.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think there is a connection to that in the
sense that I think we should first of all state
that if anybody is meeting anybody underage, and I was
entirely inappropriate, it must be dealt with separately. But it
certainly doesn't excuse you know, physical violence and assaults. But
I think otherwise, whoever anybody is meeting in a part
for whatever reason, assuming it's legal, is up to them. Yeah,
it shouldn't be attacked.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
The obvious advice here, Gordi, and I don't know if
anybody's going to necessarily follow it is don't meet strangers
in packs, right.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
And obviously that's true. But again, if you're from a
community marginalized alone and unture who you are. That is
the reality of life for a lot of gay men,
and they shouldn't be vified for that, and they certainly
shouldn't be attacked in public for that. Moreover, when it happens,
the crane needs to be identified as such.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Listen, it is good to talk to you, Gordy. Thank
you for running us through that. Best of luck of this,
it's Gordy Lockhat.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
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