Markantoine Lynch-Boisvert, a well-known fashion designer from Quebec, and his partner of seven years Alex James Taboureau were brutally beaten in an attack outside a bar in La Malbaie, in the Charlevoix region on Friday night, Lynch-Boisvert reported in a Facebook post.
Lynch-Boisvert said a man inside the bar began taunting the couple with homophobic slurs and when they left three men followed them outside and began beating them.
Lynch-Boisvert, who suffered three facial fractures, said he remembered hearing one man say “stop, you're going to kill him” as another man kicked him in the head. Taboureau suffered bruising and a concussion.
CBC reports: ‘On Facebook, Lynch-Boisvert said people should not boycott La Malbaie or the Charlevoix region because of the attack. He says it was an isolated incident and the area is “too beautiful to be cast aside.” But it is a sad situation, he wrote. “It's sad for our community and also our society as a whole. Thank you for all the nice comments and the love that has been sent to us.”‘
Taboreau said that “It was hard to comprehend what was happening. I was saying to them, ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this?' It was very traumatic.”
Said Taboreau to HuffPost Canada: “If something positive has to come out of this, let's try and be sensitive to get people to be more open about the fact that homosexual aggressions are still happening here in Quebec.”