Four teenagers have been arrested in connection with a homophobic attack on two women on a London bus on May 29th.
Melania Geymonat and her partner Chris, were traveling home from an evening out together when the women were accosted by a group of men who saw the couple kissing and began to harass them. The men then made lewd comments, demanded that they kiss and eventually attacked the women when they said no.
“They started behaving like hooligans, demanding that we kissed so they could enjoy watching, calling us ‘lesbians’ and describing sexual positions,” Geymonat wrote in a Facebook post.
Geymonat said she started making jokes in an attempt to defuse the situation. But the men “kept on harassing us, throwing us coins and becoming more enthusiastic about it.”
”The next thing I know is that Chris is in the middle of the bus fighting with them,” Geymonat continued. “On an impulse, I went over there only to find her face bleeding and three of them beating her up. The next thing I know is, I’m being punched.”
Geymonat, a flight attendant originally from Uruguay, released the shocking photographs of violence in an effort to prompt a public response to the brutality.
“I don’t know yet if my nose is broken, and I haven’t been able to go back to work, but what upsets me the most is that VIOLENCE HAS BECOME A COMMON THING, that sometimes it’s necessary to see a woman bleeding after having been punched to feel some kind of impact,” she said.
London’s Metropolitan Police said four males, aged between 15 and 18, had been arrested on suspicion of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm. Detective Superintendent Andy Cox said inquiries were continuing into the “disgusting” attack. “Lots of people will understandably be outraged by this attack,” he said in a statement. “Our efforts to trace all the suspects involved and bring them in for questioning will be relentless.”
London mayor, Sadiq Khan, condemned the incident, declaring it was a “disgusting, misogynistic attack.” He took to his twitter to comment writing, ” Hate crimes against the LGBT+ community will not be tolerated in London.”
