A homophobic stabbing attack against two men took place outside LGBT+ venue The Two Brewers pub in Clapham, London on the night of Sunday 13th. Thankfully, the victims don’t appear to have been seriously hurt, as they were taken to hospital but have already been allowed to go home. Drag performer Mary Mac, who was at the venue at the time, posted on Twitter, “The team at The Two Brewers were incredible in dealing with this and keeping us inside the venue safe, glad the victims have been discharged and hope they are with loved ones now to help.”
The Metropolitan Police are currently searching for the suspect and Detective Inspector Gary Castle said in a statement, “We are acutely aware of the shock this attack will cause members of the LGBT+ community and want to reassure people that an urgent investigation is ongoing to locate the person responsible.”
But while this attack is awful, it, unfortunately, isn’t shocking. People on Twitter have been quick to point that out.
According to Pink News, this isn’t even the first hate crime to take place recently at that one pub. Back in February, two people were arrested for assaulting a gay couple kissing outside The Two Brewers. At the time, a person who was hurt in the attack posted on Twitter, “I thought I would share this because even in one of the most liberal queer-friendly cities like London, homophobia is still a daily occurrence.”
Homophobic and transphobic hate crimes are on the rise in the UK
Official Home Office statistics state that anti-LGBT hate crime has gone up in the past few years. The BBC noted in October 2022, “…crimes against transgender people saw the biggest rise, with 4,355 reports, up 56% from the previous year,” and “hate crimes targeting people’s sexual orientation also increased—by 42%, to 26,152.” The Home Office offered a comment on this, suggesting that the reason for the rise in anti-trans hate crimes may be because, “transgender issues have been heavily discussed on social media over the last year.” You don’t say. Tories and TERFS have made the UK an unbelievably toxic environment for the LGBT+ community and, sadly, it only looks set to carry on.
Even posts about this very story on social media brought out the trolls. Even if we assume a lot of them are bots or engagement-baiters on Elon Musk’s new Twitter/X, it’s still very dispiriting.
Here’s to hoping the two men in this case, and everyone else who’s been the victim of hate crimes in this country and beyond, get the justice they deserve.
(featured image: Abby Chung/Pexels)
