Lesbian couple assaulted on a London bus because when they refused to kiss in front of a gang of men.

[AngeloMysterioso]

metro.co.uk/2019/06/07/gay-couple-beaten-refusing-kiss-mens-entertainment-9854367/

There aren’t really words to describe how sickened I am by this. In the city I’m proud to live in, in the middle of fucking Pride month, two women have been beaten up because they didn’t want to put on a show for some disgusting men.

i dont thinks its irrelevant

Good.

The fact is if my son and a boyfriend had been sitting on that bus they’re have had the same treatment.

I’m not sure that’s true. It’s well known that girl-on-girl porn is one of the most popular types there is, I’m not sure the attackers would have got the same disgusting thrill out of forcing two men to kiss each other.

i think thats the main thing thats different angelo

Not saying they wouldn’t have been abused for some other bullshit reason, mind you, but I doubt they’d have been expected to put on a show for the attackers’ pleasure the way the women were.

The fact is if my son and a boyfriend had been sitting on that bus they’re have had the same treatment.

I really don't think that's true. They wouldn't have been asked to kiss for entertainment purposes. The attackers may have been too cowardly to attack 2 men who were likely to be bigger and stronger than the women. All the inevitable NAMALT and whataboutary gets pretty old on these threads.

From the victims in this case: “Geymonat added: “The violence is not only because we are women which are dating each other. It’s also because we are women.”

Source: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/08/london-bus-attack-fifth-arrest-after-homophobic-assault?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

@AngeloMysterioso Then you would be surprised, unless you’re the person being told “kiss him you fucking fag or I’ll fucking do you”, then you have no idea.

Homophobia is homophobia, if you think one party is more of a victim or one party is safer you’re wrong. A homophobe dislikes gay people, they don’t care if it’s a man or a woman.

simon

i dont think anyone is safe, and i think it can probably escalate very very quickly

its a horrendous state of affairs

I’m not sure the attack was borne of a dislike of gay people in and of itself.

Hear me out-

In the first instance it was some teenage thugs wanting two lesbian women to kiss for their entertainment. So far, so homophobic, but not necessarily motivated by dislike.

Then after the women refused, it became an attack not just on lesbians but on women who wouldn’t do as they were told.

There seems to be a subtle difference to me.

Then after the women refused, it became an attack not just on lesbians but on women who wouldn’t do as they were told.

How do you know that they were attacked because they were women who wouldn't do what they were told though. They may well have attacked them anyway. All we know is that it was a homophobic attack.

i dont think anyone is safe, and i think it can probably escalate very very quickly

Nobody is totally safe anywhere but as a mother of two teenage DD's this attack makes me scared for the one with a girlfriend and I would feel the same if I had a son with a boyfriend. In contrast, I doesn't make me feel scared for the DD with a boyfriend.

I'd be interested to know who the men are, if they belong to certain cultures that have no respect for women or if they were gang member types. It would explain a lot, but either way with mass media porn etc doesn't surprise me, sexism is prolific now

Please stop rewritting this and removing the homophobic element.
Existing in a same sex relationship in public can make people really vulnerable. This is an issue thats ongoing and should not be hidden or changed into something else

Nobody is totally safe anywhere

i am referring to gay men and women within the context of this thread

Yes but we have to remember a large amount of the population in London and elsewhere come from a culture that utterly despises gays and thinks they should be put to death

Add that to the general misogyny and hatred of particularly white western women and you get incidents like this.

Morondela
Well yes they did actually, you did. Describing the hysterical hatred of men as tiresome.
I don’t see hysterical hatred of men on here at all. The OP was about a specific case involving women. That does not mean that attacks against gay/bi men aren’t important, of course they are as part of the wider context that depicts the prevalence of homophobia in our society.
But this case also had an element specific to lesbians and how they are seen as objects of male titillation; being asked to perform their sexuality for the gratification of thugs. You can care about the attitude to LGB people in this country as well as being able to differentiate the gendered aspect of such attacks.
I’m not sure what your comments about therapy are about unless that was a response to a previous poster. If you are insinuating I need therapy I’d like to know what qualifies you to make that diagnosis.

@2eternities They were young boys, news is reporting 15-18 year olds.

And I’m pretty sure that no one here has suggested all men are evil.

Please stop rewritting this and removing the homophobic element.

No one is removing the homophobic element. They are saying that it is a very specific kind of homophobia, one that intersects with misogyny. That is the women’s own understanding of the attack, as cited above. I don’t understand why people are so reluctant to accept their own account of what happened.

That comment was literally in response to someone saying that they didnt feel it was a homophobic attack.

It was in response to me, and I did not say it wasn’t homophobic. I just meant there are different kinds of homophobia, and a broad dislike of all gay people is only one of them.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2019/06/even-2019-lesbian-couples-are-still-made-fear-their-lives-men?fbclid=IwAR1AEii6wa-3wjQdHnGrvI_fYsYUnNgwSS1PNpEO6ccdlQrLBM3OqPzcvtI

It was in response to me, and I did not say it wasn’t homophobic. I just meant there are different kinds of homophobia, and a broad dislike of all gay people is only one of them.

So you think that people who attack lesbians would have no problem with gay men? I don't think so. They may not have asked men to kiss before assaulting them but that doesn't mean they would have left men alone. People who are homophobic don't like same sex couples full stop.

Glad to hear they've been arrested. It's both a sexist and homophobic hate crime in my opinion- not one or the other.

I’ve sat cozily on buses and trains with my female friends plenty of times and never been attacked by thugs, but the one time I kissed my ex girlfriend while parked in a lay-by late at night, a group of young men rocked the car from side to side while yelling through the windows that we should kiss, so I’m pretty sure you can’t just sideline the inconvenient homophobia aspect of this and pretend it’s pure misogyny. Yes, male violence contributed and yes misogyny contributed but fundamentally this was a homophobic attack and that has to be everyone’s understanding and priority. I do not feel supported in this situation by straight women saying ‘but this is really an act of misogyny not homophobia’.