Melania Geymonat, 28 year old flight attendant and her girlfriend Chris were victims of a homophobic assault and robbery conducted by a group of unidentified male teenagers on the top deck of a London Bus, for refusing to kiss for their entertainment.
Following the attack that took place at 2:30 am last week, Melanie took to social media posting her story with pictures of herself and her partner drenched in blood after the assault.
Melania, who recently moved to the UK on a sabbatical from her medical studies writes she felt that London was a safe place for gay women and is greatly taken aback by the attack. Calling the attack a misogynist and a way of chauvinist violence she said, “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.”
At an interview with the BBC, she spoke about her concerns for the LGBTQIA community at large as she narrated similar stories of her other friends encountering similar attacks for their sexual orientations. This encounter poses a threat to the community at large retracing the violence back to the cause for the Stonewall riots ( were a series of spontaneous and violent demonstrations conducted by the gay community in 1969 against the police assault on the community that taken place at Stonewall).
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The London police has taken a swift action after the issue of their statement and released a public statement condemning such behavior. The Police statement revealed the runoff by the men after the assault,and about a phone and bag that was stolen during the assault. They have arrested five people accused for the crime after viewing CCTV footage of the incident.
The city has been in full support for the women, London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the violent attack as “Disgusting and Misogynistic”.
This was a disgusting, misogynistic attack. Hate crimes against the LGBT+ community will not be tolerated in London.
The @metpoliceuk are investigating and arrests have been made. If you have any information – call 101. https://t.co/KhfnEJLepU
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) June 7, 2019
Siwan Hayward, from the Transport department (TLF) said, “Homophobic behaviour and abuse is a hate crime and won’t be tolerated on our network. All of our customers have the right to travel without fear of verbal or physical assault and we are working with the police to stamp out this behaviour on our transport network. We will do all we can to support the police investigation of this incident.”
Prime Minister May, tweeted “This was a sickening attack and my thoughts are with the couple affected.Nobody should ever have to hide who they are or who they love and we must work together to eradicate unacceptable violence towards the LGBT community.”
In the middle of June, Pride Month, Melania’s public statement sends out a message for the awareness of unprecedented violence conducted towards the LGBTQIA community even when it is legal in several countries in the world, the act of treating people with different sexual orientations as symbols of entertainment, strangeness and offensive humour.
She ended her facebook statement writing, “I just hope that in June, Pride Month, stuff like this can be spoken out loudly so they STOP HAPPENING!”