NOTE: See update at bottom of this piece
Britain is much more accepting of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people than it once was. LGB people have, for all intents and purposes, the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual people. Of course not everyone agrees with that situation, but in the main those who disagree do so peacefully and such people can be either debated with or ignored as irrelevant.
The spectre of ‘queer bashing’ being carried out by members of the general straight population, something that was still alive and well back in the 1980’s, has mostly died out. Most Britons either accept that some people will be LGB and just get on with life or have a grudging tolerance towards them. In a society that accepts viewpoint diversity that’s fair enough. Everyone should be entitled to hold and voice their opinions, even if the opinion is wrong or misguided.
However when it comes to certain communities, queer bashing has not gone away and we can see a very good example of this from a story in the Daily Mirror dated 21st August 2021. According to the Daily Mirror, a gay couple were out celebrating a friends birthday in the Gay Village area of Birmingham an area where there a lot of gay and gay friendly venues. They were accosted on the street outside one venue by three men in an SUV. The three men made anti gay remarks to the couple, stole their phone and beat them severely.
The police have instigated an investigation into this offence and what is unusual about this case is that West Midlands Police have managed to find identifications and mug shots from prior arrests and have publicised them. The fact that they were easily identifiable from CCTV according to the police and also that there are images that are obviously police mugshots, suggests to me that these are bad dudes who the police are very familiar with.
What’s also interesting about this case is that, going by names and phenotype, these attackers are of Muslim heritage. If anyone was wondering what linked these guys then it certainly looks as if the ideology of Islam is what links them. I’d lay money that this lot were not Methodists.
The Daily Mirror said:
Police are hunting three men in connection with a vile homophobic attack on a married couple who were beaten unconscious with bottles and left covered in blood.
Police say they want to speak to three locals, Sohail Khan, 24, Mosin Mahmood, 31, and Ishaaq Ayazhave, 21, over the horrific attack carried out in the early hours of last Sunday in Birmingham’s Gay Village.
Rob and husband Patrick had just left a nightclub where they were celebrating a friend’s birthday when a gang of men started hurling abuse at them as they drove past in their car.
The sick culprits then grabbed Patrick’s phone when he tried to film them as the abuse started.
Another friend was dragged along the road by a car when she tried to retrieve the phone.
Patrick was knocked unconscious in the scrap and Rob was attacked and beaten with bottles, BirminghamLive reports.
Police say they have carried out extensive CCTV, witness and vehicle enquiries, and have released the names of the three men they want to speak to in connection with the incident.
The Mirror report carries pictures of the injured gay couple and the injuries look bad.
The police have made attempts to arrest these attackers but to no avail. West Midlands Police is reduced to appealing to the men to give themselves up and hand themselves in at a police station. Whether they will or not is another matter. If they are not inclined to give themselves up then I’d guess that they are in hiding or being sheltered by other Muslims who share their views about gay people.
Whilst there are many Muslims who are OK with gay people and don’t want to do them any harm, that is not always the case. Sadly where Islam goes and is heavily concentrated, also comes Islam derived anti-gay hatred. Back in 2013 I wrote of how East London, once a place where gay people were tolerated even prior to the legalisation of gay sex in the late sixties, had changed. I pointed out that the area was once home to a multitude of gay and gay friendly venues but most of these venues have closed in large part due to intimidation of customers by aggressive Muslims.
There is a worrying brazenness about the Birmingham attack. They knew that they had police records, they drove a vehicle that was able to be identified as connected with them and they carried out the attack in an area that is literally smothered in CCTV. These attackers either either incredibly stupid or supremely confident that they would be sheltered or protected when the police came looking for them. These guys don’t strike me as chancers, they look to me like they are people who are confident that they would get away with what they did.
I hope the police actually get these attackers and I also wonder what other murkiness the police will find out about them if they are arrested? I very much doubt that queer bashing is the only bit of dodgy stuff that they are involved in.
UPDATE: One of the men have, according to West Midlands Police, handed themselves in to police. The other two are at present still at large. https://twitter.com/brumpolice/status/1429388533018546177
