Between the unsurprisingly growing number of COVID cases, our usual political pass-the-parcel-of-blame game, and the mounting excitement of an England versus Italy showdown, one piece of international news has stuck out like a sore and very painful thumb: the murder of Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant who worked at a senior citizen’s home. His crime, it would seem, was nothing more than being gay.
Samuel was at a club when he got a call. He left the club to take the call and was pounced on by two men who accused him of filming them. One of the men began to hit Samuel in the face, and a few minutes later, he was joined by 12 others who beat Samuel till he was unconscious, all while yelling out homophobic slurs. He did not stand a chance.
It later transpired that all Samuel had been doing was taking a video of his friends to send to the person he was video calling with. To say that what happened to Samuel is heartbreakingly senseless is an understatement. Yet, all around Europe, we are seeing the rise of a new wave of violent homophobia in places where many felt that a lot of progress had been made.
When I read about the declarations made by dozens of Polish towns announcing that they were LGBT-free zones, I was shocked. When Hungary continued to push forward its homophobic agenda, I was disgusted. However, reading that hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people in Spain, land of Pedro Almodóvar and adoptive home of the late queen of TV camp Raffaella Carrà, have gone up by 8.6 per cent between 2018 and 2019 has left me truly concerned. It is enough that many of my friends do not feel comfortable visiting countries that usually lean towards the Muslim faith which have still not repealed their discriminatory colonial laws but to now start seeing that Europe may or not be taking a similar trajectory is very troubling.
To be killed for doing nothing more than being yourself is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all- Anna Marie Galea
Of course, some might argue that this is not the case locally and yet again quote the best in Europe rhetoric, however, to turn a blind eye and continue to question why gay pride takes place is to not recognise many of the past, as well as existing, struggles people who identify as gay still suffer.
I have been present where people I know have been called horrible names for daring to hold hands; one of my best friends was beaten up by a group of men for walking down the street a few years ago for doing nothing but existing. I have stood outside gay clubs and seen the stares and sneers. Every single time an HIV-related article is published, the comments section is an orgy of odious homophobia mostly detracting completely from the point trying to be made, and who can forget the very recent post doing the rounds in an anti-abortion Facebook page denouncing gay people as paedophiles?
Bruises can be seen but the mental scars which lead to internalised self-hate and a lack of sense of belonging do not fade.
In a letter that broke my heart, Samuel’s father writes, “they took away the only light that illuminated our life”.
What words can ever console such grief? Samuel should be at home with his parents looking forward to what was sure to be a bright future, but instead, his light has been snuffed out through ignorance and cruelty. To be killed for doing nothing more than being yourself is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. None of us is safe till all of us are safe.