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Yesica Freytes was struck on the head with a metal bar while being called a "lesbian whore." The attack occurred on Tuesday, May 5th, at her mother's house in Villa Ballester, Buenos Aires province. The assault began during a family argument and left Yesica with a skull fracture requiring twelve stitches. "I'm afraid for my mother, who lives in the same building," said the victim. The assailant was her 17-year-old cousin. A report was filed at the San Martín Women's Police Station under the charge of "attempted homicide."

Yesica is a musician, she is 28 years old and every day she takes her 7-year-old daughter to her mother, Karina, to look after her while she works.

“I was taking a nap because I had had a panic attack. I heard shouting and went out to the patio. I found my aunt Mónica Lazarte grabbing my mother by the hair and attacking her. I managed to separate them and saw my cousin Walter come up the ladder with a metal pipe from a pool and hit me in the face with it. I felt a tingling sensation in my face, blood started pouring out, and I fell. When I fell, he hit me again on the head with the pipe, yelling 'lesbian whore' at me, and ran away,” she told Presentes.

“He had no reason to hit me over the head with an iron bar or to yell 'lesbian whore' at me; it had nothing to do with the situation. That's the only reason he had for hitting me: because I'm a lesbian,” Freytes explained to this publication.

Hate crime

When asked about the incident, Greta Pena, a lesbian activist and president of the organization 100% Diversity and Rights, said: “In hate crimes, whether assault or murder, the preferred target is the head because what they want to destroy is that possibility of independence, of existing, of being. Yesica was beaten while she was on the ground; that's where the cruelty lies. And that's a characteristic of hate crimes, crimes motivated in this case by sexual orientation.” Yesica was attacked in front of her family: “My seven-year-old daughter saw everything. She hugged me and screamed, begging me not to die.” Camila, her partner, also witnessed everything. Yesica was taken to the hospital in a police car because the ambulance never arrived. At the Eva Perón Interzonal General Hospital (formerly Castex), she received twelve stitches. “I have an internal hematoma and a head injury.”

The complaint was filed at the San Martín Women's Police Station under the charge of 'attempted homicide'. Next week, she will file a complaint with the Juvenile Criminal Prosecutor's Office and the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) regarding the lesbophobic attack.

Domestic violence against LGBT people

Pena, when asked about LGBT domestic violence, said: “We receive many cases of lesbians being expelled from their homes, families rejecting their lesbian daughters. Of course, it's not as prevalent as with trans identities, but it does happen. Domestic violence is widespread; there is violence based on sexual orientation, but also the violence we are subjected to for being women, and that includes economic, psychological, workplace violence, and more. Because lesbians represent a double independence from men—not only sexual but also economic—we represent a terrible betrayal of patriarchy, and this is evident in these aggressions, not only physical but also verbal.”

Karina, Yesica's mother, is also injured. In a live interview with Crónica TV, she explained that her finger was fractured when her sister twisted her hand, and that she was also hit with a metal bar by her nephew.