Share

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Facebook Tweet Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on WhatsApp

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

By Rosario Marina. Illustration: Florencia Capella

For P and Y, two young gay men who were attacked in Buenos Aires, there will be no justice: five months after the attack they suffered while kissing in the streets of Palermo (Buenos Aires), and after the analysis of multiple security cameras, prosecutor Paola de Minicis closed the case investigating "minor injuries aggravated by sexual orientation."

“It outrages us. To have done so much and they can't do anything,” P told Presentes . On September 30, 2020, P and her boyfriend Y were walking home after having a beer. “We stopped on a corner, at 1900 Aráoz. We started kissing, just kissing, something that shouldn't bother anyone on the planet, something that doesn't happen when it's a man and a woman, for example,” Y had told Presentes the day after the attack. In addition to the blows they received that night, which left Y with injuries to both knees, her right elbow, the palm of her left hand, and pain in her left shoulder and left ear, the couple reported two other incidents: homophobic messages on social media and attacks at their front door . The investigation into those incidents will also be closed.

Some of the messages they received: "Take care of HIV," "They're really screwed," "AIDS sufferers," "They'll get them back and they won't tell anyone," "Minorities adapt to the majority, not the other way around! And if you don't understand it the easy way, you'll have to understand it the hard way!", "The good thing is that we know where you live, it's just a matter of going and looking for you!"

Ricardo Villarino, from 100% Diversity and Rights, recalls another discriminatory and violent incident in the City of Buenos Aires: on October 21, 2018, when Sergia Tomás Rodríguez was attacked by waiters at the Della Pizza Academy in Palermo for kissing her boyfriend there. “Although there were training initiatives, the lawsuit never prospered; it was dismissed because they said there was no evidence.”

This, Ricardo knows, is a constant occurrence, and it worries him: “We see a constant: people attacked in places where the police are closely monitored . There are attackers on public streets, clearly motivated by homophobia . Injuries are documented, complaints are filed, but they can never be identified . There are no witnesses. This is a concern because it clearly sends a message that gay or LGBT people can be attacked and go unpunished .”

Failed cameras and more violence

The 22nd Prosecutor's Office of the PCyF (Civil Police) decided to dismiss the complaint. It also defined several actions, such as requesting the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, specifically the Urban Monitoring Area, to install new cameras on some streets in Palermo. The prosecutor detailed the security cameras that were added to the investigation, point by point. In each case, she explained why they weren't useful: some due to poor resolution, others weren't working. 

P decided today to respond to the decision to end the investigation. He did so before the prosecutor's office of the Western Chamber of Buenos Aires City: "I am hereby presenting myself to exercise my right to be heard and to express my disagreement with the results of the investigation, as it is my intention not to condone the chain of violence my partner and I endured following our kiss in public, acts which have gone unpunished." Among the experiences, he lists physical violence, but also institutional violence from the police, violence received on social media, symbolic violence from a media outlet (Crónica TV), and the situation of helplessness before the courts. 

On Crónica TV, one of the interviewers asked them: "There are people who have expressed their solidarity with you, right? I've been reading that on social media the last few hours, but they also say, 'Well, no, for example, it's okay to grope in public squares,' for example, in a public place where, perhaps, a father is walking his little boy. I mean, what would be the limit of this display of affection, right?" 

At the time, P and Y reported this situation to the Ombudsman's Office for the Public. A socio-semiotic analysis of the news was conducted. "While the coverage highlights the incident and presents a condemnatory approach to the violence suffered by the interviewees, it is perceived as sensationalist by urging the reproduction of a kiss, and an inappropriate and harmful approach identified in the columnist's intervention when asking about the limits of the display of affection," stated the organization that defends audience rights.

Police and judicial training in sexual diversity is requested

Ricardo Villarino, from 100% Diversity and Rights, explained why the attackers are often not identified. “There is no swift action. Witnesses don't identify the situation as a homophobic attack because they don't know how to recognize it. The attackers act quickly and consciously, with tolerance and disregard for security officers. And investigations don't usually develop strategies to prosecute specific violence against LGBT people in specific contexts and modalities.”

Following the attack in October 2020, the LGBT Ombudsman's Office, which is part of the Anti-Discrimination Institute of the Ombudsman's Office of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, made recommendations to the Metropolitan Police, concluding that " the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police act in a discriminatory manner towards LGBT+ people , in this case two gay men, through: 1. The refusal of two officers to identify the attackers who were stalking the couple in the area after the attack; 2. The refusal to provide them with immediate medical attention and only a request; 3. Treatment without a gender and sexual diversity perspective; 4. The delay in taking statements, being the only individuals in the police establishment; 5. The systematic change in the perspective of the victims' story; 6. The omission of the real motive for the hate attack and the fact that they were a gay male couple; which had to be repeated, explained, and reinforced on multiple occasions for the officers to understand and record it."

In addition to highlighting all the violence they've suffered, P and Y requested something they believe could change some things in the future: training for local police officers on sexual diversity, human rights, non-discrimination, and dignified treatment; and also courses on sexual diversity for those working in the judiciary and public prosecutor's offices .

"Not only did the police agency lack foresight and fail to fulfill its basic functions. It also hindered the situation, because it would have been different if they had pursued and apprehended [the attackers]. It was over. And if there were cameras, they could have been proven, they could have been identified," P. lamented. 

After the attack, the police said there were no witnesses, "when practically the entire block came out to help us, to rescue us, and to prevent anything worse from happening. They [the police] denied it, on top of arriving late and having seen them escape. It took us two hours to take the report, without medical assistance. Institutionally, it failed."

“Now the message is: go unpunished,” says P. “There were witnesses who didn't see it, cameras that didn't see it. It's precisely a refusal to see the homo-hatred that exists in people, in speech, and in society .”

At the victims' request, this note protects their identities and refers to them by their initials.