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By Rosario Marina

Illustration: Florencia Capella

The court has decided to reopen an investigation into digital harassment against a gay couple who had been physically attacked in September 2020 in Buenos Aires . The new development is that the police actions on the day of the attack will be investigated. "I'm very happy because I feel less like a victim, less like a second-class citizen," P., one of the victims, told Presentes .

Pedro Paradiso Sotille, president of the Equality Foundation and executive director of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC), considered this reopening "crucial, at least to begin to put an end to this history of impunity, silence, and invisibility on this issue." 

A chain of violence 

On September 30, 2020, P. and her boyfriend Y. were walking home after having a beer. They stopped at the corner of Aráoz Street 1900, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, and kissed. They heard screams, and seconds later, the blows came. In addition to the blows they received that night, the couple reported two other incidents: homophobic messages on social media and attacks at their front door. 

On March 30 of this year, P. learned that the prosecutor had closed the investigation. The attackers hadn't been found, and the security cameras on the street weren't working. The investigation into those events was shelved. But he decided to file a complaint with the prosecutor's office of the Western Chamber of the Buenos Aires City Council. 

"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 things I suffered, she listed physical violence, but also institutional violence from the police and violence on social media.

Investigate the police

Days after the court filing, the prosecutor of the Chamber, Sergio Martín Lapadu, responded: “I will have to reopen the investigation so that before the instance of merit a temper is adopted on the possible commission of crimes of public action in the actions displayed by the acting police personnel (...) both on the day of the event and on the occasion of being at the place of its commission (September 30, 2020 at approximately 10:00 p.m., on Aráoz street height 1900 of this City) as well as their actions at police headquarters.”

In his statement, P. said that on the day of the attack, they received "a refusal from two police officers to investigate and identify the attackers who were stalking us in the area after the attack. They tried under the pretext that we needed to identify them—to which we responded that we would accompany them and identify them—to which they claimed that we should first file a report at the police station." 

Later, when they went to the 14th A precinct of the City Police, P. said that her partner was denied immediate medical attention, and that, when filing the complaint, she had to request the correction of the report several times, because it constantly changed “the perspective of our story and the omission of the real motive of the hate attack and the fact that we were a gay male couple - which had to be repeated, explained and reinforced on multiple occasions for the officer to understand it and record it. Constituting an obstacle to making our complaint.”

The Chamber Prosecutor also asked the 22nd PCyF Prosecutor's Office, headed by Paola de Minicis, who had decided to archive all points of the case, to issue a letter to the Office of Transparency and External Control of the City Police, a decentralized body of the Ministry of Justice and Security of the CABA, to "notify them of the conduct that will be investigated and the effects they deem pertinent."

Calls on Facebook to identify digital attackers

The case filed wasn't just about the attack that night; it also investigated the digital harassment P. and Y. suffered after the news broke in the media. Some of the messages they received included: "Hold on to 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 we know where you live, it's just a matter of finding you!"

The Chamber prosecutor also commented on this point: he requested that Facebook Inc. be again asked for data on two Instagram users who posted those comments. The data he requested is from the Transactional Information Registry, the IP address registry used for both creation and access to the comments, indicating the relevant dates and times, logged user information, and information on any password changes.

The prosecutor also requested action be taken on a person named Matías, "for which a work plan must be drawn up with computer operators to determine how the field of technology could help determine the correct identification." 

“I think it's important that the courts exhaust all avenues of investigation and that the state make as many statements and reinforce LGBT rights as possible,” P told Presentes. 

A paradigm shift in Justice? 

Days before this reopening, the courts acquitted Mariana Gómez of the charges of minor injuries and contempt of court, for which she was convicted in 2019. The ruling recognizes the lesbophobic discrimination of the police and the judiciary. In both cases, the focus is on police actions toward LGBTIQ+ people.

"These are two independent cases that demonstrate a change in position, a paradigm shift, reaffirmed within an institutional and social shift," Sottile explained to Presentes . Although she doesn't see this as a widespread issue in the Buenos Aires justice system and believes there's still a long way to go, she believes they are major achievements for a justice system "that is beginning to break down its patriarchy, its homophobia, its homophobia, its homophobia, its homophobia, and its sexist, patriarchal, and systematic approach."

For P., this change in the justice system is the result of struggle and social pressure. Sotille agrees on the importance of organizations and explains that even if it's only through the second or final review process, it's important to begin to break this paradigm of hatred, discrimination, stigma, and complicity.

For all these reasons, she emphasizes the need for a feminist, diverse, and cross-cutting judicial reform. She concludes: "We are on that pivotal path."