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Gay Couple Harassed by Motorist After Kissing at Bus Stop

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The harrowing incident comes amidst a rise in hate crimes.

A British couple was the target of homophobic harassment at a bus stop this week and filmed the incident to bring attention to the country's ongoing problem with anti-LGBTQ+ harassment.

According to U.K. tabloid The Mirror, the two men wish to remain anonymous but have provided a video showing a woman shouting slurs at them from a car. The men in question had just kissed when the woman pulled up at a car near the bus stop to scream at them.

"You're not going to be kissing your little boyfriend in the street," she shouts in the video, adding a litany of expletives. "You're not going to do it. No, you're not. You do that behind closed doors."

One of the men asks incredulously, "Do you think we're going to stop now you've said?"

"You can do what you want," the woman responds. "My son is not going to grow up like you to think it's right to get stabbed in your arse."

She then drives off, continuing to curse as she pulls away. The woman has not been identified.

Hate crimes have been on the rise in the U.K. recently, with anti-LGBTQ+ attacks among the more dramatic increases. At least 2,333 queer and transgender people reported being targeted in a bias attack between April 2018 and April 2019, compared to 1,703 the year earlier.

Among some high profile incidents this year, a lesbian couple was attacked on a bus by a group of teenagers who demanded they kiss. The assailants have been charged with an aggravated hate crime. And in 2016, a gay couple were brutally beaten in Brighton, with perpetrators kicking the victims in the head until the bones of their face were fractured.

Polling this year by the anti-violence nonprofit Galop shows that about 20 percent of people in the U.K. still believe that being gay is "immoral" and about 10 percent think it can be cured. Half of Britons surveyed said that LGBTQ+ people shouldn't hold hands in public for fear of violence.


RELATED | Gay British Couple Beaten In Homophobic Attack

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Matt Baume