“That’s why they go home to watch batty man programmes.”
A gay man stood up to homophobe who threatened him with a knife on a London bus.
Daniel Simmonds was travelling on a bus last Friday evening (June 23). When he heard the unidentified man making a series of anti-gay comments. Daniel began to document the tirade by recording a video.
“It is not all right to be gay. It is all right to be lesbian? It is not all right!”, the man said. “You say anything, I’ll murder you, I’ll stab you up in your face. I’ve got a new knife. I might do that now but there’s cameras.”
During the rant, the man chastised television programmes for including LGBT+ characters. “That’s why they go home to watch batty man programmes,” he said. “EastEnders, Coronation Street, all them queers in it. That’s what they teach the kids.
“The white people are deluded. They think they’re God. Even when I’m talking now, it’s burning them.” The man used the anti-gay slurs ‘batty man’ and ‘poof’ repeatedly during his rant.
He went unchallenged until Daniel said: “Excuse me. I’m gay and I’m white, and I don’t think I’m God. Are you threatening to stab me?”
“Do you know me?” the man replied, visibly unstable. He then shouted: “Don’t talk to me!”
“Leave me alone because I can see what you’re up to,” he continued. “You’re gay and you’re clever.” At this point, the driver of the bus told the man to get off, much to the approval of the passengers, who thanked the driver and gave him a round of applause.
Posting on Facebook after the incident, Daniel wrote: “Hatred has many faces, whatever your colour, creed, sexuality or anything else. This was my bus home tonight…
“Thanks to the amazing TFL driver – you didn’t mess around!”
This incident highlights the findings of a recent report, which found that almost 50% of LGBT+ Londoners have been the victim of a hate crime in the last year.
Pride in London commissioned the report, as stated in The Huffington Post, which shows a 35% increase in anti-LGBT+ attacks in the capital since 2014. Most of those who reported being the victim of a hate crime had experienced an attack more than once. Over a third of LGBT+ respondents said that they’d been victimised five times or more.
Watch the video below:
