‘We won’t live in fear’: Greece’s LGBTQ+ community stands strong after trans couple’s attack
After a trans couple were attacked in Greece just weeks after same-sex marriage was legalised, the LGBTQIA+ community is standing united.
WORDS BY CONOR CLARK HEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN A recent attack on a young trans couple in Greece has left LGBTQIA+ people shaken, with some describing the incident a reminder of how “extremely polarised” the country is on equal rights.
A mob of almost 200 people cursed, spat and threw bottles at the pair in Thessaloniki on Saturday (9 March) night, resulting in the arrests of more than 20 people.
Thousands took to the streets in protest of what happened the following evening, though the LGBTQIA+ community’s concerns are far from quashed. “Greece is a very homophobic country,” says conceptual artist and filmmaker Fil Ieropoulos, who was born in Athens and raised in northern Greece. “It’s a very macho, traditionalist, fundamentalist, religious place where racist, homophobic, misogynist, transphobic behaviours have been tolerated for way too long.
