Crowds of protestors have filled the main square in Madrid after a 24-year-old nurse by the name of Samuel Luiz was beaten to death by a mob in a suspected homophobic attack. 

Samuel was killed outside a nightclub in the north Spanish town of A Coruña in the early hours of Saturday morning. His friends said that he had FaceTimed them and whilst on the phone they could hear a group shouting homophobic slurs at him. 

No arrests have been made so far but José Minones, a local government representative in the region, said in a statement: “We are at the early stages, only the investigation will tell us whether it was a homophobic crime or not.” 

The murder sparked a wave of support across Spain including huge crowds who filled a central Madrid square and activists marching down a major street in Barcelona ‘chanting slogans and waving placards and rainbow-coloured flags’. Ione Belarra, the social rights minister described the attack as a hate crime saying: “We want a country free of violence where everybody feels free to be who they are.” 

As we have said in the past, as our representation and visibility improves, the risk from those who would want to hurt us or do not believe in equality increases. As politics changes all over the world, certain groups are emboldened it what is becoming a global culture war with both sides moving further away from each other at a time when what we need is unity.