Fu*king hell. We need to talk about last week.
Let’s start over in Madrid.
The Madrid prosecutor’s office is investigating after a crowd of about 200 people sporting Nazi paraphernalia marched through the Spanish capital’s LGBT-friendly neighbourhood of Chueca on Saturday (18 September) .
The crowd could be heard shouting offensive anti-LGBT chants along the lines of “get fa*s out of our neighbourhood”, and “get those sidosos out of Madrid”. ‘Sidosos’ is a slur for people living with AIDS.
According to reports from Reuters, the protesters wore T-shirts and tattoos of fascist and Nazi symbols, with some protestors seen making the Nazi salute.
It was confirmed on Monday (20 September) by regional prosecutors that they had launched a hate crime investigation and Equality Minister Irene Montero called the march “homophobic and racist”.
Spain hit the headlines for homophobia back in July after the brutal killing of Samuel Luiz, a 24-year old nurse who who was beaten to death because of his sexuality. At the time, crowds took to the streets of Madrid to protest his killing.
Manifestación nazi hoy en el barrio de Chueca en Madrid con gritos de "Hitler". Son escoltados y protegidos por la Policía. Así campa a sus anchas el fascismo en España.pic.twitter.com/0jHouAHpnc
— Fonsi Loaiza (@FonsiLoaiza) September 18, 2021
Meanwhile, also last week, school officials and law enforcement in St. Johns, Florida are investigating following a video that went viral which saw students verbally harassing members of the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) at Bartram Trail High School.
The video (below) shows students on campus yelling homophobic and transphobic slurs like, “There’s only two genders, fa*got” and, “Y’all have a mental illness” repeatedly at a group of GSA students, whilst also stomping on Pride flags.
A mother of one of the students reportedly told Action News Jax: “It was terrifying; it was absolutely terrifying”
The mother went on to say that a group of students with make-shift Confederate flags screamed homophobic slurs and that a Pride flag was ripped out of her daughter’s hand.
“She’s approached by one of the boys, who started yelling at her saying, ‘You’re gay. You have no rights,’ and kind of spitting at her. She walked past it and got on her bus.”
The mother called for the students involved to be expelled, saying: “Enough is enough. It is time for that school board to take action at that school, and it needs some serious new leadership. I think if you show that level of hate or attacked at people just for people being who they are, there’s no tolerance for that.”
A youth resource deputy with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is said to be working with the school to investigate, according to the latest update from News4Jax. Whilst the sheriff’s office have allegedly said that, at this time, there are no criminal charges to be pressed, punishment could include, but is not limited to: in-school suspension, placement in an alternative school, expulsion or referral to law enforcement.