The victims, Matteo and Stephano, were walking hand in hand through the Roman district of Malatesta on New Year’s Eve when a group of youths noticed them from an apartment balcony. The group began shouting homophobic slurs at the couple before coming down to the street and pursuing them.
Stephano endured the worst of the attack. As the group shouted “Dirty f*ggot!” they violently assaulted him. Matteo attempted to intervene by filming the incident, but this only seemed to enrage the attackers further. They surrounded him, threatened to kill him, and forced him to delete the video before eventually leaving.
As a result of the assault, Stephano suffered head injuries and a broken nose. “What hurts me the most,” Stephano told Gay.it, “is that I’ve unconsciously started rejecting my partner. Every time he tries to hold or hug me, my body pulls away automatically. I’m too scared to go outside. I had overcome so many traumas, but now I have to start all over again. The fear of being outside, of being around people... I don’t know if I’ll ever be the person I was.”
In response to the attack, Italian LGBT+ organisations are mobilising to protest against the ongoing violence targeting the LGBT+ community. A demonstration is scheduled for Saturday, January 4, at 5:00 PM in the Malatesta district.