People ‘targeted’ with homophobia outside London gay nightclub
The manager of Heaven has claimed that young men are being targeted with violence when leaving the iconic gay nightclub in London.
Manager Stuart Turner has said there has been an increase in violence after hours in the area, with clubbers reporting that they have been robbed and undergone verbal abuse when leaving the premises late at night.
Turner told the Evening Standard: “It’s my belief that they think these guys are easy targets, some are 18 or 19-year-old blokes who might not have come out yet so they don’t want to report it because it makes it awkward for them.
“They shout things at them, ‘b**** boy’ and that sort of thing, some have reported being robbed.
“These are criminal gangs, they know what they’re doing and they know when and who to target.”
Turner believes that unless the issue is tackled now it could be incredibly damaging and may lead to a more serious crime.
However, without reporting it will prove difficult to tackle, said Turner who is not urging those who experience homophobic abuse to contact the police.
He said: “All it takes is for someone to say something back or be in the wrong place at the wrong time and we could be talking about a very serious crime.”
“We’re getting more and more people coming back into the club telling us about these incidents and we really need them to go to the police.”
Turner believes there has been an increase in attacks following the EU referendum and presidential election.
He said: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Everything needs to be reported. I feel like with Brexit and with Donald Trump’s election, some people think this justifies them saying what they want and expressing these bigoted opinions.”
