Four people arrested after drunk gang viciously attacked trans woman and her friends during Manchester Pride weekend
Actor Adam Ali filmed the entire attack and posted it to Instagram, after he felt police did not take it seriously. (adamsincerely/ Instagram)
Four people have been arrested in connection to an attack in Manchester, England, which left four queer people shaken on what would have been Manchester Pride.
In harrowing footage uploaded to social media, the 28 August attack saw a trans woman and her friends beaten after a gang of teenagers barricaded the streets on their way home from drinks.
Hurling lewd advances at her, which she politely declined, the drunk teens then “switched” and launched into a volley of punches and verbal barbs towards her and her two friends as well as a bystander, the victims told PinkNews.
Four people were arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace, according to a statement sent by the Greater Manchester Police to PinkNews.
With anti-LGBT+ hate crimes on the rise across England, one of the GMP’s top inspectors sought to reassure the public that an investigation into the incident has been launched and vowed to bring anyone who committed a criminal offence to “justice”.
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Drunk teens compliment trans woman on a night out. When she declined, they turned violent.
Walking back home, the trans woman and her two queer friends were cutting through Manchester city centre when, just less than a mile away from the city’s midtown gay village, the teens approached them.
Actor Adam Ali described how unwanted comments of how “beautiful” his trans friend was quickly turned into insults – she was called “ugly” and a “tranny”, he said – after she refused to give them a hug.
“They then turned on her, they switched,” Ali said.
What followed, the victims said, was a rash of violence in which the victims were punched, had drinks lobbed at them and anti-LGBT+ slurs hurled. A bystander, also a member of the LGBT+ community intervened in an effort to dial in the brawl.
He instead became the new target. Jack Weir had chunks of hair tugged out as he was kicked by the teens as he tried to defend the trans woman.
“I couldn’t not do anything,” Weir said. “It was clearly a transphobic assault taking place.
“Trans people get 100 times more hate as it is so my instinct was to at least get their attention off her and on to me,” he said.
“They were dragging me down by my hair and swung me against a metal bollard pretty hard.”
Reeling victims left questioning what Manchester Pride even celebrates after brutal anti-LGBT+ attack.
In a statement, local law enforcement said: “At around 11.20pm on Friday 28 August 2020, officers on a routine patrol of Manchester city centre were approached by a member of the public reporting a disturbance on Chatham Street.
“Officers attended and established that two friends were walking home from a night out when they were approached by a group of four people who verbally attacked them.
“A member of the public tried to intervene and was subsequently physically attacked. No one required hospital treatment.”
Inspector Jonathan Shilvock, of GMP’s City of Manchester district, said: “We treat reports of this kind with the utmost seriousness and do not tolerate hateful behaviour towards any of our communities.
“I would like to reassure members of the public that our investigation is ongoing and we are committed to ensuring anyone who committed a criminal offence faces justice.”
As much as none of the victims were injured, it provided cold comfort to the victims dealing with how prejudice, even in Britain, remains a harsh reality for many LGBT+ people.
Ali said: “The irony is that it was Manchester Pride weekend, how the hell do you expect to celebrate Pride and celebrate this culture, this city we live in, when it’s literally not safe for us to walk on the streets.
“Like, what are we actually celebrating?”