A student was subjected to a 'terrifying' hate crime at a Birmingham Pride event.
Raphael Kohn was verbally abused and threatened on his route home from the parade, and said the incident was a reminder of why the LGBTQ+ community still needed such occasions.
In a clip posted on social media, a man can be heard hurling homophobic insults and threatening to punch him before bystanders intervened.
BirminghamLive reported the altercation happened at a bus stop on St Martins Queensway at around 3.30pm on Saturday.
But 20-year-old Raphael is determined not to let the incident ruin his Pride experience and vowed to return next year ‘even gayer and with more glitter.’
West Midlands Police is aware of the incident and is investigating.
Raphael said: "I was at the bus stop waiting to go home and this guy came up to me angry there were no buses. He seemed pretty drunk and raised his hands like he was about to punch me."
“He was really aggressive and was shouting homophobic slurs at me. It was terrifying, my heart was going a million miles an hour.
“This happened in broad daylight. I remember he had the word ‘hate’ tattooed on the fingers of his left hand.”
“I had two options at that moment - I could either run away or stick it out and not succumb to the homophobic pressure.
"I went with the second option - which was probably the stupid option in hindsight - but luckily I’m physically unharmed.
“Even so, I get nervous just thinking about it. It makes me worry that Birmingham isn’t a safe place to be queer in.”
While Raphael was shaken by the incident, he praised the brave bystanders who confronted the perpetrator and called the police.
Raphael criticised the ‘dismissive’ attitude of the police officers who came to deal with the incident.
He said: “Luckily for me, and this was so amazing, other people waiting at the bus stop stood up for me and got in the way.
“They didn’t stand there and let this happen to an easy target - they formed a barrier between me and him.”
“One of the bystanders called the police and was told they were close by - but the two police officers took an age to arrive and by the time they’d got there he had already gone.
"I gave them the details but they just took a photo of the guy from my phone and didn't want the video itself - it felt kind of dismissive, like they didn’t care.”
In spite of the shocking incident, a defiant Raphael vowed to not let hate win and to return to Pride ‘even gayer and with more glitter’ next year.
He said what happened to him was a perfect example of why the theme of protest would always remain at the heart of the event.
“I won’t let him ruin my Pride. Pride is about saying no to these types of people, it’s about saying we will be proud of who we are despite them.
“So next year, I will be going back to Pride and I’ll be even gayer, I’ll wear more glitter and I won’t allow people like him to get in my way.
"This year's theme was 25 years of Pride and protest, and it’s both of those things.
“Pride is about celebration - the dancing, the colour and the fun.
"But it’s also about the protest and people like him show us why it needs to stay that way, don’t anyone dare tell me we don’t need Pride anymore.”
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “We are investigating a hate crime, after a man was verbally abused during the Pride celebrations on Saturday, September 24.
“We will never accept or tolerate attacks on anyone simply for being who they are.
"Anyone with further information, can contact us via Live Chat on our website quoting 20/828812/22.”
