Oct. 17 () –
Thousands of people have demonstrated this Sunday in the center of the Slovak capital, Bratislava, against hatred of the LGBT community, after last Wednesday a young man had killed two men and injured a third person in a pub “near to the gay community.
“We will not shut up,” chanted those attending a march through the city center that ended in front of the Slovak Parliament.
“We come together on this day to show our solidarity with ‘queer’ people and say loud and clear: No to queerphobia, racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism. Above all, no to fascism in all its forms,” reads the statement from the organization that called the march.
The demonstrators have honored the memory of the two fatalities, while the speakers have called for specific demands such as the adoption of legislative changes that guarantee the Human Rights included in European and international agreements to all people with a different sexual orientation.
“Despite the pitfalls of living under the patriarchal capitalist system and the daily encounters with gender violence, we believe in the strength of the LGBTIQA community, which will never stop fighting for their rights,” the conveners express through a message on the social network Facebook.
The attack was carried out by a 19-year-old boy, identified as Juraj K, who was found dead the next day in the morning near the headquarters of the Ministry of Education, after having committed suicide, as reported by the Police.
“They found the murderer dead the next morning. What is not dead is the atrocious ideology that motivated the attack,” the associations have denounced.
The deceased were outside a pub described by the owners as a bar “close to the gay community in the center of Bratislava”. Previously, the shooter had posted several messages on social media that included homophobic hate speech with neo-Nazi overtones.
The Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova, went to the premises, where she showed her condolences to those close to her. “Hate crimes are not just an attack on some community, a minority. Hate crimes are directed at all of us, because they are directed at the basic values of our society, at humanity,” she said.
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger condemned the attack and called for “an end to hatred in society.” On the possibility of fearing for his own life, he guaranteed that he “does not care.” “I know we are living in difficult times,” he settled.
