Last week, Guilherme Rodrigues, 23, was the victim of homophobic aggression in the Avenida Paulista region, in São Paulo. At the police station, Guilherme tried to file a police report, which was not allowed, as there is no classification for crimes motivated by homophobia.
Furthermore, Guilherme says that he was threatened by the attackers in front of the police and that they did nothing to contain the criminals' threats. Guilherme is an activist for the PSTU (Unified Socialist Workers' Party) and, this Monday, he led a protest, accompanied by his party colleagues, in front of the 4th DP, where he was attended to on the night of the attack.
The demonstration brought together around 100 people. The idea was also to submit the Criminal Investigation exam, which proved that Guilherme was attacked. The report of The Cape he was present at the protest and watched the moment when, accompanied by witnesses, Guilherme handed over the exam. In addition to the police report opened at the police station, the victim also opened a case at DECRADI (Racial Crimes and Intolerance Offenses Station).
Below, you can check out an exclusive interview that Guilherme gave to the website during the demonstration. In the report, he reported that he felt unprotected due to the PM's conduct and that the demonstration carried out by him and the PSTU does not concern exclusively his case, but all those who have already suffered homophobic attacks and did not have the courage to report it.
Finally, Guilherme declared that he hopes, based on his attitude, that the next people who suffer homophobic attacks will report their cases to the police. "We can't let these fascists push us back into the closet with punches and kicks," he protested.
What is your objective with this act today?
Our goal is to say that this is not just my problem, as there are many people who are attacked and do not have the courage to report it. We also want to demand the approval of PLC 122, which criminalizes homophobia. I didn't have that right [to record the aggression] because homophobia is not yet a crime. So, with this act today we want to give a voice to all those who were attacked.
When you went to file a police report and the Military Police refused to register it as homophobia, what were your feelings at the time?
It was a mix of indignation, anger, you know that feeling: 'what do you mean?'. That's how I felt when the clerk said to my face that homophobia 'doesn't exist'. And I reacted: 'com doesn't exist? I was attacked for homophobia'. This shows that we are exposed and have nothing to do.
When the attackers threatened you, what was the reaction of the police officers who were with you?
They threatened me on two occasions: first, in front of the police waiting for the police car, and the police did nothing, until I said 'you're such an idiot that you're threatening me in front of the police. I'm going to use this against you.' At the police station, they threatened me without the police seeing them and continued with a hostile stance the entire time. The police did nothing and wanted me to stay in the same place as them. The police sent me away along with them [attackers] to leave, without any protection. Imagine me leaving with the attackers without any protection?
And how did you leave? Alone?
No. I waited for them to leave and called a friend. The police didn't want to take me home. My friend came to pick me up in a taxi, before he looked around the police station to see if they [attackers] were still there. But I want to point out that I left with a friend and no one guaranteed anything.
Were the guys who attacked you skinheads?
After we went to DECRADI, it became clear that they are not necessarily skinheads. We characterize them as homophobic and fascist vandals. We abandoned the idea of skinheads because there are people from RASH [a skinhead group that calls itself non-homophobic and is left-wing], who are partners and were at the March against Homophobia on Avenida Paulista. We want to make it clear that this is a neo-fascist homophobic bunch.
