Actors in award-winning LGBT+ play 'pelted with stones in hate crime' attack

Actors in award-winning LGBT+ play 'pelted with stones in hate crime' after kissing in street

Sky News claim that one of the actors says the "cowardly attack" came from "aggressive ignorance" and happened "because we were embracing".

A stone struck one of them in the face during "aggressive ignorance from strangers to other strangers".

It led to the play they were appearing in - Rotterdam at the NST Campus theatre in Southampton - being cancelled the following day.

The actors were "hugely shaken" by what happened, a statement on the production's Twitter account said.

In a series of tweets, producers said the actors had been "assaulted on their way to work".

They added: "The assailants verbally abused them and threw stones from their car window, one of which struck an actor in the face.

According to Sky News "They have sustained only minor injuries but are hugely shaken from this cowardly, homophobic hate crime."

The unnamed actor who spoke out said: "The attack happened because we were embracing. There's no mistake that this was a homophobic hate crime.

"It was a cowardly attack as it was a moving car. Our community shouldn't have to tolerate this.

"This is why we have Pride. We should take all steps we can in the education system to help to eradicate this aggressive ignorance from strangers to other strangers."

The hate crime in Southampton follows a violent attack on a gay couple on a bus in London which occurred earlier in May 2019 (See image above) where two women were verbally attacked, before being physical attacked and punched several times.

Rotterdam is about a gay woman whose girlfriend tells her she has always identified as a man and wants to start living as one.

It is described as a "bittersweet comedy about gender, sexuality and being a long way from home", and is touring the country after a run in the West End.

After cancelling the following performances, the theatre said it was "devastated that this kind of behaviour is still so prevalent, a fact which reinforces the importance of this play's message".

LGBT+ related hate crime in Warwickshire has seen an year-on-year increase inrecent years.

EQuIP, a Warwickshire based equalities charity, support victims of hate crime and they strongly encourage anyone that experiences and/or witnesses a hate crime/incident to always report.

Victims and/or witnesses can ring 101 in a non-emergency situation, but always call 999 in an emergency. 

However, in Warwickshire, if you do not want to contact the police directly, you can report hate crimes/incidents to EQuIP online via the www.reporthatenow.com website, email advice@equipequality.org.uk or if you prefer to speak to someone in person, you can contact EQuIP on 01788 863117.