Homophobic abuse mars West London Queer Project social event in Chiswick

Image: People enjoying a drink outside My Place Chiswick

“Our community is feeling very vulnerable at the moment”

Members of the West London Queer Project were shouted at and abused by two young men on bikes on Friday night outside My Place Chiswick.

The group, which organises social events for the LGBTQ community, hold popular weekly Friday night socials at the bar-restaurant and there were about 40 of their members outside on the pavement when the incident happened.

The two young men stopped and picked on a group of three people – two gay men and a trans woman, calling the men ‘batty boys’ and making comments about ‘a man in a dress’. They rode off when other people noticed and some of the bigger guys came over.

“We called the police, but they didn’t come,” WLQP organiser Aubrey Crawley told The Chiswick Calendar. “They took details and they said they would come but it might take a while, but they didn’t come.”

The three who were abused, who felt doubly vulnerable, said Aubrey, as they happened also to be refugees, left shortly after with another WLQP member who walked them to the tube station.

“They were terrified and shaken,” said Aubrey.

He called the police again about an hour later when a man who had an altercation with the barman was behaving threateningly, but again they did not come.

“We’re quite close to the police,” he said, “and I know if they had the resources they would come, they are just under resourced after years of cuts.”

Asked whether he felt Chiswick was a safe place, he said:

“I am trying to create safe spaces for our community. I’m at George IV now and see lots of tables of gay people perfectly comfortable in a straight pub. Chiswick has felt like a safe place but what happened on Friday is very concerning.”

Aubrey’s friend Brian Constance, a fellow South African, died of a heart attack after collapsing on Turnham Green in January. At the time police said his death was ‘unexplained’ but two people were arrested on the night and his wallet and phone were stolen.

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That and “the current political climate” were unsettling, he said.

“Our community is feeling very vulnerable at the moment.”

The Chiswick Calendar has asked the Metropolitan Police for a comment.