UoB Medical Student Threatened at Pride

A third-year medical student at the University of Birmingham has posted a video on social media claiming he was the victim of a hate-crime at this year’s Birmingham Pride, which took place from the 24th-25th of September.

At 3:30pm on Saturday September 24th, Raphael Kohn, a third-year medical student at the University of Birmingham, says he was the victim of a hate-crime. Raphael posted a clip showing part of the incident on social media where the man insults him. However, Raphael said that before the video was taken the man was threatening to punch him. This behaviour continued until bystanders intervened and ‘formed a barrier’ between the two, with one person calling the police.

Raphael said that before the video was taken the man was threatening to punch him

The festival marked the 25th anniversary of Birmingham Pride, with the first official Pride event in Birmingham taking place in 1997. The Birmingham Pride website wrote that this year marked ‘25 years of pride and protest’. They cite their aim as ‘to play a leading role in building a community where all people are free to live without fear or prejudice.’ The annual celebration is one of the largest LGBTQ+ festivals in the UK, with over 75,000 participating in or watching the annual pride parade through the streets of Birmingham.

Raphael said the incident took place whilst he was waiting at the bus stop, stating: ‘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.’ Raphael described the man as ‘really aggressive’ and pointed out that this all happened ‘in broad daylight.’ He said that ‘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.’

Raphael was critical of the police’s response to the situation, he said that whilst originally told that the police ‘were close by’ they did not arrive promptly, and after their arrival rather than taking the video Raphael provided, they ‘just took a photo of the guy’ from his phone.

Redbrick spoke to Raphael about the incident and he said: ‘I guess I’m worried that Birmingham isn’t a safe place to be queer in. I guess I’ve generally felt reasonably safe in Birmingham as a queer person. But now, I worry that isn’t the case. I’m hugely disappointed with the police, they were so close to the location yet it took ages for them to arrive, and their officers were fairly dismissive and uninterested. I’ve given them tonnes of information but they just don’t seem to care. At this point I doubt they’ll put much effort in to this, they’ll just tell me they can’t find him and close the case.

‘I worry the police just don’t care enough. And if so – who’s here to protect queer people in these situations? It’s literally the police’s job to protect us, and it just feels like they have no interest in doing so.’

Raphael has said that ‘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’

‘I guess I’m worried that Birmingham isn’t a safe place to be queer in’

Redbrick reached out to West Midlands police for comment, who said: ‘We will never accept or tolerate attacks on anyone simply for being who they are. An investigation was carried out, however there was insufficient evidence to progress further.

‘It is with regret that we have had to make the difficult decision to close our investigation, unless new evidence becomes available.’

Raphael told us that he was not aware of the investigation closing until Redbrick informed him. He said they told him they called ‘3 times on Sunday’. However, Raphael said his call log ‘is empty’ from that day apart from a call he made.