Irish drag queens left bloodied from homophobic assaults in Cork as bystanders cheer and film
"There were hundreds of people on the street, no one intervened. Nobody tried to help," said Krystal Queer after being struck in the face by an attacker's phone
By Aaron Sugg
Irish drag queens Lucina Schynning and Krystal Queer were victims of two homophobic attacks on Sunday in a busy Cork street, where bystanders cheered and filmed.
Filming a video during Cork Jazz Festival to promote an upcoming event, the pair appeared in full drag when a man appeared from behind and aggressively kicked them both. The assault, which is being investigated by Gardaí, took place on Oliver Plunkett Street in the early hours of Sunday (26 October) morning.
After Schynning began running after the first attacker, she heard her friend scream, only to see her being assaulted a second time by a group of men who struck her around the face, leaving her bleeding at the chin.
Crowds cheered on the men who attacked the queens, choosing not to step in to help but instead to film the awful ordeal.
“We experienced two unprovoked homophobic attacks” – wrote the pair in a social media post
Taking to social media, the pair spoke about the incident from inside a venue, with Queer’s white shirt covered in blood.
The caption read: “Last night we wanted to film a silly little video to promote an upcoming event, unfortunately while we were recording we experienced two unprovoked homophobic attacks.”
They called on the public’s help to identify the attackers: “If anyone has any footage or information on the men included in the above video we would really appreciate you reaching out to us.” They concluded: “Please stay safe for the remainder of the jazz weekend & Halloween.”
“Us existing and enjoying ourselves was an invitation for people to assault us” – Lucina Schynning on the homophobic attack
Schynning said: “We weren’t in anyone’s way, we weren’t agitating anybody, we were just two drag queens having an awful lot of fun together and unfortunately us existing and enjoying ourselves was an invitation for people to assault us.”
Queer added: “The most sickening part for me was the men on the street who laughed at us and cheered. There were hundreds of people on the street, no one intervened. Nobody tried to help.”
“It’s also been a reminder as to how important what we do is. We are going to keep enjoying ourselves and being very openly queer,” Schynning concluded.
“As you can tell from the laughter, they got a lot of enjoyment from assaulting us from behind” – Krystal Queer on the new footage obtained of the attackers
In a new video posted yesterday, they thanked fans for their support and messages: “Since our last video, with all of your support, we have identified all of the attackers in the video and they have all been reported.”
They have also been supplied with additional footage from viewers, which they believe proves the incident was “incitement of a hate crime.”
Embedding the video into their update on the attack, Queer said: “As you can tell from the laughter, they got a lot of enjoyment from assaulting us from behind.”
“This is very clearly an attempt to dehumanise and degrade us as queer people” – Lucina Schynning speaking after the attack
Schynning added: “This is very clearly an attempt to dehumanise and degrade us as queer people.”
Despite the attack, they are staying positive and going ahead with their performance on Thursday night at Saints Cork in Ireland.
In protest, they encouraged followers to attend: “If you’d like to show your support, come on out this Thursday night to Saints Cork. We hope to see you there!”