Rome's Gay Village has experienced
a series of petty theft, assaults and beatings that may have
been part of a series of targeted attacks on the gay community,
community representatives said Friday.
Fabrizio Marrazzo, Gay Center spokesperson, said that
recent robberies and aggressions occurring near Rome's Gay
Village summer entertainment center were possibly deliberate
attacks on the gay community and asked the city to take action.
"It seems strange that they would beat up a bunch of people
who did not resist and were all gay just to steal a cellphone",
Marrazzo said referring to one attack.
"We are facing, in all probability, groups of criminals who
target places frequented by gay men. It is necessary that more
vigilance is put in place".
Gay Center reported two July attacks in which two men were
beat up and robbed by three assailants in the EUR neighborhood
near Gay Village, saying more may have been unreported as
"lesbian and gay people who have not come out avoid filing
complaints for fear that their families will be informed, thus
making them the ideal victims".
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