Gregory Gaige recorded a group of boys shouting homophobic slurs at him because he displayed an LGBT+ Pride flag in the window of his London flat. (MyLondon)
A man was subjected to vile homophobic abuse from a group of boys who saw a Pride flag in the window of his London flat.
Gregory Gaige told MyLondon that he was proudly flying a rainbow flag from the balcony of his flat which overlooks Ilford station in London. He said he had his window open Tuesday (8 June) because it was a “hot day”, and he was “working from inside my flat”.
At some point in the day, he said he heard a commotion from outside. Gaige went to his window and saw a group of boys at the station screaming and shouting homophobic slurs after seeing the Pride flag in his window.
“They were shouting things like, ‘F**k LGBT, f**k the gay‘ – stupid, silly stuff really,” Gaige said.
He told MyLondon that he was so “shocked” at what he heard that he decided to record the group, which he provided to the news outlet. Gaige said he reported the incident as a hate crime to the police as soon as he could.
“Usually people say to ignore it, but if you don’t report it, then at the end of the year when the police say hate crime is going down, it’s because people aren’t reporting these instances,” Gaige said. “If they’re showing out f**k LGBT, then that’s a hate crime so I had to report it.”
He told MyLondon that he hopes the police will be able to locate the boys involved in the homophobic incident and will name and shame them. Gaige said: “That will teach them a lesson.”
He added that he moved to Ilford in 2019 from Chingford, a town in east London. Gaige said Ilford is “not as accepting” of the LGBT+ community as compared to where he used to live and that there is a “lot of crime here in this area”. But he told MyLondon that he doesn’t “ever really feel unsafe” in the area because he doesn’t “pay too much attention to what’s around” him.