Two young men were convicted for the crime of violence against a member of a community for attacking and spitting at two gay Brazilian students studying in Budapest on April 21, 2014.

Levi and Lucas were studying in Hungary for a year on a Brazilian state scholarship. On April 21, 2014 they were heading home with a friend after a movie night, when two men stopped them and started questioning them on their sexual orientation and whether they had slept with women before. The victims tried to get out of the situation, but their attackers stood in the way, kicked one of them, spat at the other, while calling them “faggot” several times.

“The case calls attention to how false the popular misconception is that homophobic and transphobic hate crimes happen only at the Pride March in Hungary” - says Tamás Dombos of the Legal Aid Service of Háttér. “For many LGBTQI people such attacks are part of their everyday life, and yet they do not report it, because they have no trust in the police or are afraid of them. It is very import to report all such incidents, that is why we launched our Report homophobia! website and smartphone app.” Read more via Hatter Society