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Individuals journey nicely over an hour, typically by automobile or practice, simply to see the face of George Waterfield, 30.
Along with his enterprise accomplice, Darren Cunningham, 33, George runs Leicester’s first brazenly queer hair salon, The Secret Backyard.
For years, the pair have hung LGBTQ+ Delight flags outdoors their enterprise alongside Avenue Highway Extension, within the Clarendon Park neighbourhood.
It’s a small act, George advised Metro, that reveals that the gender-neutral salon is a refuge for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
However these flags have been ripped down six instances within the final two years and thrice up to now 4 months, George stated.
A flag was torn from a flagpole above the doorway in Might, a trans Delight flag was broken in August and a rainbow flag was stolen on Sunday.
CCTV footage shared with Metro reveals that, simply after 11.20am, a person cycled in the direction of Secret Backyard and climbed up the wall to seize the flag.
The person, dressed all in black together with his face coated, threw the flag to the bottom and cycled over it earlier than fleeing the scene, the surveillance video confirmed.
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Even the flagpole had been snapped off the storefront.
‘For the salon to get vandalised and to get hate crimes like this, it’s completely disgusting,’ George stated.
‘I gained’t stand for it. I gained’t stand for it in any respect.’
George solely discovered concerning the incident after a passerby took pictures and despatched them to him on social media.
George, who appeared on ITV2 courting present The Cabins in 2021, added: ‘These incidents have made me really feel fairly weak.
‘To be an brazenly homosexual man who owns a queer enterprise that helps the neighborhood and to really feel personally focused, I feel it’s disgusting.’
What unnerved George essentially the most was that this occurred in the course of the day in entrance of bystanders.
‘I don’t know what this particular person appears to be like like, I may very well be slicing his hair subsequent week. What’s to cease him from strolling into the salon and doing one thing?’ he stated.
From 2011 to 2015, the UK was thought of the most secure place in Europe to be LGBTQ+, in keeping with an annual rating generally known as the Rainbow Map.
This 12 months, the UK was ranked twenty second out of 49 nations, a fall that campaigners say is all the way down to the decline of trans rights and growing anti-LGBTQ+ violence.
Homophobic hate crimes have elevated by 462% since 2012. Transphobic violence and abuse, in the meantime, has swollen from 310 reviews recorded in 2012 to 4,732 final 12 months, a rise of 1426%.
Galop, an anti-LGBTQ+ violence charity, has seen the switchboard for its helplines mild up in recent times by queer callers saying they’ve suffered abuse, its interim CEO, Ben Kernighan, advised Metro.
‘We’ve additionally seen a wider development of perpetrators feeling more and more emboldened of their abuse of our neighborhood – even utilizing these dangerous media narratives to justify their abuse,’ he added.
‘Hate-motivated assaults ought to by no means occur, not to mention be inspired. Extra must be achieved to indicate the LGBTQ+ neighborhood that these crimes are being taken significantly.’
This may make flying a rainbow flag all of the extra highly effective, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall advised Metro.
‘The Delight flag is considered one of many symbols of id and inclusion and helps LGBTQ+ folks really feel included in society,’ they stated.
‘Proper now, the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, notably trans folks, are feeling deeply apprehensive, unsure and more and more remoted as we face a rollback of LGBTQ+ rights, so this visibility is required greater than ever.’
George is aware of how highly effective the Delight flag, which has been carried, flown and draped over the shoulders of numerous activists for many years, will be.
‘We’ll fly one other Delight flag,’ he stated. ‘Completely.’
An investigation into the incidents has been launched, Leicestershire Police confirmed to Metro.
They added: ‘I can affirm that we’ve obtained a report relating to 2 incidents of theft and legal injury. The incidents passed off at a premise in Avenue Highway Extension, Leicester.
‘Someday between August 23 and 24, a flagpole displaying a trans flag was broken, and on September 14, somebody took a LGBTQ+ flag down.
‘The reviews are being investigated as a hate crime. If anybody has any data which can assist with our enquiries, they’re requested to get in contact.’
Get in contact with our information group by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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