Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Reacts With “Anger And Repugnance” To Anti-LGBTQ Attack In Town Square [Video]

deadline.com:

Greece’s Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival is reacting with shock to an incident Saturday night in which two LGBTQ people were attacked by a huge crowd in a square outside one of the festival’s main screening venues.

According to local news reports and videos posted to YouTube, a crowd of youths numbering between 150 to 300 began shouting abuse at two 21-year-old self-identified nonbinary people, then hurled bottles at them and chased the pair into a nearby restaurant. “The mob continued to harass them, banging at the window of the restaurant,” one news site reported, “urging the staff to send them out.

The harassment continued even when police arrived at the scene.” The incident took place around 10:30 p.m. in Aristotelous Square, where the historic Olympion cinema is located – the largest screening venue for the documentary festival.

The victims can be spotted briefly at the end of the video below: One of the victims told newsit.gr they were visiting from Athens when they were set upon by the crowd. “Out of nowhere, many groups started approaching us, whistling, cursing us,” one of the targets of the attack said. “I was personally spat on, one pulled my jacket, they pushed us, they threw bottles at us.” The violent outburst, though not connected with TiDF per se, takes place as this year’s festival recognizes the LGBTQ experience and nonfiction cinema devoted to documenting the community, with a special section it is calling Citizen Queer. “The news of the attack against two trans people, which took place on Saturday night at Aristotelous Square, filled us with anger and repugnance,” TiDF said in a statement shared with Deadline. “The Festival unreservedly and explicitly condemns any act of homophobic