In Russia, Five Men Film And Share Brutal Attack On Trans Woman In Broad Daylight

A video has appeared on VK.com, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, of a gang of five men brutally attacking a trans woman in a park in the middle of the day.

The video was posted by the group Straights for Equality, which purports to advocate for LGBT rights. According to PinkNews, the intention of the video was to highlight the persecution of LGBT people in Russia.

The unidentified trans woman is referred to as a “homosexual” in the video’s title and she is subsequently kicked about the head and body, thrown around the park and stripped of her clothes while one of the thugs films it. She manages to escape but not before her attackers tear her underwear.

You can watch the video here, but please be warned it’s incredibly sickening and disturbing.

The woman may have been another victim of Russian skinheads who have been luring mostly gay male teens through VK.com for alleged hookups, only to kidnap, bully, humiliate and harass them. Some victims have reportedly died or committed suicide as a result of their attacks.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities turn a blind eye to this sort of abuse, which is why the attack on the trans woman was in such a public place in the middle of the day. To the police, these skinheads are doing a service to the community by targeting “pedophiles.”

Reports of this sort of violence only add fuel to the fire of outrage focused on Russia with the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year, where the safety of athletes and spectators attending the Games has come under increased scrutiny.

Though Russian lawmakers have tried to reassure the international community that its odious anti-gay law will not affect anyone as long as they follow the rules — no propaganda of “non-traditional sexual relations” around children — this kind of systematic homophobic and transphobic violence speaks to the climate of intolerance in Russia better than any statement or press release ever could.