Lesbian Couple Assaulted On Mexico City Metro Say Police Were ‘Insensitive’ To Complaint

A lesbian couple who were assaulted on a Mexico City metro car a week ago by a man who took issue with their public display of affection say police in the Mexican capital were "insensitive" to their complaints. According to Animal Politico, two women who chose not to give their names were sharing a kiss on the metro when a man identified as Samuel Reyes Coriat began to insult them. "Pigs. If you can't urinate or defecate in the street, you all can't be doing that here," he allegedly told them, and when the couple responded by kissing each other again, Reyes Coriat allegedly punched one of them in the back and the other in the right shoulder when she turned to confront him.

One of the women, identified simply as "S", told Animal Politico that when they pulled the emergency lever in the train, which calls the police, the officer who attended them was "polite and didn't deny us any service, but you could tell he was insensitive to the idea". S, a psychologist who leads workshops on human rights abuses and discrimination awareness, added that the officer attempted to dissuade her and her partner from filing the complaint, saying of their attacker, "He's an old guy, give him a chance. Are you all sure that you want to file the complaint? You're going to have to be here [at the police station] all day." Reyes Coriat, meanwhile, had welcomed the arrival of the police, telling the women, "Yes, call them, I'm going to denounce you all for immorality," before realizing that he was the one responsible for a crime, at which point, the site writes, he tried to resist arrest.

Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights reports that from 1998 to 2008, 696 complaints related to discrimination for sexual orientation were filed by LGBT individuals. A national survey on discrimination in Mexico in 2010 carried out by the government showed that in response to the question, "Would you be ready to allow lesbian women to live in your house?", 44.1 percent of those polled answered that they would not -- down 7.4 percent from 2005, the first year the poll was carried out -- while 41.8 percent answered that they would. "The problem is that there aren't many complaints filed for these crimes, so authorities don't really know what to do when someone comes with a discrimination crime," S told Animal Politico. "Precedents have to be set out, the problem has to be made visible so that it doesn't keep on happening."

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