Tue 26 Aug 2014 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Steven Mawhinney took this picture afterwards. He says the damage is superficial and could have been a lot worse. A staff member at Wellington’s Ivy Bar says he suffered violence at the hands of a group of men who didn’t realise they’d walked into a gay bar, and it was “the worst thing I have seen in my life”. Bar manager Steven Mawhinney says the men came into the Cuba St venue on Friday night “not realising what sort of bar it was” and “once they realised what it was they took great offence and all the nasty homophobic slurs came out that you could imagine”. He says he initially managed to get them to leave, but they came back. “A couple of minutes later I heard a large bang in the entranceway, so I ran out the front to front a couple of customers on the stairwell. Apparently they’d thrown one of their alcohol cans at the heads at these customers as they’d walked into the bar.” Mawhinney says they were abusing customers in front of the bar so he went and asked them to go away. “I told them I was going to have to call in the cops and they just continued throwing slurs and that at the customers. The customers were obviously a bit vocal back to them, not willing to take it, which is fair enough. But unfortunately that was enough for one of them to be provoked and he went to go at one of the customers,” he says. “So I dropped my shoulder into him to push him out of the bar and his mate came along and started belting me in the head a few times, then the big fulla got a few whacks in too. It happened quite quickly. I got seven to eight good belts to the head.” People at the bar eventually managed to drive them off. Mawhinney says he suffered cuts and bruises and has a sore and tender head, and had to go to the hospital for observation, “but nothing major, nothing substantial. All superficial luckily. It could have been a lot worse.” Mawhinney says people have walked into the bar before not realising it was a gay venue, and just walked out again. “To be honest, I’m 30 now and I’ve been out since I was 17. This is the worst thing I have seen in my life. The hatred. That’s the only way I could describe the way these guys were. They had pure hatred for anyone that they presumed to be gay.” A gathering has been organised at Ivy on Friday night by the team behind community event Out in the Park. It’s a chance for people to show their support for Mawhinney and stand in solidarity against homophobia and violence “to human beings in general”. Details here UPDATE: One person has been charged with assault, police say investigation is continuing.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 26th August 2014 - 2:36pm