Employees of Groningen drag bar attacked; Police investigating
Several employees of drag bar Dorothy’s Drag under the Rainbow were attacked during the early hours of Sunday morning. A group of men assaulted the employees as they were closing the bar. The police are taking the incident “seriously” but have made no arrests yet, RTL Nieuws reports.
The evening before the attack was great, the bar said on Instagram. “We had an amazing Drag Show, our guests had a great night, and so did we.” The bar closed at 2:00 a.m. Employees were locking up, with some guests still outside.
“When we were locking up the bar as a team, a bunch of young guys walked past and called us several homophobic names,” the bar said. The employees tried to de-escalate the situation, telling the young men that it wasn’t okay to call them such slurs.
Things seemed to calm down, but then another man joined the group. He filmed the discussion, and when the bar’s employees asked him to stop, he became aggressive, owner Andy Wilson told RTL Nieuws. “It was very strange. Suddenly we were fighting with him for minutes. It seemed like he wanted to get everyone.”
Bystanders called the police, but the man ran off before they arrived.
“My partner now looks like a duck. His face is completely broken. My head is also bruised, and several other colleagues have injuries, including a concussion.”
Wilson does not know whether the man attacked them because of their sexual orientation. But: “Without the group of guys shouting homophobic slurs at us, this would not have happened. And that’s bad enough.”
The police confirmed the incident to the broadcaster. “We spoke to the victims and were able to record a description of the suspect. We have not been able to arrest anyone yet,” a police spokesperson said.