Two men were brutally attacked by a homophobic mob while walking hand in hand in Rome on New Year’s Eve.

The couple – Stephano and Matteo – was reportedly attacked around 1 a.m. in the city’s Malatesta area, after which they had to walk to the nearest hospital because no ambulances were available.

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“I managed to defend myself somehow, but I was attacked by 10 people in such a way that other boys wouldn’t have survived,” one of the victims told Italian LGBTQ+ media group Gaynet, according to a Google translation.

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“We have reported it and want our story to be an example. We want all of this to end; holding hands or exchanging a romantic look should be a normal gesture for everyone. We want to react to fear because living in fear of being yourself is not living.”

Gaynet president Roasrio Coco said the incident is “the result of all those equality laws that are still missing, as Italy ranks a shameful 36th place on LGBTQIA+ equality in Ilga Europe’s Rainbow Map, as well as the worst parliamentary majority on civil rights that Italy remembers, from the disaster in family planning centers to the persecution of rainbow families and trans people.”

“Solidarity is no longer enough,” Coco added, “and it’s never too late to admit having been wrong, or not having done enough.”

Italy’s conservative government has spent years stirring up homophobic hatred in the nation. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party and Italy’s first woman prime minister, was elected in late 2022 after making anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric a cornerstone of her campaign, opposing adoption by same-sex couples as well as marriage equality. She has called civil unions “good enough” for LGBTQ+ couples.

The government has also been cracking down on the rights of LGBTQ+ parents and has begun stripping those who are not genetically related of their legal rights. 

In October, the Italian Senate pushed forward the West’s most restrictive ban on international surrogacy, making it a crime punishable by prison time for Italians to use surrogates in another country. The move closed the door on same-sex couples’ last, best option to start a family in the country (Meloni had already banned both surrogacy and domestic or international adoption by same-sex couples in Italy).

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