Liverpool attacks: ‘Things must change or LGBT people won’t feel safe’

“It’s 2021, things are supposed to be better for us now,” says 19-year-old Josh Ormrod. Josh is a music student from Buxton, living in Liverpool, and he’s bisexual. In the early hours of 17 June, he was beaten up outside a bar in the city. The photos he shared of his injuries, posted on Instagram a day later, have been liked more than 350,000 times. “This isn’t about me. I wasn’t sharing it for my own gain,” he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. “I was sharing it so that other people are made aware of what’s happening to our community, and so that our community knows to be more careful than they usually would have to be. “It is personal in a way, but it’s also completely the opposite.” Josh says CCTV footage from the night shows him exchange words with a man on the street, who then turns around and attacks him. He says his attacker called him a homophobic slur. “A 26-year-old man from Bolton was arrested on suspicion of Section 47 assault,” says a statement from Merseyside Police.

”He has since been released under investigation pending further enquiries.” But it’s not just Josh. He’s one of several young LGBT men who’ve been attacked in Liverpool in the past month.