TV star Rylan Clark-Neal has hit out at a homophobe who abused him on a busy London street.
Out TV presenter, Rylan has revealed that he was homophobically abused today in central London when someone shouted an anti-gay slur at him on a street, a block away from the world famous head quarters of the BBC. Rylan says he abused on Great Porland street, when an unnamed assailant shouted a homophobic slur at the star.
Taking to Twitter the former X Factor / Celebrity Big Brother star wrote that someone shouted at him to “fuck off” and called him the anti-gay slur “faggot”. However, Rylan alleges that as soon as he shouted back at his abuser, the abuser “ran away”. Rylan joked that the abuser ran like Phoebe from the hit 90’s sitcom, Friends.
To the prick on Great Portland Street that just shouted “Fuck Off You Faggot” at me. When I shouted you what at you and you run away…. you run like phoebe in friends… pic.twitter.com/kw9nJPFJNN
— Rylan Clark-Neal (@Rylan) January 10, 2019
Hundreds of fans reached out to Rylan to wish him well after his ordeal – while the British LGBT Awards noted that “The Phoebe run is probably his only redeeming feature”.
Homophobic crime is on the rise the UK’s capital. In 2017 there were, on average around 6 anti-LGBT offences being recorded every day on London’s streets, a 9.63% increase year on year. In total, 2037 crimes were reported for the year 2016/17 compared to 1861 crimes in 2015 /16 and 1559 in 2014/15.
However, the Metropolitan Police service was keen to point out that the crime rates were lower than five years ago and these current statistics are set against the gruelling austerity measures and “significant reductions in resources” set out by this current government.