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| (Photo: RNW) |
Following
the lead of the United States and Belgium, the Netherlands on Wednesday saw the
launch of the latest smartphone app: Bashing.eu. The application is intended to
provide an overview of violence against members of the LGBT community.
The app, an
initiative of the Vrienden van de Gay Krant foundation (Friends of the Gay
Newspaper), is extremely user-friendly. It takes less than a minute for a
victim to upload where, how and when what kind of violence was used against
them. The data are stored and processed to create a map of the Netherlands
showing an overview of homophobic incidents.
Henk Krol,
chair of the foundation and editor-in-chief of the Gay Krant, says that users
of the app also receive advice on what to do next.
“If
something’s happened to you, you can immediately file a report with the police
via your mobile phone. And you will receive tips on where to file a complaint.
Because each complaint is of course different. Were you bullied? Or threatened
physically? Depending on what you fill in, you get tips on what should be the
right place for you to go.”
Registration
The
Vrienden van de Gay Krant foundation works together with the Public Prosecution
Service and the national Ombudsman in order to find the most effective way of
taking action against homophobic violence. Mr Krol hopes this will lead to a
reduction in the number of incidents. All reports are also registered at
www.bashing.eu.
So far, the
results in Utrecht have been encouraging. The app was launched there at the end
of March under the name Gay Alert. According to Henk Krol there is a surge in
the number of reports each time the media pay attention to the app: “I expect
an increase in the number of reports, because they can be filed faster this
way.”
Outrage!
The Dutch
app against gay bashing is based on its Belgian counterpart, which is the brain
child of Bert Vermeire. He is a developer at a Brussels’ advertising agency who
came across a Facebook appeal launched by Belgian anti gay bashing movement
Outrage! “People were asked to come up with a strategy to create an inventory
of homophobic violence,” says Vermeire.
Recently
published figures show a substantial increase in homophobic incidents in 2010.
The number of incidents had doubled compared to 2009. Dutch LGBT interests
group COC says seven in ten homosexual men and women in the Netherlands face
homophobic violence at some point in their lives.
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