The PCP communist party is at the centre of a hugely embarrassing row over allegations of gay-bashing at the traditional “Festa do Avante” three-day rally which went ahead in Seixal last weekend.
PSP police have received at least six complaints by men attending the rally who claim they were victims of violence meted out by bully-boy security guards.
According to Expresso, the guards bundled the men into buses and drove them to isolated woods where they set about beating them.
But the PCP refutes the story – citing the reason the party came to a shambolic end was “an act of oral sex in a public space”.
Intriguingly, none of the newspapers giving the PCP’s side of the story elaborated as to whether the oral sex was between homo- or heterosexuals.
The story would seem to suggest the former, as it has ignited Opus Gay – the country’s equivalent of the Gay Pride movement – which is demanding an apology.
“This is not good for their election campaign,” Opus Gay’s president António Serzedelo told reporters.
“It is lamentable that in this day and age there should be aggressions motivated for these reasons. Many members of the communist party are still conservative and prejudiced,” he added.
“They have difficulty adhering to the modern way of life.”
The PCP claims Expresso’s story is “a repeated campaign of defamation and insults”, however.
The affirmation that guards moved in “because two people of the same sex were kissing, is so false as to be ridiculous”. The truth, said a statement, was that there had been an act of oral sex, in full view of party-goers.
Whether this is confirmed by investigators has yet to be seen.
For now, both the PJ and PSP are investigating “claims of aggression, kidnapping and robberies made by security guards” at the event, writes Expresso – the worst perhaps being the criminal action lodged by a 34-year-old Spanish ‘activist’ whose story hinges on “three men in dark uniforms” bundling him into a van at 3am after allegedly finding him kissing a younger man.
Miguel S has told reporters he was told what he was doing was “prohibited”. “Is there a law in Portugal that prohibits love,” he challenged.
As Serzedelo remarked afterwards, the stories coming out of this year’s communist get-together would appear to show “crimes motivated by homophobic hatred”.
