"I ran towards a pita shop, but someone tripped me," he says, sitting at the kitchen table of his Brussels apartment. "Three to four guys punched me in the face and another smashed me over the head with a wooden chair. As I fell into the shop, they kicked me."
With the police on their way, Bart's attackers ran off. Doctors said Bart was lucky to have passed a brain scan. "They had total hate for me. We weren't doing anything, but they wanted to kill me." As word spread of Bart's ordeal, the outrage was palpable. The attack received prominent coverage in the press, whilst Brussels' gay community staged impromptu debates and a kiss-in on Grand Place in protest of what was described as a surge in homophobic violence.
The claim was taken up by several politicians, with Pascal Smet, Flemish minister for Brussels, going so far as to denounce the "new Belgians" who were going about like "vice squads." These accusations may come as a surprise in a country that has been one of the first to legalize gay marriage and adoption and whose capital city has recently been rebranded as a top destination for gay city-breakers.
"Low-level violence and discrimination persists," says Michel Duponcelle, director of Tels Quels, a Belgian gay rights organisation and credited as the father of the law on gay marriage. "But in broad terms, you can't deny that the situation in Belgium has got better."
The figures would seem to bear up this position. In 2010, the Centre for Equal Opportunities opened 85 files for homophobic incidents in Belgium, with only four homophobia-related public prosecutions launched that year nationwide.
Yet start to scratch below the surface and it quickly becomes evident not only that these figures are implausibly low, but also that Bart's experience is part of a range of homophobic incidents occurring, in the main, after nightfall in the centre of Brussels.
The Centre for Equal Opportunities is itself quick to flag up the shortcomings in its figures. Obtaining accurate figures for homophobic hate crimes is a challenge, whether in Brussels or elsewhere. A number of factors explain this under-reporting: a sense of shame at being a victim; an unwillingness to come out in public; a lack of sympathy on behalf of the police; a lack of faith in the likelihood of prosecution; or a resignation that such homophobia is inevitable.
Indeed, the leading report on homophobic crime in Brussels, published in 2007, estimated that only one out of every three incidents of homophobic violence was reported. This figure falls to one complaint for every 12 incidents where homophobic threats are made. The report also estimated that one in 10 gay people living in Brussels had been a victim of homophobic violence.
This alarming and silent undercurrent of violence is confirmed by those active on the nightlife scene. Stéphane Abraham, owner of a long-standing popular gay bar, confirms that hostility has increased over the last few years. He has been obliged to take on a bouncer in order to keep troublemakers out of his establishment and tells of clients being robbed, assaulted and even kidnapped because they are gay.
Other local bar owners in the Sint-Jacob neighbourhood, Brussels' gay quarter, were ready to confirm the threatening climate, citing violence, acts of vandalism and the routine verbal abuse to which their clients are subjected by passersby.
"With the law on marriage and adoption, the gay scene has become more visible. We no longer need to hide inside," says Abraham. "Bars have opened their doors and clients spill out onto the streets, something that would never have happened before. But it has led to more tension."
A number of other factors can reasonably be said to add fuel to the fire. The Sint-Jacob neighbourhood is beautifully located in the historic quarter, but is surrounded by some of the city's more destitute areas. The police in the centre of Brussels are overstretched and there is little in the way of surveillance.
Indeed, an instructive comparison can be drawn from Brussels and other European cities. Both Stockholm and London have campaigned vigorously to encourage the reporting of homophobic crimes and have established special units trained to deal with hate crimes. Figures suggest their police forces are doing a better job investigating and are more willing to push for prosecution.
For example, in 2008 Swedish police opened 367 homophobic crime case-files, most of these occurring in Stockholm. These led to 28 prosecutions for homophobic crimes being launched. In London, over a thousand complaints led to a total of 139 such prosecutions being brought in 2008. Yet in Belgium, two years later, prosecutors opened only a total of four such cases, one of which was in Brussels.
But attitudes may be changing. In May 2011, the Brussels region, in conjunction with the police and community groups, launched a campaign, urging the victims of homophobic crimes to come forward.
The campaign, using posters, flyers and an exhibition of street art, is very visible both across the Sint-Jacob neighbourhood and in police stations. Indeed, the Centre for Equal Opportunities claims that as a result of this campaign, called hatecrime.be, and of another campaign - Signalez-le! - five more victims have come forward to file complaints in recent weeks.
Furthermore, the Brussels region, in conjunction with the Centre for Equal Opportunities, has been training police officers to deal with such complaints. Officers are advised on how to receive a gay victim and how to detect the signs of homophobic violence where these not explicitly mentioned in the initial complaint.
These initiatives have been pushed through by Bruno de Lille, Brussels' secretary of state for equal opportunities. He points out that the Region's competences do not include police or prosecution policy, but does believe that the new initiatives will have a positive and real effect on the fight against homophobic violence.
"It's important to show victims that it's in their interest to file a complaint," he says. "Without complaints the police cannot make the issue a priority."
The same principle applies for increasing the number and proportion of cases that make it to court. "We want to create an attitude in society that these things are unacceptable," says de Lille.
He cites, as a good example of this, federal minister of justice Stefaan de Clerck's recent instructions to prosecutors that they should be tougher on homophobic crimes.
Brussels' complex governance structures would indeed appear to make strong co-ordinated action, of the like seen in London or Stockholm, difficult.
Nevertheless, the measures in place, coupled with the indignation and participation of the gay community, should go some way to ensuring that tourists attracted by Brussels' celebrated gay nightlife are not treated to the sight of gratuitous homophobic abuse being hurled in the streets - and, sometimes, much worse.
Flanders Today is a 
11°C / 26°C
