Dr Melania Geymonat, who was one of the women attacked on the bus, told the newspaper: “When this happened, we were really angry. And we decided to tell the story, because this situation needs to change, and maybe this helps a little. For me, it was a moral obligation. Like, this needs to stop. This was a terrible episode, and maybe [if] we say something, we can contribute to something bigger.”

Chris, the other woman on the bus, also penned a powerful op-ed, writing: “A refrain I’ve heard ad nauseum is ‘I can’t believe this happened – it’s 2019’. I disagree. This attack and the ensuing media circus are par for the course in 2019. In both my native United States and here in the United Kingdom, it always has been and still is open season on the bodies of (in no specific order) people of colour, indigenous people, transgender people, disabled people, queer people, poor people, women and migrants.”

She added: “Make the extraordinary reaction to our attack the norm. I beg you to amplify and channel this energy to hold accountable the intersecting web of elected politicians, government agencies and corporations who have reinforced a status quo of clearly delineated inequality long before this single attack in 2019.”

This is the true extent of LGBTQ+ hate crime in the UK, according to a sobering report