Morgan Fevre was viscously attacked by someone for wearing a sequinned jacket. (GoFundMe/Paul Fevre)
A gay man who moved to Manchester, England, for its “inclusiveness” was left for dead in a vicious assault.
Morgan Fevre, a 22-year-old support worker, suffered a bleed on the brain, three broken teeth and multiple breaks to his nose, cheekbone and eye socket after the 10 April attack.
He had been out with friends in the early hours when a man allegedly asked Morgan why he was wearing a “girl’s jacket” before calling him a “f***ing f*g”.
His father, Paul Fevre, told the PA News agency: “That’s the last thing he remembers. In 2022, that people are called these names and these things happen to them – it is absolutely horrendous.”
Rushing from their home in the small market town of Retford, Nottinghamshire, Paul and mother Dawn were shocked to see their son lying in a Salford Royal hospital bed.
“When we saw Morgan laid there it was absolutely heartbreaking – tubes everywhere, wires everywhere,” Paul recalled.
“And then when Morgan saw us, he started crying. The first thing he did is say, ‘I’ve obviously done something wrong for this to happen’, instantly blaming himself and apologising that we’ve had to come and drive to Manchester and things like that.
“And that’s probably what hurt the most, in all fairness, that the first thing that ran through his mind is he deserved those kinds of injuries.”
Morgan had been out on 9 April with his partner, Elliot Lyte, who left early. While he has no memory of the attack, his assailant targeted him for the sequinned jacket he was wearing in Chinatown at 1:35am, Paul alleged.
He was taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary at around 2:15am. More than 40 staples were used by doctors following Morgan’s emergency craniotomy.
Paul has launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help cover living costs as he is unable to work after the incident. Morgan remains paralysed by the attack, fearful that his job supporting adults with learning disabilities could place him in “possible volatile situations”, Paul added.
He explained that Morgan moved from Retford to Manchester last year, seeing the city almost as a beacon for LGBT+ people.
“He chose Manchester because of its inclusiveness but is now fearful of ever going out again,” Paul explained. “He’s definitely suffering with PTSD.”
Greater Manchester Police said in a statement: “It is believed the male victim was punched by another man and required hospital treatment for face and head injuries.
“The incident is being treated as a homophobically aggravated assault and is being investigated by GMP’s City of Manchester =Criminal Investigation Department].”
Manchester, where around 25,000 to 35,000 residents are queer, is often considered to be one of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the country.
But there has been a steady thrum of anti-LGBT+ attacks in the city in recent years, from nightclub bouncers brutally beating a gay man to another branded a “faggot” and knocked out, leaving him with permanent scarring.
Manchester is no outlier in this. The LGBT+ community across Britain has been racked by anxiety in recent years over an increase in anti-LGBT+ attacks. And the wave of violence shows no signs of ceasing anytime soon, with figures climbing year on year.
Nearly 20,000 crimes motivated by hatred for someone’s sexual orientation were recorded between 2020 and 2021, according to police data. This comes amid a 210 per cent rise in anti-LGBT+ hate crimes from 2014 to 2021.
Yet the true tally is likely to be even higher, considering that nine in 10 LGBT+ victims do not report hate crimes to the police, per government figures.