On 8th June 2014, shortly before 5am, Benn Moore was almost blinded when he and a friend had concentrated ammonia thrown in their faces outside a gay nightclub. The attack made headline news in the local London media and caused a ripple of shock amongst gay people, shock that such an attack could happen not only in London, but in the heart of one of its gay villages: Vauxhall. However, there was more to the story. Neither Benn nor his friend were out as gay, and the latter hadn’t wanted to report the crime for fear that doing so would out him. For Benn, the incident meant being forced to publicly reconcile his hidden sexuality with his straight identity. A year later he agreed to tell his story to Attitude. Today he says that, despite the horror of the attack, it was the best thing that ever happened to him.
Images: Simon Taylor
I meet Benn in Vauxhall, an evolving part of the London gay scene that was once renowned for its extremely late night clubs. It’s the scene of the crime, where he was attacked one night a year ago. In daylight the area is very di~ erent from the pump and pulse of the nightlife.