Pictured above: Beveren, the village in Belgium where the crime was committed. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.
By Zoë Farr
Managing Editor of Web
Content warning: This article contains mentions of domestic abuse, assault and homophobia.
Early in the morning on Saturday, March 6, the body of 42-year-old David Polfliet was discovered in a park in Beveren, Belgium. According to a report in the Flemish newspaper De Standaard, a 17-year-old turned himself in to the police, who later arrested him, a 16-year-old and another 17-year-old as the perpetrators of Polfliet’s murder. The group used a dating app to lure Polfliet to the park. It remains unclear at this time if the trio intended to murder Polfliet or to physically abuse him.
While the assumed motive for the crime is homophobia, the public prosecutor has said that the investigation is still open and they have not as of yet labeled Polfliet’s murder a hate crime. Should the motive be found to be anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, this would be Belgium’s first hate crime homicide in nine years since the murder of Ihsane Jarfi in 2012.
According to Out magazine, Polfliet was an out student from a village near Sint-Niklaas while the suspects were allegedly part of a group known to attack members of the LGBTQ+ community. On March 9, in response to Polfliet’s murder, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo tweeted in support of the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “In our country, there is no place for hatred. Love wins.” Additionally, the rainbow flag was flown outside De Croo’s office.
This is not the first time De Croo has denounced anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment as prime minister. In November 2020, De Croo spoke out against anti-LGBTQ+ violence in Poland after far-right Polish nationalists marched in Warsaw and attempted to burn a rainbow flag with fireworks, causing a fire to break out. In response to the incident, De Croo contacted the Belgian Embassy in Warsaw and began compiling a response with other European countries. According to The Brussels Times, De Croo hoped to bring the spirit of change to Belgium. “If you want to change the world, you have to make sure that you start at home,” he said.
Despite De Croo’s actions, Belgium has been dealing with anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment for years, as seen with Polfliet’s murder, Jarfi’s murder and many other cases. In December 2020, a young gay man identified only as Eric was punched in the face and called slurs while walking in Charleroi, Belgium. Despite being attacked in broad daylight, Eric told TÊTU, a French LGBTQ+ magazine, that he felt he couldn’t report the incident to the police due to his experience with the police, who he said were dismissive of a previous abuse complaint of his own.
Polfliet’s family has cautioned against labeling his murder a hate crime prematurely, as the investigation is still underway. According to The Brussels Times, the family released a statement through their lawyer, Laurent De Clercq. The statement reads, “Let us first wait for the investigation. The family feels tremendously supported and comforted by the deep compassion from society, but the fact that [Polfliet] is now being portrayed as a martyr does not help their cause. … Gay-bashing is a major social issue and should certainly be debated, but only if there are elements that indicate this. At the moment the family mainly asks for a little more serenity so that they can start the grieving process.”
Pictured above: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons
According to the 2021 ILGA-Europe’s Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People in Europe and Central Asia, throughout 2020, there was a multitude of crimes perpetrated against LGBTQ+ people in Belgium. In September 2020, a young woman was physically assaulted after kissing another woman in Brussels. There is an ongoing investigation into this issue.
According to the 2020 Annual Review, in May 2019, the Brussels Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities stated that nine out of 10 LGBTQ+ individuals “have been targeted by verbal or psychological abuse.” In August 2020, an investigation into Criminal System, a Telegram group chat that promotes hate speech and violence against the LGBTQ+ community, began. The group chat came under investigation after a video recording of a young person’s abuse went viral.
The ILGA-Europe reviews detail the efforts to address bigotry in Belgium against the LGBTQ+ community. In May 2018, the Belgian federal government launched its second “Action plan against LGBTI-phobic discrimination and violence,” a 2018-19 plan that included 115 steps to combat discrimination and violence. The first plan expired in 2014.
In 2020, the Flemish Parliament began mandatory education for high school students on gender and sexual identity. There have also been reforms added to the legal gender recognition law, a coalition agreement that allows all Belgian citizens to determine their own gender identity.. In 2019, there were several pride parades in Belgium, including the first queer Pride parade in Ghent and the first POC Pride parade in Antwerp.
Even though Belgium has begun to publicly celebrate queer people and people of color in pride parades, attacks on out queer individuals are still prevalent. In the December 2020 attack, Eric felt he couldn’t utilize the legal system due to homophobia within the police department. According to Netherlands News, the suspects in Polfliet’s murder had carried out robberies on gay men before, choosing these victims due to the suspects’ belief they would not report the crimes to the police.
According to gender studies major Evelyn Kirby ’21, the appearance of declining anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is centered around who in the LGBTQ+ community is able to integrate into preexisting social norms. “I think that the appearance of a decline in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has a lot to do with the assimilationist push within the gay rights movement that distanced white cis gay people in particular from queer identities that are less palatable within a heteronormative society,” Kirby said. “The national legalization of gay marriage is a really prominent example of homonormativity being the main narrative of progress for LGBTQ+ people, which excludes people whose bodies and relationships present more of a problem to the dominant social order.”
This thought process can be seen in Belgium’s governmental treatment of trans citizens. In 2020, two trans men were denied reimbursement for a pap smear and a morning-after pill due to Belgian law solely providing health care coverage for those whose legal gender is female. In an attempt to create symbolic gestures of governmental support for LGBTQ+ citizens, the repercussions of these actions were overlooked. “That’s a hazard of lawmaking, … that you haven’t necessarily thought through all the consequences of the law until you see it in action,” Assistant Professor of International Relations and Politics at Mount Holyoke Christopher Mitchell said.
“This reminds me of, in particular, when Vermont enacted the civil unions’ law. Prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Vermont, they created a legally equivalent but not so named married civil union,” Mitchell said. “But they forgot to include a divorce provision for non-Vermonters. While non-Vermonters could get married in Vermont, there was no legal way to dissolve a civil union. The Vermont legislature had to scramble to tack on a civil union divorce provision for out-of-staters. These are the sort of things that have unforeseen consequences.'"
After the Netherlands, Belgium was the second country in the world to legalize gay marriage in 2003. In a 2012 interview, Elio Di Rupo, the first openly gay Belgian prime minister, stated his belief that Belgium had become less tolerant over the years. Should Polfliet’s death be found a hate crime, it would be a further indication of the continuing prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community that exists in Belgium.
It is uncertain at this time whether or not the suspects in Polfliet’s murder will be tried in juvenile court. If the nature of Polfliet’s death is confirmed as a hate crime, the suspects could be tried as adults.