Bisexual referee violently attacked for second time since viral engagement on the pitch
Our thoughts are with Pascal Kaiser and his fiancé Moritz, and we stand in solidarity with them against this violence.
Pascal Kaiser, the German referee who went viral after proposing to his boyfriend at a football match, has been attacked for a second time.
In January, in front of 50,000 cheering fans at FC Köln’s RheinEnergieStadion, the openly bisexual referee got down on one knee and proposed to his partner, Moritz. After being shared by FC Köln’s official Instagram account, which was widely celebrated by fans, the engagement went viral on social media.
According to French outlet L’Équipe, Kaiser received death threats and was doxxed shortly after, with his home address leaked online. Twenty minutes after contacting the police, who told him there was no immediate danger, Kaiser was violently attacked by three unidentified men in his garden, sustaining an injury to his right eye.
Two days later, on 9 February, he was attacked again at his residence. As per L’Équipe, he was assaulted by two individuals who waited for him on his doorstep. He was beaten in the face and torso, with officers arriving thirty minutes later.
