A GEELONG make-up artist has been spurred to hold a candlelight vigil for Orlando shooting victims after being targeted in a homophobic attack himself.

Andrew Guillaume was walking to his Geelong West home when a group of men shouted a homophobic slur at him.

“I was walking from a friend’s house after all the stuff in Orlando was unfolding on Sunday night — we just had a beautiful dinner and I was walking home from their house, minding my own business, when a carload of guys drove past me and screamed out ‘faggot’,” he said.

“I felt this whack in my leg and thought I walked into something but it was a full can of beer that they threw at me.



“I didn’t think anything of it and just thought ‘you a---holes, whatever’, then I started watching what was going on — enough is enough.”

After the incident, Mr Guillaume returned home to watch news coverage of the Pulse nightclub attack that left 49 people dead and 53 more wounded in Florida.

As the harrowing scenes flashed on his screen, the 43-year-old felt his sadness and anger mount and said he just had to take action.

“Sadly, I wasn’t surprised but this. And if I don’t say anything, I’m contributing to this,” Mr Guillaume said.

“We need to speak out when hate crimes like this happen — it’s not an act of terrorism or a gay issue, it’s an issue of violence and hatred which runs through communities and is just not acceptable.

media_camera Lady Gaga reads victims’ names at the Los Angeles Rally and Vigil for Orlando. Picture: Keith Durflinger/Los Angeles Daily News via AP

“The vigil will be a memorial for the people who have lost their lives, but there’s also going to be people from women’s and marriage equality groups. It’s time for us to come together as a community and support each other.”

The event is also intended to be a show of encouragement for the region’s LGBTQI youth, with Mr Guillaume saying homophobia is commonplace in Geelong.

He said it was often caused by ignorance and “narrow-minded small-town mentality”.

“You’ve got to be used to it — if you haven’t built up that tolerance, it would affect you in a way that would be so negative,” he said.

media_camera Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden will attend the Geelong vigil. Picture: Peter Ristevski

“So many young teens end up taking their own life because they can’t deal with it and the social pressure.”

When the Geelong Advertiser went to print, more than 100 people indicated their interest in the event on Facebook, with Socialist Alliance members and Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden also to attend.

Corio candidate Sue Bull condemned the fatal incident, calling it “a homophobic hate crime”.

“It’s so appalling to hear hypocritical, racist commentators like Donald Trump and Pauline

Hanson keep blaming Islam as the motivation for such attacks,” she said.

The vigil will be held at Johnstone Park from 7pm on Wednesday, June 15.