Just had a bit of a shock: When I was 17 I learnt about Kitty Genovese, a young women murdered in New York in 1964. She was used as a 'classic' example for psychology students of 'bystander apathy': She screamed for help and despite being heard by many, nobody helped. 1/

This example was trotted out so many times, I became desensitised. Every time she was simply a byword for a quirk of human group psychology: 'If there are lots of people, then people find it harder to take responsibility'.

She was murdered, people heard, nobody acted. 2/

Nobody ever told me that Kitty was a lesbian, walking home from a bar in Greenwich's gay district where she worked. She was walking home to the apartment she shared with her girlfriend Mary Ann Zielonko. When she was stabbed to death by a man who had followed her. 3/

Multiple teachers, multiple lecturers, all going tight-lipped when saying anything about Kitty's identity, her life, and why there might have been such apathy, why she might have been followed.

My horror is double:
1. She was a person
2. She was part of my community 4/

Section 28 casts a loooooooong shadow.

This was Kitty.
Sorry for the downer post, but I felt this was important. 5/