Last year, Brussels was everything but a Gay-friendly environment. Homophobic attacks took place in all parts of the town. But because most victims did not report the attacks, official figures were so low they never forced politicians to take action against this crime.

Outrage! decided it was time to raise awareness for this reality. They wanted to give the public a true sense of the gravity and frequency of 'gaybashing', and force politicians to act.That’s why we launched the Gay Bashing app. An iPhone app that allows victims to simply report attacks – both physical and verbal – and pinpoint them on a map. So all users of the app and visitors of the website, gaybashing.be, could see the insults and physical violence the gay community has to live with every day.We started a PR campaign to launch the app and open the gaybashing debate. The media immediately picked it up. Talk shows, newspapers, blogs, etc., all covered the gaybashing story. The term gaybashing instantly became mainstream.In no time, we proved pubic opinion and politicians that homophobic violence is a reality in Belgium. But more importantly, for the first time in Belgian history, real political actions were taken against gaybashing. The national security plan was adapted to include a chapter about gaybashing, enabling the police to fine harassers immediately. And - even more impressively - politicians are looking into changing the federal law on physical violence so that incidents with a discriminative nature will be sanctioned even more severely.

That's why we came up with a simple smartphone app to gather more information. In two simple steps a user can report what happened and pin-point this on a map. On the website Bashing.be visitors could then see the insults and physical violence the gay community has to live with every day.

The Bashing app helped to visualize a problem a lot of people weren't aware off. Nearly every tv-channel, radio-station and newspaper in Belgium covered the Bashing app as well as some international press. The term "Gay Bashing" was unheard of in Belgium before, but that changed overnight... Within the first 24 hours over 80 incidents were reported using the app.Results and EffectivenessBut would the politicians get the message this time? Well, it seems they did. The national security plan was adapted to include a chapter about gay bashing, enabling the police to fine people immediately. And even more impressive; ministers are looking into changing the federal law on physical violence so that incidents with a discriminative nature will be sanctioned even more severely.

The app immediately got picked up in the media. Outrage! was invited to almost every talkshow in the country, to discuss the topic. All newspapers covered the story. We reached 100% of the Belgian population and got a PR-value of more than €1,000,000.‘Gaybashing’ became a hot topic on social media.

In less than a week, 1,600 people downloaded the app and 122 homophobic attacks, physical or verbal were reported. The public cried out for action. Politicians understood it was time to act: -A gaybashing chapter was included in the national security plan.

-In Brussels, hate crimes are now punished with an administrative fine, even before the case comes to court.

-Ministers are looking into changing the law on intended physical violence, so violence with a discriminative nature will be sanctioned more severely.The Dutch Gay community also launched the app in The Netherlands.