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EXCLUSIVE: Brendan Courtney left shaken after being homophobically abused on the street

TV star Brendan Courtney was left shaken after being homophobically abused while walking down the street.

The Off The Rails presenter told Goss.ie was walking down Exchequer Street in Dublin when two men verbally abused him – branding him as a “faggot.”

He said: “I was just getting a coffee and was walking past Fallon and Byrne on Exchequer St and two lads about 26 to 28 walked past and said, ‘Oh there’s the faggot off the telly’.

Evening Reception for CREATE 2013 at Brown Thomas

Disgusted: Brendan is disgusted about the homophobic abuse | VIPIRELAND.COM

“I stopped as they kept walking and I was like ‘Oh my God did he just say that’ and then I turned around and he shouted, ‘Yeah, there’s the faggot off the telly and I just muttered ‘Oh f*** o**’.”

Shaken Brendan – who has a clothing line with Sonya Lennon called Lennon Courtney – hopes that the Irish Government saw what happened to him as a “hate crime”.

“The law is still on his side because I don’t have equal marriage yet but hopefully soon we will and in the UK that is considered a hate crime,” he said.

DFF Young Designer of the Year 2014

Host: Brendan hosted the Young Designer of the Year award at Dublin Fashion Festival | VIPIRELAND.COM

“It just makes me feel that idiots like him think that he is in someway is better than me and that I am less of a person because I am gay. I’m not letting it ruin my day but it’s still very disappointing. It really got on my nerves.”

The RTE star said he believes that un-educated straight men have an “undercurrent fear” of homosexual relationships.

“There’s an undercurrent fear in un-educated straight men still and I see it in their eyes when they meet me so I am very conscious of it,” he told Goss.ie.

“In rural Ireland we were so welcomed and then you’re in sophisticated Dublin and some idiot shouts that at you – it’s very disappointing and tiring at this stage of my life to have to deal with it.”

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Sadly, this wasn’t the first time Brendan was a victim of homophobic abuse – with the last six months ago.

“It happened outside my house about six months ago. I just heard ‘faggot’ as I came out my front door. It has to stop,” he said

“I was attacked about three or four years ago on Georges St and was punched to the ground and was called faggot. There’s nothing wrong, it’s just different to be gay.”

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