Chile: Gay Teen's Leg Must Be Amputated After Brutal Attack

From left: father Rene and Esteban Navarro

A gay teenager who was brutally beaten by a group of men in Chile will have to undergo surgery to amputate his leg.

Estaban Navarro, 19, was attacked by a group of six men armed with machetes, knives, and iron bars, as they yelled antigay epithets. The attack occurred on June 23 on a soccer field in Peñalonén. Navarro's foot was amputated after being rushed to the emergency room, but now it looks like doctors will have to remove his leg up to the knee because it was infected with gangrene, according to the Santiago Times.

"We are very sad and concerned," the family said in a statement issued by Movilh (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation), according to the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. "[We] Expect that here there is justice and punish those responsible to the fullest extent of the law. Esteban's life has changed dramatically in a homophobic attack."

Chile passed an antidiscrimination law last year, but Rolando Jiménez of Movilh says the law is not enough.

“A law by itself will not lower homophobia or violence,” Jiménez said in the Times. “In the long run, we need cultural change. Laws alone will not solve the problem of violence.”