Gay man assaulted while filming TikTok in New York City
Police are searching for the assailant who called the victim anti-gay slurs before beating him
A young gay man was brutally beaten while filming a TikTok video on Broad Street in New York City last month.
The unknown male assailant, who had blonde hair and a white shirt, walked over to the 24-year-old and his female friend and shouted anti-gay slurs at them while they filmed around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, ABC 7 New York reports.
The female friend attempted to hold off the assailant, but he shoved his way past her and punched the victim in the face and the back of the head, leaving the victim with a split lip and bloody nose.
The attack is being investigated as a hate crime by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and anyone with information about the identity of the aggressor is urged to contact Manhattan police.
NYPD described the attacker as around 5’9″ tall with blonde hair, and wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, black shorts, and black trainers at the time of the attack.
Police are searching for a man who used an anti-gay slur before punching someone filming a TikTokhttps://t.co/0gQkKUczb0 pic.twitter.com/dVn67KHzMT
— Ben Goggin (@BenjaminGoggin) October 5, 2020
The attack is part of a troubling trend of increasing hate crimes and the number of anti-LGBTQ hate groups, the latter of which has been increasing since 2015.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the U.S., has previously attributed the increase in hate groups to the “radical right” being energized by President Donald Trump, both during his candidacy and after he took office.
Earlier this year, SPLC noted that the number of anti-LGBTQ hate groups rose 43% year-on-year between 2018 and 2019.
SPLC called out the Trump administration for enabling them, saying, “Anti-LGBTQ groups have become intertwined with the Trump administration, and — after years of civil rights progress and growing acceptance among the broader American public — anti-LGBTQ sentiment within the Republican Party is rising.”
The Trump administration dismissed the report, calling SPLC a “far-left smear organization” and called attempts to tie a rise in hate groups to Trump “disgusting.”
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