Video: Two Men Harass Subway Riders After Gay Pride Parade

John Del Signore

Published Jul 3, 2013

Modified Jul 3, 2013

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John Del Signore

Published Jul 3, 2013

Modified Jul 3, 2013

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An ugly homophobic subway altercation on Sunday night was caught on video by a woman who says police did not take her hate crime allegations seriously. The woman who uploaded the video tells us, "I was riding home on the Queens-bound F train following a day of LGBT Pride festivities. Two men were loudly making homophobic comments, such as 'Today was a scary day for me. There were fags everywhere.' When a group of queer youth got on the train, the men proceeded to harass them, stating that the teens made them want to puke and that they would be killed if they were in Iran."

So you know what you're in for, the video begins just as one of the men screams, "Fuck with this man [referring to himself], and you're gonna get more than fucked in the ass. You're gonna get fucked like you've never been fucked." Okay, then.

The woman who uploaded the video explains:

Seeing that he was being recorded, the first assailant lunged at me, violently grabbing my arms while trying to steal away my phone. One of the youth took the phone from me temporarily to protect it and told the assailant he shouldn't attack a woman. When the assailant threatened to punch me, I took the phone back and ran to the other side of the train to push the emergency button and alert the authorities. At this point the second assailant got up and came towards me, grabbing my body and hands to try and get the phone to destroy the evidence. I yelled and told him I was an attorney. An onlooker then got up and stood between the assailants and myself, and another person left to get the train conductor.

A group of people had gathered to stand up to the gay bashers. During this, the second assailant put his hand around the neck of a young queer woman. When the doors opened up at the Roosevelt Ave stop, both assailants fled. I followed them to the station exit while calling 911. One witness had overheard them saying they were on route to Jamaica; they're likely commuters who regularly take this route.

I uploaded the video to YouTube to see if anyone can identify these men. I was left with bruises and scratches from both assailants which I also documented. I witnessed a hate crime.

At this point in time, I'm having trouble getting the police to recognize the incident as something more than just "harassment" -- the video depicts several attacks that happened (twice upon me, and once upon the queer woman). It's really upsetting that the attacks were downplayed to "harassment" in the police report -- I was so specific and detailed about what happened.

We asked the NYPD if they are investigating the incident and if it's been referred to the Department's Hate Crime Task Force. We also asked the woman who took the video to share documentation of her bruises and scratches, and we'll update if we hear back.

Tagged

gay pride weekend

gay teens

homophobia

subway

John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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