New York saw its third homophobic attack in one week as two men were savagely beaten Friday night by a group of men near Port Authority.
Though the victims were not identified, a Queerty reader tipped us off that one of the men was Lucas Entertainment model and performer Edin Sol.
“I’m still in recovery after this malevolent attack,” Sol told Queerty. “I can’t get over this situation and the fact it still happens. I feel in shock and unsafe going out anymore until someone does something about it.”
According to CBS New York:
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At around 5 a.m. Friday, the two men tried to get into an after-hours billiards hall on West 32nd Street but were not let in, police said. They were then approached by a group of approximately five others who proceeded to shout anti-gay slurs and beat the men, police said.
The men tried to get away, but the suspects followed them to the PATH station entrance where the attack continued, police said.
Both Sol and his companion were rushed to the hospital with severe facial injuries and Sol had to undergo eye surgery.
A few days earlier on May 5, Nick Porto and Kevin Atkins were walking arm-in-arm when they were attacked by a group of men near Madison Square Garden after a Knicks playoff game. Another assault took place in Greenwich Village earlier this week.
“There was a time when our city was plagued with hate crimes. We are never going back to that place,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “That is not what New York is about.”
Asllan Berisha, 21, and Brian Ramirez, 21, both New York City residents, were arrested and charged with a hate crime, but the other three men fled. The victims asked police to release their photos to enlist the public’s help in finding their attackers.
The streets do not seem to be very safe,” Sol added. “I’m very worried about my friends or anybody else who can get hurt.”
brent
I find it interesting that New York which we are led to believe is so tolerant is having these attacks. The article also doesn’t mention the race or religion of the attackers, which means one thing. They were not white and christian, or we would have been told that by the reporter.
A'alon
@brent: Brent, You’re a know nothing idiotic bigot. 1st. NYC is like any other place it has it’s good elements & bad. If anyone told you that NYC was perfect is a liar or if you thought so, exemplifies how little you know of NYC. 2nd. You can’t tell someone’s religion by looking at them, to suggest otherwise makes you a bigot by definition. 3rd you’re a bigot because you interjected race into the mix at all. 4th. That they didn’t mention the race of the attackers most likely means that they are white; as a native New Yorker and being black I’ve noticed locally & nationally the media will take every chance to point out the race of a criminal especially if they are black or brown. Moreover, if you actually paid any attention to these attacks you would have know in at least the first instance they stated that the attackers were latino/hispanic. I’m sure this info is going to make your tiny brain explode, maybe next time you’ll take the time to think be fore you speak.
ouragannyc
@brent:
Your reasoning is weird indeed. But I’m not going to jump on the band wagon and call you a bigot. What should matter is that these thugs get caught and get locked up.
NYC is a tolerant city. I’ve kissed men on the street and at train stations without having to fear anything. These incidents are a total shock to me.
In case you missed it, one in Latino and the other, judging by his last name would be eastern european (Albanian). Not sure why this matters to you.
tdx3fan
The important thing to remember here is that NYC has removed your right to protect yourself and has removed your right to conceal carry. Its not a coincidence that attacks like this are more likely to happen in a city that denies the second amendment.
Hansolo
@brent: Maybe if their names were Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson you would be more at ease?
lab
@brent: looks white to me and probably christian…defending marriage…why don’t you go look for your pastor through the glory hole
and tdx3fan…wow how long before that escalates to a war on the streets…both of you are really ignorant
Mr. E. Jones
@tdx3fan:
Yep. The first groups the gov’t goes after are the minorities. Gay bashings will only increase, until gay Americans learn to arm themselves.
enfilmigult
@tdx3fan: Which is why there are no gay bashings in conceal carry states like Kentucky and Texas, right? Get real.
2eo
@tdx3fan: Yeah, you need more guns, exactly what the world needs, more armed people not stopping crimes but murdering their own families and mothers and shooting up schools.
Makes me sick how people can think they’re pro-democracy and freedom yet want to protect the right to easily murder thousands of people when you’re having a bad day.
But it’s an amendment, and the only one that counts.
oilburner
I hope this guys porn career isn’t over due to a lil scuffle lol
sanfranguy
I hate to see anyone get assaulted because of who they are. But this article is saying we are suppose to care more because they are porn so-called “stars”. How about reporting on the day to day struggles of regular gay people, not people who have sex for money.
Cam
@tdx3fan:
No, the fact is, groups like the NRA are fighting to make it easy for criminals to carry guns by fighting against background checks.
Oh, and as for protecting ourselves. Funny how just today, in a mother’s day parade in Louisiana 10 people were shot. Gee, not having regs on concealed weapons sure protected those folks down there didn’t it?
Cam
@brent:
Brent, I have news for you, the only well funded organized religious opposition to gay rights in this country that has written and pushed anti-gay bills through the legislature is from Christians.
So, you know, nice try.
Reality101
I’m going to say something that’s not so popular but there’s been mumblings about it within the community. The LGBT community in NYC is just not that proactive. And it seems attaining marriage equality just made a large portion of our equality organizations and community at large just kick rocks, go our separate ways and not address other issues related to LGBT within the city. HOMOPHOBIA, physical and harassment, being one major one.
There’s been way too many anti gay crimes and harassments in the city within the past year and our community leaders have been AWFUL in responding to it. A rally would be a nice start. The fact of the matter is, NYC is a melting pot of various cultures and groups of people, all of whom have to expose themselves to each other to almost claim their territory within the city, or else fear being walked all over. Part of that is outreach work and outreach programs, and part of it is peaceful rallies where our community shows our face to the public at large and essentially says we’re here, and here to stay, and there’s a great many of us here too. Learn to deal with it and let’s coexist in this city.
That seems to be a lot of work for community leaders…..
NotStr8Acting
Let me be the first to express how sincerely sorry I feel that these two members of our community had to endure what they did, all for minding their own business and living their lives. That gay people have to be singled out and violently and brutally be beaten out on our streets says we as a community have A LOT more work to do. Each of us owes it to ourselves to do something in some capacity to help end prejudice toward LGBT, just as our LGBT pioneers and members did decades ago for us.
On that note, to Edin Sol, I hope you make something positive out of this horrific incident. My good friend was gay bashed years ago while leaving his apartment. His neighbors who were notoriously homophobic beat him within an inch of his life. He used to be indifferent toward why our community fights for equal rights & respect. That was until this incident happened to him. Today, he does exceptional work for LGBT youth and has helped work with elected leaders in our state in even advancing LGBT legislation. He refused to let the homophobic monsters define his being gay and instead became even more proud to be who he is, be part of our community, and work to prevent incidents like the one he endured.
Edin, I hope in due time you can do the same and make the same impact on your life and the life of others. You are brave, beautiful, and stronger than ANY of those hateful thugs. Stand tall, stand proud, and stand strong. You have an entire community behind you.
Scott Johansen
To Edin and your friends, I’m sending you nothing but positive energy and thoughts. Don’t know you, but I do know (with the exception of the typical few trolls) the community stands side by side with you all, knowing it could have been any of us who were victims.
I also think our community has been tragically silent about the big elephant in the room; homophobic hate crimes, which barely get mentioned by our community. It’s not even in the current dialogue, and what good is marriage or DADT when our brave LGBT men and women who served can’t walk in public with the one they love without being senselessly beat to near death.
Let’s start talking about how homophobic hate crimes are severely on the rise. How many LGBT fear going out in public in many parts of our country. How people are attacking us on a near daily basis. Enough is enough. We need to start the narrative here and open this dialogue because many heterosexuals truly don’t believe these crimes occur or are that serious and compare it to a bar fight over a hot chick. I agree with Reality 101, we’ve failed as a community highlighting how violent homophobia in culture is.
Ricky
@enfilmigult: Unfortunately, the gay community tends to be fairly anti-gun…so no it is not surprising at all that their are plenty of hate crimes committed in concealed weapon states like Texas or Kentucky.
@2eo: And apparently you have noticed that the large increase in gun ownership has had no effect on violent crimes in the US. In fact, the rate has dropped significantly in the past 20 years in the US. And also having a gun for defense = school shootings? Funny, since I’m sure many more children die of whooping cough for not receiving proper vaccinations than any who dies in a gun-free zone school shooting. I guess the latter is so much more dramatic to portray to push your own agenda eh? To think that guns only have a negative effect on society is a terribly biased view.
Oh and by the way, how many people has the government including the current administration have killed through drone bombs, sanctions, invasions, and supporting “rebels” by giving them armaments (funny how no one on Queerty actually reports that about Great General Obama huh? We can’t have him looking like a hypocrite can we!?)? I bet you that number far outweighs anyone else shooting up their families or shoot shootings as you put it. Yet, we keep voting in the bastards the endorse these things anyways!
America has always been a violent society even compared to other countries who had similarly close liberalized gun laws that we do.
WayDifferent
Those photos hold nothing on what you might see live on Chicago’s Halsted St. I’ve seen blood POURING from the top of their heads in these (supposed) gay-bashings. And, no, we weren’t going to/from an after-hours club. We were just trying to get to work or the gym at 5:45am in “the nation’s first recognized gay neighborhood”. Even the straights that bought condo’s in sake of this “diversity” crap have had enough of us. Never witnesses this stuff in Detroit. Ever. You people, yes you people, need to start garnering some respect.
Brian
New York City is a dangerous place for openly gay men. If you are to be gay in New York City, it’s only permitted in 2 or 3 streets that fall under the umbrella of the gay scene. We must remain segregated or we will be bashed.
We are still largely ostracized in New York City.
brent
@brent:I base my views on experience. iknow how the media operates. As for being a bigot, i see plenty of nasty things said about christians on this site, and no one lectures about tolerance in return. Besides i didn’t use abscene language, where i have seen plenty of that when liberals go after anyone who thinks differently than they do.
brent
@Hansolo: You prove my point. The media jumped on that one, and also had no problem sterotyping people who live in wyoming.
brent
@Cam: Since christians are the majority, of course they would be the ones to do that. You think in other countries where for example muslims are the majority they don’t do the same thing.
Brian
Reality 101 makes a good point about the selfish apathy of New York’s gay community. There is this prevailing attitude along the lines of “hey, I can visit gay bars, I can visit gay saunas….what’s there to worry about?” It saddens me to see such selfish apathy in cities that are thought to be liberal.
Gigi Gee
@brent: Even in the most tolerant city you’re looking for trouble if you’re drunk and trolling the streets at 5:00 AM. Know that. Secondly, I’m not sure which news publications you’re reading but I’ve never, ever read a story that described the perpetrator of a crime as being a “white…christian” male. Perhaps they should. Then we’d see how many violent white, christian, homophobic men there are on the streets terrorizing people.
Gigi Gee
@Brian: Have you ever been to New York? What’s selfish or apathetic about wanting to live your life without fear of being beaten up because of it?
FYI, there are gay bars and bath houses all over the United States, even in Red States. Are conservatives suffering of a dose of “selfish apathy” if they want to go to bars or bath houses…or the mall? You make no sense but I’ll bet this isn’t the first time you’ve been told that.
tookietookie
I wonder if this is some manifestation of anger by straight men about athletes coming out of the closet. Are the perps of these crimes all wearing sports team shirts, etc? Is this some sort of weird pushback?
mark_mkd
@brent:
The one attacker named Asslan Berisha is Albanian muslim. Those guys are really nasty even in their homeland.
LaTeesha
These situations remind me why I carry a gun. Shoot first. Ask questions later.
Charles175
Now that we are rapidly gaining grounds on equality, things are going to get worse. These closed minded assholes are getting more and more pissed off. Under the cloak and shield of “Onward Christian Soldiers” things are just getting started.
the other Greg
@Brian: There aren’t any gay “saunas” in New York, I think, not since the early ’90s. You have to go to Chicago, Providence or Philadelphia to see such a sleazy thing, jeez.
No American uses the term “sauna” anyway. Go back to your tea and crumpets, Stewie.
Gigi Gee
@mark_mkd: The one attacker named Asslan Berisha is Albanian muslim. Those guys are really nasty even in their homeland.
I’m going on the assumption that you’re gay, but it doesn’t matter. If a straight person said, “Those gay guys are all _______________.” [fill in the blank with something nasty]
you’d understandably be upset. So why is what you said okay? If you’re suggesting that every man in Albania is “nasty,” you’d be wrong.
Hansolo
@brent: Would you rather had them kept quiet about the crime or maybe it wasn’t that serious to you? It was a very brutally murder and the story needed to be told. On a side note thank god my dad bought boxing gloves for me when I was 8 years old. Sometimes I wish someone would try it with me than again no one thinks your gay when you are big and black. I might have to stamp a rainbow flag on my forehead and roam the streets at 5 am and yes you better believe I will be packing. America.
truthteller
@Reality101: I totally agree. That is why I have joined a few of my friends in new york to start a non profit to help gay guys protect and defend themselves. It is not LIVE yet, but very soon. Here is the mission statement.
The mission of the Gay Male Rights Project (GMRP) is to support and protect gay and gender non-conforming males through direct educational programs while supporting the enforcement and advancement of progressive laws and policies. The organization’s goals are centered around a preventative approach and based on real world information, data and scenarios. Gay men of all backgrounds and races are our target market with special cultural competence aimed at communities of colour and in the outer boroughs. Programming from a male socialized perspective is important for the protection of men but also to assist in the mental and emotional healing aptitude of victims. This fact will be coupled with the myriad of socio-economic and racial issues facing men of colour.
truthteller
@Charles175: I agree. We need to be prepared for all of the good and the bad that happens when you come out. This is not a rare event. The problem is over 50 percent of these crimes go either unreported or miss-classified
• Almost half of survivors (46%) identified as gay.
• LGBTQH people of color were 3.13 times as likely to experience injuries as compared to overall survivors.
• People under 30 were 2.56 times as likely to experience hate motivated sexual violence and 2.41 times as likely to experience physical violence.
• LGBTQH people of color under 30 were 2.06 times as likely to experience police violence.
• Half (50%) of total hate violence survivors identified as men.
• LGBTQH people of color represented 87% of the murders with Black people representing 47% of hate violence murders.
• Latinos represent 33% of murders.
• Asians represent 7% of murders.
• Men represented 50% of murder victims.
• Anti-LGBTQH murders increased from 27 in 2010 to 30 in 2011, an 11% increase. This reflects the highest number of murders ever recorded by NCAVP. 87% of all murder victims in 2011 were people of color. Yet LGBTQH people of color represented only 50% of total survivors and
victims.
New York City survivors, self-reported as: 55% gay male, 27% Latino, 23% White, 15% Black, and 75% non-transgender.
truthteller
@Gigi Gee: The racial make up for reported defenders in 2001 were:
white 227
Black 109
Latino 86
Asian PI 7
Self ident other 7
Arab 3
but remember these are the numbers of reported cases only. over 50 percent go unreported or miss-classified.
ChiChi Man
Scratching my head over how a hate crime gives way to such ignorance on this thread. So much babble about race and religion (with a few gun nuts thrown in).
Newsflash: gay bashers come in most races and most religions. And while it is safer to be gay in NYC than in most American cities, there are crazies there as well.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just express our sympathies for the victims and the need to be vigilant, even as LGBT equality is on the rise?
heath0043
Instead of all this blame being passed around why don’t we realize that many straight people look at gays as weak, unable to protect themselves. Maybe if people would take self defense classes of some kind and show these people we aren’t just going to lie there and get the crap beat out of us, and hopefully do some damage to the attackers, this crap would stop.
brent
@truthteller: If you add up the minority numbers you gave, it comes to 212 to 227 for whites. That doesn’t reflect well on minorities, if that was you’re intent.
Look It Up
Do a search on their names. I came up with some VERY interesting facts from an unexpected source:
http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/new-york-muslim-suspect-arrested-on-vicious-hate-crime-assault-on-gay-couple/
truthteller
@brent: I just reported the facts as reported by the national anti violence projects. But I did say that many of these crimes go unreported, so of course we don’t know the racial make up of those attackers. I have no dog in this fight, just stating the “truth”.
brent
@Gigi Gee: Did you forget the Matthew Sheppard coverage. Would they have covered the story the same way if it had been in New york by two muslims. You tell me
brent
@tookietookie: That would suggest that this is something new.
brent
@mark_mkd: They are probably nasty in they’re country, because they know they won’t be prosecuted.
brent
@ChiChi Man: It’s amusing that you call people talking about self-defense as gun nuts. Liberals always reserve the harshiest language for people who want to defend themselves against crime.
brent
@Look It Up: That was very good article. i hope everyone on this site takes time to read it. that means you CAM