This is why Gay Pride visibility is still an important endeavor. It still takes courage to come out. Poor guy, what a drag. And the attacker... asshat insecure hetero dummy (or a very deep closet case).

You're joking, I hope?

"you have to admit their lifestyles - be they G,L,B or T- is stomach churning."

your grasp of subject/verb agreement is also stomach churning.

That Onion article was hilarious and right on the money. I have nothing against homosexuals but let's be honest: the vast majority of us do not make sexuality the flaunted hallmark of our existence, but a lot (not all I realize) at this parade seem to do so. When wearing only a pair of ass chaps and thong, one does make others more aware of himself, but not in the desired way.

As far as "flaunting sexuality," both the crowds at the Irish and Puerto Rican parades do this quite nicely in their own ways.

I'd rather see a gay man in assless chaps than be subjected to harassing behavior by a drunk office dude in khakis.

DVM2008 --> a prime example of how nyc board of ed has failed the city.

what gay guy would admit to wearing old navy?

Why are people so threatened? Would they lash out this same way in other situations?

neocon: we get it. you're stirring things up. yawn.

Has there been any independent verification of the story in this email?

All the anti-gay comments are obviously despicable; I'm not questioning the story for those reasons.

It's just that, as written, the story is kind of hard to believe. The person who wrote the email said he was not alone (repeatedly says "us") and while I suppose a guy and his girlfriend could have attacked him -- the fight would have had to be crazy to result in 2 black eyes and multiple chipped teeth.

For that kind of attack to happen on the 2/3 train during the afternoon? No one stepped in to help? Whoever this guy was traveling with couldn't prevent the guy and girlfriend from inflicting that kind of beating?

I asked the victim, out of curiosity, if anyone else on the train helped, and he said it was crowded, but others may not have seen the whole thing (since it was so crowded) and they might not have wanted to do anything, either. I think the warning is well-intentioned.

And since I've been shoved pretty hard by someone on relatively full evening commute subway--and no one asked me if I was okay or said anything to the person who did the shoving-- and since an female acquaintance was literally pummeled in the face on a crowded train with no one stopping it, I don't think it unconceivable that people don't want to step in--they're concerned with their well-being. People have been content to be bystanders for decades. It's unusual for people to step in, like the Muslim man who intervened when a group of Jewish kids were being harrassed.

thanks Jen. I guess I'm just surprised that this kind of unprovoked attack would happen to begin with, and that this guy and his friend(s) were unable to avoid a fight, get away or do something to defend themselves against a single assailant and his girlfriend. Seems bizarre, but I guess it's possible.

Disgraceful that such shit still walk the earth preying on people, that no one does anything and that people on this blog make fun of the situation.

I'm not surprised. During the Dyke March, some asshat in a car tried to run over the people marching. While waiting at an intersection the marchers passed, he started revving up the engine to his car. Then he started driving forward attempting to hit the crowd. The volunteers did not break their barrier between the asshat and the crowd (even though one was hit) and the police ran over and pulled his sorry ass out the car. People are still ignorant and they suck. And for that, I will keep marching.

If NY has a gay pride parade, when is the Polygamists United Parade, the Beastiality parade, and the NAMBLA parade?

Yes this really happened. I have a police report and two black eyes. Yes I was with my partner. I have poor vision and the guy broke my glasses punched me. I couldn't see to defend myself and was bleeding alot.

Be careful.

Okay, I'm assuming nik13 is joking, but the people who seriously doubt the truth of this account really need to ask themselves if they would question the truth of this report if the attacks were, say, racially motivated. If they still would, would they come out in public and say they didn't believe it? The doubting comments really smack of homophobia. They also put too much faith in people on the train. In my experience people on the train are not quick to help others even when not put in physical danger from doing so.

Also, "ass-chaps," and "assless chaps" don't exist. Chaps don't have fabric on the ass. If they did they would just be leather pants. If the worst thing you see in New York all day is a man's butt framed by chaps you should consider yourself lucky.

This story is totally valid- my fiance and I were on this train, at the other end of the same car. It was all very confusing and really started and escalated quickly, at least from our end. We got out of the train at Franklin Street and ran to the conductor while some other people pushed the fight onto the platform, but no one could/would restrain the aggressor.

What really got me the most upset was that it took me explaining quickly and succinctly at least 3 times what happened to the conductor before he did ANYTHING. I said, you need to call someone, and he sounded the horn- but not before I told him he HAD to- he just looked at me blankly. Franklin Street does not have MTA attendants in the booth, so I don't know if/when anyone came. We were soaked from the downpour and honestly, freaked out, so we left the station.

Poster Neartoms, if this is really you, I am sorry we didn't do more. I was afraid it was Pride Weekend motivated, and I'm sorry that had to happen because of some asshole.

the people who seriously doubt the truth of this account really need to ask themselves if they would question the truth of this report if the attacks were, say, racially motivated. If they still would, would they come out in public and say they didn't believe it? The doubting comments really smack of homophobia.

I asked if there was any verification on the email - I didn't say I didn't believe it, but that I found it an incredible story and asked if there was any verification of the story. I'd do the same if it was an email about a racial attack.

The only source cited was an email, not a newspaper article, as is typical for a gothamist story. On top of that, the gothamist article was in turn being picked up by others, such as gawker, in spreading the story. It only makes sense and is only good journalism to attempt to verify a story before reporting it. People make all kinds of things up, and it's much better practice to verify something before it goes viral than to issue a retraction after. There's nothing homophobic about it.

Who lives in NYC and is intolerant? It's only the home to every freaking kind of person there is. Deal with it!

@kll205: Yes, it really is me. I am so glad you spoke up on here and told people this really happened. It was scary, it does seem hard to believe, but we know it happened.

I am working with Speaker Quinn's City Hall office and the 6th precinct of the NYPD. It would be very helpful if you could report what you saw to both of them.
http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml

As I remember it, the train conductor was unwilling to do much. Thanks for verifying that for me.

Also, thank you for saying this happened on the Franklin platform. The MTA needs conformation of this.

I'm also surprised that some people are saying I should have had a gun. I am so glad I didn't have a gun and I am even more glad the guy who gay-bashed me on the train didn't seem to have access gun or a knife. Things could have been much worse.