RPDR Stars Valentina, Trinity, & Photographer Jason King Involved In Alleged Hate Crime In WeHo.

I was just in WeHo two weeks ago and cannot believe this happened in one of the gayest places in America. But then, we have to remember that the rainbow does end and is usually surrounded by storm clouds.

As in any city, everyone needs to be careful when walking on side streets and away from busy, populated areas. The main drags (no pun intended) in WeHo are overflowing with gay men and in seeing us all in huge numbers just hanging out, almost overloads you with gay happiness. But then as you walk down the side streets leaving the gay mecca, you never know what or who is lurking in the shadows.

Photographer Jason King along with RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants, Trinity Taylor, Valentina, and another individual didn't have a safe walk home this weekend. King shared his terrifying account of the apparent hate crime that took place in West Hollywood on Thursday night.  He also elaborated on the police response that evening. Here is an excerpt of his post from March 17th.

Last night Trinity Taylor, James Leyva, two other friends and myself were walking home after the club and a guy we didn't know took it upon himself to join our group but not saying anything. After a certain amount of time this became uncomfortable and he was asked very politely by Valentina to please not follow us. He said his car was parked in the same direction we were going so he was asked again politely to go ahead of us and we would wait. He asked us to go ahead of him instead and it went back and forth like that a couple of times until finally Valentina said we would go the other way and the guy then punched him. I went to go get the guy off of Valentina and he punched me in the nose and broke it. I spent 9 hours in the ER.

Walk with friends not by yourself at night and be aware of your surroundings.

A side note I know there is a lot of people out there that are against our law enforcement right now and I can understand why they would feel the way they do. I want you all to know though that not every law enforcement person is bad. Last night we had about six officers all which I feel I could confidently say we're straight, come to our rescue. Each and every one of them were not only helpful but friendly and didn't care that we were gay, didn't care what we looked like or what color our skin was. They only cared about our safety and capturing the guy that did that, which they did. So thank you West Hollywood Sheriff department for all of your help and professionalism. Thank you especially to officer Martinez who not only helped us at the scene but called later to check up on us, which he did not have to do.

Moral of the story, be responsible and be safe!!! You never know what could literally happen in a matter of seconds.

You can find King's full post below.  He really didn't have a great week as he also mentions being in a traffic accident with a drunk driver.

Thank you King for sharing your post. We must be vigilant, we must be strong, but we must also be safe and protect ourselves against those who wish us harm.