The war on the queer community in this country continues. Days after arrests were made in the deaths of two men after visiting bars in New York Hell’s Kitchen area another young man was viciously stabbed in the same neighborhood. Police are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime. The attackers shouted anti-gay statements to their victim. Possible hate crime? Let’s drop the ‘possible’ and call it what it was – a hate crime.
The very gay neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen has seen an alarming spike in hate crimes these last months. According to ABC7,
“Authorities say the group of seven young people seen in the video beat a man, unprovoked, and stabbed him in the thigh while making anti-gay remarks. Police say it started when the group of suspects, believed to range in age from 18 to 20 years old, made an anti-gay statement to the man.”
The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating an assault in Hell’s Kitchen that left a 44-year-old gay man hospitalized.#lgbt#HateCrime#NYChttps://t.co/xSb1MjL5oa pic.twitter.com/b212iY1I10
— TheBadHombreAccount (@inkonspicuo) April 6, 2023
Raphael Ribot thanks the good samaritans that helped him to safety after the vicious attack. “They are repeatedly punching me in the head. Someone threw a glass bottle and then I’m getting stabbed all happened in two minutes,” the brave 44-year-old commented. One of those good samaritans spoke to Eyewitness News saying, “Is that real, it looked fake and then I saw the one big kid, like kick jump, a flying kick to the guy. I said no that’s real. My tattoo artist pulled his belt off. I said let me put this around his leg.”
Ribot also mentioned how hearing anti-gay slurs is nothing new in his world,
“How many times can you come up to someone and try to nullify your worth before you can’t take it?”
PREACH! It’s time to fight fire with even more fire! Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Stay safe out there this weekend. And look out for each other.
Feeling really sick and sad about an anti-gay hate crime two blocks from my house last night. WTF. Stay out of NYC & CA at least you psychos. Don’t make me come over to your backwards ass state & start anything…
— Incindery 🔥 (@Incindery1) April 6, 2023
(**this post is solely the opinion of this contributing writer and may not reflect the opinion of other writers, staff or owners of Instinct Magazine.)
Source: ABC7
I live in an area where 3 gay men were recently targeted and beat to the point of hospitalization. Please be careful out there my gay friends.