NEW YORK — A gay rights activist is the latest victim in a recent spate of attacks on gay men in New York City.
Eugene Lovendusky, 28, a member of the direct action group Queer Rising, was attacked in the city’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood by a group of teens who hurled anti-gay slurs at him, according to an spokesman for Queer Rising.
Alan Bounville reported on Facebook that Lovendusky was attacked on Friday night by a group of nine or ten men.
“They yelled “faggot” at Eugene as he was punched in the jaw. There have been a half-dozen, publicized violent anti-queer crimes in New York City in May 2013, including the cold-blooded murder of Mark Carson, 32, for being a ‘faggot.'”
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Manuel Riquelme, 19, has been arrested and charged with hate crime and aggravated harassment for the alleged attack on Lovendusky, reported NY1.
Police said a group of nine teenagers, including Riquelme, passed Lovendusky, who was accompanied by his boyfriend and another friend, and started calling them anti-gay slurs. None of the other teenagers who accompanied Riquelme are facing charges.
Lovendusky was an organizer of last week’s vigil mourning Carson, the gay man who was murdered on May 18 after his attacker allegedly hurled homophobic slurs at him before firing a single shot to his head.
