In May, you may recall the “gay bashing” at a Dallas BBQ in New York.
32-year-old Jonathan Snipes reported being punched, kicked, and attacked by two men shouting antigay slurs at the Chelsea spot after he accidentally knocked over a drink while rushing out of the restaurant after hearing about a death in his family.
The full video of the brawl has been released to The G-List Society by Dallas BBQ and it looks like Snipes has some explaining to do.
In the video, Snipes is shown arguing with boyfriend Ethan York-Adams, then stomping towards the exit of the restaurant in a huff, but not before he starts the altercation with Bayna El-Amin.
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El-Amin acknowledges his role in the altercation, but claims he suffered injuries and was fearful for his own safety.
You can read that interview in its entirety here.
We all know how it ended, but now that we know how it began, we have several questions for Snipes:
• Why was the first stop to the press and not police? (Also, to DNA Info reporter Aidan Gardiner: weren’t you warned against reporting single-source stories on day one of journalism school?)
• Why did you say you were attacked by multiple people when the video clearly shows El-Amin as the only attacker?
• Why did you say that you wouldn’t “take it to that level” when the video clearly shows you throwing the first object?
• Did El-Amin really call you and your boyfriend “white fa**ots,” or was that a fabrication like the phantom second attacker?
Anti-LGBT violence is a very real threat to LGBT people everywhere, but it does the issue a disservice when people pass off messy, drunken altercations as hate crimes and freely stoke racist stereotypes to do so.
It’s starting to seem as if Mr. Snipes and his boyfriend have done just that, so it will be quite interesting to see what they have to say about the video now that all sides are out.
