Harmony Vuitton, 22, ended up with four stitches after a violent attack this past Friday night in New York City from men who were shouting anti-gay slurs. His friend Eric Ortiz was injured as well when he tried to block the attackers from beating him with a long stick.
But they are sharing their story because they don’t want others to live in fear, they want others to feel empowered to stand their ground.
Related: Man sues library board over LGBTQ & antiracism books. He has the nuttiest argument possible.
Vuitton and Ortiz said that they were standing in front of a smoke shop in Brooklyn when two men attacked them.
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“The men were just infuriated with my existence,” Vuitton said told ABC 7. “They were like, look at this ***** ****** and homophobic slurs such as that.”
He had seen the men in the neighborhood before, but that night they turned violent. The men beat Vuitton, leaving him with four stitches.
One of the men picked up a stick and tried to hit Ortiz, who blocked him. But that left Ortiz injured as well.
“The first time he swung and I blocked it with my hand,” he said. “I had a bruise the other day.”
Vuitton said that the attack was “mentally traumatizing,” but he wants others to know what happened in order to raise awareness.
“It makes me feel motivated to raise awareness and to get the message out that we are here and we’re not going nowhere,” he said. “I don’t want nobody to hear this to be afraid. I want people to have hope and that things can happen and you can still smile and have a smile on your face.”
