Gay man brutally beaten by attackers shouting anti-LGBTQ+ slur

A man who was brutally beaten in Miami’s Coconut Grove last week says he was targeted because of his sexuality.

Greg Breidenbach told Miami’s WPLG Local News 10 that he was walking home from a neighborhood bar when two men physically attacked him while using an anti-LGBTQ+ slur.

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“If Escobar couldn’t kill me, neither will Ron Desantis.”

“I knew I was punched, kept getting punched in the face, kicked in the back and they just kept calling me fa***t,” Breidenbach said.

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Breidenbach said that he blacked out during the attack and that police found him unconscious and “barely clothed” in the street.

WPLG reports that the attackers took a crucifix necklace Breidenbach was wearing, not his wallet. But he said his injuries were extensive. “My cheekbone has completely shattered. My orbital bone is completely cracked in half. My nasal cavity is fractured. My nasal cavity is separated from the sinus cavity,” he told the station from his hospital bed last week before undergoing surgery.

“I have taken this route thousands of times,” Breidenbach said. “I walk everywhere, and I’ve never had a mishap or anything. I’ve always made it home safely.”

But Breidenbach pointed to recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric as emboldening homophobes and increasing the risk of violence against LGBTQ+ people.

“It was such a brutal attack that I thought it was my responsibility to get out there and let other people know, it’s just not safe right now,” he said. “You’ve got to be aware of what’s going on around you.”

Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has signed a number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in recent years, including the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law and several laws specifically targeting transgender youth. DeSantis has framed his anti-LGBTQ+ agenda as creating a “citadel of normalcy” in the state. Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Florida Equality took the extraordinary step of issuing travel advisories, warning LGBTQ+ travelers and residents of “risks associated with relocation or travel to the state” due to its anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

A spokesperson for the Miami Police Department told WPLG that they have not ruled out the possibility that the attack on Breidenback was a hate crime and are investigating whether he was targeted because of his sexuality.