Gay men were brutally attacked in two separate incidents in Manhattan just hours after demonstrators protested a hate-crime murder by a homophobic gunman, cops said yesterday
Steven Dixon, 42, and Michael Coleman, 41 were walking along Broadway near Houston Street at around 5 a.m. yesterday, when two men yelled anti-gay remarks at them in English and Spanish.
Then they got physical, punching Dixon until he was bleeding and his right eye swelled. Coleman was also attacked, though both men refused medical attention.
After canvassing the area, cops arrested Fabian Ortiz, 32 and Pedro Jimenez, 23, and charged them with assault as a hate crime.
A few hours earlier, Dan Contarino and another man went out for drinks at the Yuca Bar on Avenue A and then to the Boiler Room, a gay bar on East Fourth Street, where they drank shots and beer, police said.
After a pizza stop ar around 11 p.m., they started up a conversation about homosexuality while walking back to a homeless shelter where they both were staying.
That’s when the other man snapped.
“F–king faggot,” he said as he pummeled Contarino unconscious.
“Why are you a faggot?”
The attacker fled.
“GAY BASHED LAST NITE.” Contarino wrote on his Facebook page. “back from small surgery . . . CHEST XRAYS THIS AM . . . suspect still at large . . . police n media waiting to interview me . . . U JUST WANNA CRY N MOVE ON.”
Both attacks came within hours of a Monday-evening rally where activists and gay-rights supporters marched through the West Village to condemn the murder there of 32-year-old Mark Carson, who was shot in what police said was a bias attack.
Carson was attacked Saturday as he walked through the West Village with a male companion.
The suspect, Elliot Morales, was charged with murder as a hate crime, police said.
“Thankfully in this case no one was killed,” Mayor Bloomberg said of the more recent incidents.
“But that doesn’t for a moment make these crimes any less despicable or any less unacceptable.”
Bloomberg said police patrols have been increased in the areas where the attacks occurred.
According to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, hate crimes are down 30 percent since last year, but anti-gay attacks are up more than 70 percent.
There have been 29 anti-gay attacks so far this year. There were 14 such attacks over the same period last year.