A Harlem teenager was charged with bashing a gay man who was leaving a Times Square-area club with his boyfriend and a pal.
The suspect, Manuel Riquelme, 19, is accused of punching Eugene Lovendusky, 28, in the jaw and knocking off his glasses on the corner of West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue at about 3:20 a.m Saturday.
He was released without bail yesterday.
The attack was among 30 against gays reported this year — a 100 percent increase over the 2012 numbers as of May 22 — and follows the bias murder of Mark Carson, 32, in Greenwich Village this month.
Lovendusky told The Post a gang of hateful teenage hecklers stopped him on the sidewalk. “They were yelling, ‘Faggot!’ I said, ‘You can’t call me that.’ ”
That’s when he was sucker-punched.
Cops nabbed Riquelme at a pizzeria. He was charged with assault as a hate crime and aggravated harassment.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn told The Post, “This type of attitude does not represent the behavior of New York City. The folks who are doing it are small-minded cowards who do not, in any way, reflect what New York City is about.”
Lovendusky wants Quinn to allocate resources for self-defense classes for the gay community.