Jul 25, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR  | COMMENTS     

Two gay men were treated and released from a local hospital and another suffered bruises and cuts after the three were assaulted last week.

Police and a friend of one of the victims said five unidentified male attackers shouted anti-gay names at them on July 13 about 4:20 a.m. on the 1800 block of Kalorama Road in Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The GLLU reported that the five unidentified males began to “verbally berate” the gay men and made “homophobic remarks about their appearance” inside the Pizza Mart carry-out restaurant on the 2400 block of 18th St., N.W.

Acting Lt. Brett Parson, who oversees the GLLU and who interviewed the victims, said the gay men and the five assailants exchanged verbal remarks before the gay men left the restaurant and began walking home. The unidentified assailants followed them on the street, continued to “hurl homophobic epithets” at the gay men, and physically attacked the three gay men on Kalorama Rd., according to Parson and the GLLU report.

Two of the three victims are domestic partners, Parson said. The suspects, who are described as black males, were observed fleeing the scene on foot toward Columbia Road, N.W., the GLLU report says.

Parson said two of the victims were treated and released from a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He said both the suspects and victims had consumed alcoholic beverages in Adams Morgan bars before the incident began.

Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jack Jacobson, who’s gay and is a friend of one of the victims, said the three men were shaken by the incident and have so far decided not to identify themselves to the public and news media.

Jacobson said he has learned of a separate incident in which a gay man remains hospitalized after being beaten and robbed near 14th and U streets, N.W., on July 16, but he could not determine whether the motive in that attack was robbery or anti-gay bias.

“The prevalence of hate/bias crimes has remained consistent over the past couple of years and although spikes do occur occasionally, there is no reason to believe there is a drastic increase [in hate crimes] citywide or even in a particular area of the city,” Parson said.