Jimmy LaSalvia, the executive director of gay conservative group GOProud, was attacked while on his bicycle by a male teen standing with a group of others. The teen reportedly used an anti-gay slur and punched him as he approached, the Washington Blade reports:
“Just as I began to realize what was happening, I heard it. The words are still ringing in my ears as I write this today – ‘F____ faggot!’ LaSalvia said in his email. “It was clear to me in that moment that my sexual orientation had motivated this attack.”
LaSalvia said that after barely catching himself from falling to the ground, he reached into his backpack for his cell phone, with the thought of calling the police. That action prompted one of the teenagers accompanying the attacker to say, “Does he have a gun?” LaSalvia told the Blade.
The attacker and a few of the others with him “puffed up their chests and were clearly ready to continue the attack,” he said. But seconds later, the group fled the scene after he kept his hand inside his backpack, “allowing them to wonder if I was reaching for a gun.”
LaSalvia told the Blade that he planned to file a police report and had visited the headquarters office of the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit but was unable to do so there and was directed to call another office.
