A bartender from Leeds, UK describes a vicious homophobic assault two days before the city's Gay Pride festival, the BBC reports:
"The barman told BBC Look North he was walking from his work in the city centre to his father's home when he was approached by the men on York Road.
They saw his wristband and asked if he was gay.
'I said 'yeah' – I'm not going to lie about it. They looked as if they were just going to walk off, then as they walked past one of them grabbed me and pulled me down and they just started laying into me. I passed out while they were hitting me. One of them sat on top of me while the other was hitting me. And then I think one of them bit me and then they tried to strangle me.'
He said the attack had affected him mentally as well as physically and he did not want to go out anymore. 'I didn't choose to be gay, I can't help how I feel about people,' he added.
'I don't flaunt it, I don't push it in people's faces, but when people are coming up to you and hitting you for being gay… I didn't think it would happen now, I thought everything was gay-friendly. But it's not at all.'"
