Man Suffers Anti-LGBTQ Attack on J Train in Brooklyn

A man allegedly assaulted and hurled anti-LGBTQ slurs at a man on the subway in Brooklyn late last month, according to the NYPD.

A 23-year-old man was traveling on a northbound J train on August 26 when he said he was accosted by an individual spewing homophobic rhetoric. Moments later, the man repeatedly punched the victim in the head, according to the NYPD, and the victim sustained a bruised lip but refused medical attention. Police said the suspect remained on the train but fled the scene.

The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made. Surveillance footage shows the suspect wearing a Black baseball cap, a graphic T-shirt with cargo pants while holding an Arizona can, and a Black bookbag.

This incident comes amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ attacks on New York City subways in recent months. A 29-year-old man was stabbed in the chest and torso in an anti-LGBTQ attack on a subway platform at Penn Station on June 28. On June 23, a trans woman was stabbed by a man who wielded a screwdriver in a Manhattan subway station, while a trans man who was with his wife got slashed on the subway on June 4.

Last month, the NYPD said they were searching for two unknown suspects who assaulted and hurled anti-LGBTQ slurs at three men in Brooklyn. In July, a Black trans femme non-binary individual and multiple LGBTQ people were injured in a violent rampage allegedly targeting queer people at a string of Brooklyn bars.

On a national level, hate crimes targeting LGBTQ individuals have continued. According to new data from the FBI, out of approximately 7,554 single-incident hate crime offenses logged in the US, at least 20.5 percent of victims were targeted based on their sexual orientation.