MANHATTAN–A 40-year-old homophobe shouted anti-gay slurs at the first gay men to be married at West Point Military Academy before attacking one, and punching him in the face last Sunday.
The victim, Daniel Lennox-Choate, 30, and his husband, Larry Lennox-Choate, 31, were shopping in a SoHo bodega before the incident, according to Larry’s Facebook post.
The assailant punched Daniel, and his husband rushed to his defense, Larry wrote on Facebook.
“He left covered in his own blood with his tail between his legs after I handled the situation and tossed him in the street like the coward loser he is,” Larry’s Facebook post reads. “The hate crimes division of the NYPD is on the case and we have full faith a positive outcome will follow.”
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
The victim graduated from West Point in 2007, two years before his husband. The two married in 2013.
“We refuse to be victims and are thankful we can defend ourselves, but are saddened by the fact that idiots like this guy might not pick two guys who went through Plebe Boxing next time,” Larry Lennox-Choate said. “Aside from one fat lip and a sore punching arm, we are fine.”
Daniel has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to NYPD data, attacks against gay people were down 20% for the year. There were 43 incidents through July 26 this year, compared to 54 for the same period last year.
