Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens – Photo: Tdorante10, via Wikimedia
A gay man who claims he was the victim of a homophobic assault in Queens says he received no help from police and doctors in the wake of the attack.
Ronald Albarracin, a 24-year-old originally from Ecuador, says that he was leaving a bar around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2019, when he was allegedly attacked around Northern Boulevard and 99th Street in the Corona neighborhood of Queens.
Albarracin claims his assailants began calling him names and homophobic slurs before punching and kicking him repeatedly. The attack left him with a broken nose, bruises, and several visible marks on his hands and face.
Albarracin escaped and called police, who arrived on scene with EMTs. But he claims they did nothing to help him, reports Gay City News.
“The police did not do anything even though they saw me with blood,” Albarracin said in an interview through a translator. “They did not even say anything or explain anything. They did not speak Spanish and did not try at all to understand what was going on.”
NYPD Detective Denise Moroney, a spokesperson for the police department, did not comment on Albarracin’s complaints, but told Gay City News that police responded to the scene, and that the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task force is investigating the case. Police say they have no description of the alleged attackers.
But Albarracin claims his unlucky night continued after he was transported by medics to Elmhurst Hospital.
He says that medical staff did not provide him with any medication for pain relief, and, since leaving the hospital, he has experienced regular nosebleeds and ongoing pain.
Albarracin says this isn’t the first time he’s been attacked because of his sexual orientation, but hopes it will be his last.
He has plans to move to upstate New York, and is too afraid to leave his house, even to go to work.
“I do not dare to go out into the street with the way I am, with the broken nose,” he said. “I cannot even take off my hat because of how my face looks.”
In what many see as a rebuke of the Trump administration’s agenda, Democratic candidates channeled anti-Trump frustration into a wave of wins -- including key victories for pro-LGBTQ candidates in Tuesday’s bellwether races.
In Virginia, former Democratic Congresswoman and LGBTQ ally Abigail Spanberger cruised to a decisive win over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, defeating her by nearly 15 points.
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As photos and video clips of Rivera and other activists flash across the screen, Mamdani recounts her legacy of activism -- from her role in early gay and trans rights demonstrations to founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which provided food and shelter for homeless trans people, and her push for LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws.
Given how often today's news outlets distort the truth or report outright lies, it's almost comical that E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel Ragtime was once dismissed by The New Yorker's editor William Shawn. Because Doctorow's tale, set in the early twentieth century, wove real historical figures into fictional lives, Shawn refused to publish a full-length review, calling the book "immoral."
Now, the musical adaptation returns with forceful, spectacular splendor at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre. And this second revival of the beloved story arrives on Broadway at just the right time.
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