Chris Kostka, a gay man visiting Provincetown, Massachusetts, was walking along Bradford Street between 1 and 2 a.m. on Monday, June 30, when, near Howland Street at the town’s eastern end, three men shoved him to the pavement and began kicking him while yelling anti-gay slurs.
“All of a sudden I just feel myself getting pushed to the ground,” Kostka told Boston NBC affiliate WBTS-CD. “I fly forward and I turn. I see three guys, and of course, I’m stunned from just being thrown to the pavement, and I just cover my face, go into a fetal position as I’m getting kicked and getting called some gay slurs.”
He added, “I got a couple good kicks into my chest. Luckily just a couple of scraps and bruises, you know. Nowadays things like this happen all the time, and it could end up a lot worse.”
Kostka described the car as a black Lexus sedan with a Donald Trump bumper sticker and said the attackers appeared to be three men between the ages of 20 and 30. He claims one of the men used a homophobic slur during the attack before the group returned to the car and drove off.
“I was just in shock,” Kostka said. “P-town, you let your guard down because it’s such a happy place for everyone, so safe, and you just don’t expect that. So, for it to come out of the blue, you don’t know what to think.”
Kostka suffered cuts and bruises in the alleged assault but did not require hospitalization.
Provincetown police are investigating. The department has asked the public to review any security or doorbell camera footage from the area of Howland Street between 1 and 2 a.m. to assist with the case.
“The Provincetown Police Department is taking this report very seriously and has detectives actively investigating the incident,” police said in a statement, adding that the entire department was “alerted to this incident and will continue working hard to stay vigilant and keep everyone safe.”
Anyone with information about the alleged attack is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Jennifer Nolette at 508-487-1212 or jnolette@provincetown-ma.gov. Tips can also be submitted by phone at 508-487-2828 or by email to report-a-tip@provincetown-ma.gov.
Third Way, a centrist think tank tied to the Democratic Party's pro-corporate shift of the 1990s, has issued a memo listing 45 "profoundly alienating" words it says Democrats should avoid.
Marketed as advice on how to "speak plainly," the list is framed as a way to keep moderates and swing voters from viewing the party as elitist or out of touch.
In its summary of its recommendations, Third Way argues Democrats have fallen into a trap of using activist-approved language to court advocacy groups.
"These activists and advocates may take on noble causes, but in doing so they often demand compliance with their preferred messages; that is how ‘birthing person' became a stand-in for mother or mom," the memo states. The term was originally meant to acknowledge that some transgender men and nonbinary people can become pregnant.
Christina Aguilera has partnered with Grindr as part of the promotion for her upcoming headlining set at San Francisco’s Portola Music Festival on September 20. According to a September 15 announcement from the LGBTQ app, Aguilera -- dubbed Grindr's new “wingwoman” -- will lend her voice as a notification alert, letting users know they’ve got a message from a potential match.
From September 15 to 22, Grindr will swap its iconic “bloop” notification for the opening notes of Aguilera’s 1999 No. 1 hit “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You),” promoting her Portola performance in the process.
The state of Iowa will pay $85,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of LGBTQ teens who were expelled from the Iowa Capitol during a 2020 advocacy trip organized by Iowa Safe Schools, after a dispute over bathroom access.
The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed that about 150 students and chaperones were unfairly ejected while visiting the Capitol to meet with legislators.
Nate Monson, then the executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, told The Des Moines Register that state troopers barred a smaller group of students from using bathrooms that matched their gender identity and directed them instead to a gender-neutral restroom elsewhere in the Capitol.
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