Gay Man Brutally Attacked Following Birthday Celebration
A gay man in Ireland celebrating his birthday with friends was sent to the hospital following a violent homophobic attack early Sunday morning.Mark Sheehan, 26, said he and his friends were on the Number 15 Dublin Bus around 4 a.m.
on August 14 when a group of young teens and men boarded the bus. The group sat behind Sheehan and his friends and immediately subjected them to antigay slurs like “‘queer’ ‘emo freak’ ‘f*gg*t’ to name a few,” Sheehan wrote in a post on Facebook describing the incident.
Sheehan told the Irish Examiner he and his friends decided to get off the bus and take a taxi the rest of the way home. The taunts continued before the next stop, though, and Sheehan eventually turned and told the group to act their age.
He said one of the group threatened to “smash my face in” in response, while another kicked a pair of headphones from his friend’s hands.As he and his friends tried to disembark the bus, Sheehan said one of the group charged and headbutted him, leaving him dazed and bloodied with an injured nose.“When I came to a few seconds later, there was just blood leaking down,” Sheehan told the Examiner. “I could feel just the blood leaking over my lip and down onto my shoes.”The group disembarked the bus, and Sheehan was taken to a local hospital.
