Amsterdam Gay Man Loses Hearing in Alleged Anti-Gay Attack

A gay man temporarily lost his hearing after he was attacked in Amsterdam on June 15, Gay Star News reports (via Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool).

The 25-year-old man, known as "Ronald," said he was walking with his boyfriend around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday when a group of four men in their 20s noticed that Ronald and his boyfriend were embracing each other. That's what allegedly prompted them to yell anti-gay slurs at the couple.

"Dirty homos!" one man shouted. "Faggot cancer!" another said.

"Thank you, what a lovely compliment," Ronald replied back.

He told the Het Parool, a newspaper in Amsterdam, he was surprised the men attacked him because he says he did not yell at the group or shout any insults at them.

Ronald said he turned away after one of the men ran up to him and violently threatened him.

"I turned away and was hit on the side of my face, on my jaw and ear. It was so hard that three piercings were beaten out of my ear," he said.

When he was knocked to the ground, he was kicked twice before the attacker ran away with the other men.

Ronald reported the incident to the police and then went to the hospital where doctors told him his injuries were not serious and his hearing would return. Ronald says his hearing returned Monday night.

Police have images of the suspects and will reveal them to the public if necessary.

Ronald says the attack was inevitable even though the Netherlands has some of the most LGBTQ inclusive laws in the world.

"It had to happen sometime," he told the newspaper. "'Let this then be my time. I have heard so often from friends recently that they have been hit in the city."