November 17, 2016
Gay Fla. Senior Says Alleged Attacker Told Him: 'My President Says We Can Kill You Faggots'
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A 75-year-old gay man said he was attacked outside his home Monday night in Sarasota, Fla. by a Donald Trump supporter, who apparently took issue over the victim's rainbow marriage equality bumper sticker, ABC Action News reports.
Chuck Redding said he was driving home when he noticed a car was driving very closely behind him. He initially thought it was a "jerk that was following too close" but quickly realized something was wrong.
When he turned onto his street, Redding said the car came even closer to him and he knew "something was wrong." He said he parked outside a neighbor's house when the driver stopped his car, jumped out and ran toward Redding's car.
The man banged on Redding's car window before forcing the door open, Redding says. The man then allegedly threw Redding to the ground.
"He yanked the door open, dragged me out, ripped my shirt. I was on the pavement," Redding told ABC Action News.
The man fled the scene, leaving Redding with a bruised arm, cut hands, scrapped knees and a fractured toe. Redding says he was assaulted because he had a rainbow marriage equality bumper sticker on his car.
"He kept saying, 'You know my new president says we can kill all you faggots now,'" Redding said. "It's absolutely horrendous."
Since Trump was a elected president last week, there have been a number of reported hate crime incidents related to the election results. A Florida LGBT church was vandalized with swastikas and Trump's campaign motto "Make America Great Again" and New York state senator, who is Jewish and openly gay, found swastikas carved into his the building where he lives. Before Trump was elected, a trans woman from Tennessee said her truck was set on fire and vandalized with the word "Trump."
Watch ABC Action News' report on Redding below.