A drag queen was beaten last weekend just one block from a well-known gay bar in San Francisco.
Tim Tate, whose drag name is Ginger Snap, said he left the SF Eagle bar last Saturday night, not dressed in drag, walked a block and turned down Bernice and was punched several times in the face.
The attack left his him bloody with bruised eyes, a broken tooth, a gash on his forehead and a concussion.
Tate said he doesn't remember seeing or hearing his attacker coming, and said that he believes he was targeted because he had just left a gay bar.
"I think it was more of a hate crime. I'm calling it a gay crime because he knows it's a gay bar, the fact that he didn't take anything, I feel like he just wanted to hurt somebody," Tate told NBC Bay Area.
The attacked shocked those in the LGBT community as June is Pride Month and a Pride parade will be hosted in San Francisco on June 24. People from all over the world will be coming to San Francisco to an event that they expect will be safe.
"I'm very angry to see to see somebody that's super nice and a really beautiful person just being hurt for no reason, or just being himself, it's just devastating," said Alex Montiel, one of the owners of SF Eagle.
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Tate said he expect that he won't be back to perform in drag for another couple of weeks as he recover from his injuries. He also said he plans on filing a police report.
"I think it's important to get the word out, that this is still happening in 2018 in San Francisco on Pride Month. It's not right," Tate said.
Over 16 percent of the 5,462 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2014 were due to the target’s sexual orientation.
