Police in Washington, DC, are investigating an alleged hate crime after two men were punched by assailants who hurled a gay slur at them while referring to monkey pox, according to a police report.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon in northwest DC, according to a public incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department.
The two men were walking on Seventh Street NW when the suspects approached them and called them “monkeypox f—–s,” according to the report. The suspects “punched them several times” before fleeing, according to the report. One of the victim’s sunglasses was damaged in the attack, police said.
The assault was first reported by DC LGBTQ publication Metro Weekly. The victims, a gay couple, were taken by police to the hospital after the attack, according to Metro Weekly.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was “extremely disturbed by the reported hate crime.”
“We must stand up for our friends and neighbors, especially now when there is too much anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric sweeping our nation,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “We need to call people out in our circles if they promote a hateful or ignorant ideology, especially now when people are using public health to stigmatize and discriminate against members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
The police department’s LGBT Liaison Unit is involved in the investigation, the mayor said.
The Biden administration last week declared the current monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency in the US
Most cases so far in the United States have been reported among men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender and non-binary. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that anyone can contract the virus.
The stigma against the disease has sparked concern from LGBTQ activists, who say they have seen an increase in homophobic or transphobic messages about monkey pox online.