Nick Porto, 27, and his boyfriend Kevin Atkins, 22, told DNA Info that they were walking down Eighth Avenue, near Madison Square Garden, in Manhattan on Sunday, when a unruly group of New York Knicks fans beat them to the ground, kicked them and hurled gay slurs at them.
"A group of Knicks fans were upset about the game and they just decided to ‘f** bash’ the two of us," Porto wrote on Facebook, according to Gothamist.
Porto said the incident occurred around 5pm, during the Knicks game against the Indiana Pacers.
"They called us f****ts," he told DNA Info. "They made fun of my jeans -- I made the jeans myself, for that day."
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"Fists started flying. I was on the ground, and the only thing I could do, I reached out and grabbed someone's hair," he added.
Porto suffered a broken nose from the attack and Atkins a broken wrist.
The incident, which occurred a week after the NBA's Jason Collins came out, stunned Porto.
"I didn't know that it's not over, that this sort of stuff still happens," he said.
The New York Police Department is investigating the incident, and hasn't yet determined whether the case will be considered a hate crime. Previously, the police described one person of interest as a a 6-foot tall Hispanic male in his 20s. He had brown hair and a tattoo on his left arm.
Video footage released by the authorities on Thursday shows eight men they would like to question.
Several of the men in the video are seen wearing Carmelo Anthony's No. 7 Knicks jersey. Anthony recently praised Collins' courage, as the Atlantic Wire pointed out.
“It was a huge step for him to come out and make that statement,” Anthony said last week.
“For him to come out right now, be the first athlete to do so, it takes a big set to do that, especially in the society that we live in and knowing that everybody’s going to have something to say," he added.
Anyone with information about the incident should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), submit tips to the Crime Stoppers' website or text 274637 (CRIMES) and entering TIP577.
