Man arrested in alleged attack of gay West Point alums in New York City bodega

[DonViejo]

Source: NY Daily News

BY RYAN SIT NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, August 12, 2015, 8:23 AM

Cops arrested a 57-year-old man who shouted anti-gay slurs and attacked two men — who were the first gay couple married at West Point Military Academy — in a SoHo deli, police said Wednesday.

Thomas Clabough was charged with assault as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime after punching Daniel Lennox-Choate, 30, and shouting homophobic slurs at him and his husband, Larry Lennox-Choate, in a deli on Spring St. near Thompson St. on Aug. 2, cops said.

Police say Clabough walked into the deli and started screaming homophobic slurs at the men. He then blindsided the victim, according to a post on Larry's Facebook account.

The post said the man "screamed anti-gay obscenities at us in a bodega before sucker-punching Danny." That's when Larry took action.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-arrested-alleged-attack-gay-west-point-alums-ny-article-1.2322849

[MADem]

1. Clearly, the fitness regimen at the Point paid off!

It's a crying shame that this had to happen at all, but I have to say, if it did have to happen, I like the End of the Story!!!

[GOLGO 13]

2. Idiot old fool shouldn't pick a fight with a boxer.

57 is too old to be learning that lesson. But learn it he did.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. To the homophobic attacker:

great choice, attacking two guys with extensive military training. Good thing they went easy on you.

To the couple: about that wedding photo: for a couple of West Point grads, those shoes are a disgrace! Are you shoe-polish-phobic or something??!!11! Gimme twenty pushups!! (great pic)

[romanic]

4. Poor old homophobic sack of crap

wasn't expecting those "gay sissies" to fight back like men. Boo hoo, I hope he rots in jail for being a hateful POS. Good on Danny and Larry for defending themselves, we in the LGBT community still have to face shit like this.

[safeinOhio]

5. Got his ass kicked and

going to court and may be jail.

[sdfernando]

6. and the worst part (in the attackers mind anyway)

is that he got beat up by a couple of "The Gay"

[mikehiggins]

9. fag bashing 101 (circa 1960)

Back when I was fifteen some of the boys I hung with came up the brilliant idea of trolling for gays in the Times Square area. The idea was to lure the suckers in, work them over and take off with their money, watches, whatever. This went on for months and then suddenly came to a screeching halt.

Seemed the crew (about 5 teens) lured this one guy in, got him to rent a hotel room for a couple of hours and then the bait-kid opened the door and the other four rushed in. The guy beat the living shit out of all of them and threw them out of the room, except for the kid who brought him there. He kept him.

No idea what happened but nobody wanted to talk about it. If younger guys like me pushed the question we'd get smacked or worse. The kid who was kept started being around less and less, finally took off entirely.

The point is, a gay man is not necessarily the joke you see on tv, or the effete fashion designer. A lot of them are construction workers (I worked with a lot of gays during my carreer as an electrician), truck drivers, and yeah, soldiers. The guys in my neighborhood learned a good lesson in Times Square. It would be nice if it wasn't a lesson people keep having to learn but like somebody once said; ignorance can be cured. Stupidity is forever.

[sdfernando]

12. Absolutely spot on!

I'm gay and I know countless gay men that you would not want to mess with, construction, military, police...and I know countless that are very effeminate...some of them you would not want to mess with either.

[The Polack MSgt]

7. Glad they caught the guy, but I'm curious

My question regards the wedding photo in the linked article. It says that both men graduated West Point, and were married at the Academy - but neither were in uniform leaving the Chapel.
Larry had graduated in 09 and was married in 13 - he should have been in mess dress, although his husband may have been separated by then having graduated in 07.
I'm trying not to be accusatory - I just wonder if they were pushed to get married in civvies to keep the ceremony low key, out of sight out of mind as it were.
Or if they had both separated but were authorized to use the Chapel as an alumni privilege

[FSogol]

8. I think everyone enjoys stories of instant karma. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

10. Great story! So glad the asshat got what was coming to him.

The strange thing is this would be something I would expect in some rural backwoods or even a city in a red state, but in Soho?? I lived in NYC for years and just never really saw any open homophobia, even though I am sure it existed. Glad the guy got his ass kicked!

Also, I love the surname Lennox-Choate! Sounds very posh!

[Dornick]

11. What a tool...