A knife-wielding man threatened an employee of a Manhattan gay nightclub before tearing down LGBTQ signs outside the place, cops said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The suspect approached a 36-year-old employee of The Monster<\/a> nightclub in the West Village, at the corner of Grove and W. Fourth Sts., around 5:10 a.m. on June 16, police said. He then ripped down several LGBTQ Pride signs that were displayed in front of the club.<\/p>\n There were no injuries in the incident.<\/p>\n The hater then fled the area on foot going east on W. Fourth St. and is still at large. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force<\/a> is investigating.<\/p>\n The incident comes during Pride Month, which culminates Sunday with the annual Pride March.<\/p>\n On June 22, a 22-year-old man was beaten during an anti-gay<\/a> bias attack in Midtown Manhattan, police said. The victim was walking past a parking garage on W. 34th St. near Eighth Ave. around 3 a.m. on Sunday when the angry suspect, sporting a beard and dreadlocks, approached him from behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI ain\u2019t into that gay s\u2014,\u201d the man fumed before hurling a haymaker at the victim, striking him in the side of the head, and then continuing to hit him as he fled, cops said.<\/p>\n The attacker is still being sought by cops.<\/p>\n On June 15, a 99-cent store worker in Brooklyn flew into a homophobic slur-spewing rage<\/a> before attacking a ballet dancer. Allan Jones, 79, became enraged at customer Nathaniel Platt, 37 at at 99\u00a2 & More Town on Nostrand and Foster Aves. in Flatbush.<\/p>\n Jones swung a boxcutter at Platt, who threw up his arm to protect himself. He was left with a small cut on the side of his face near his eye.<\/p>\n Jones was arrested for assault and menacing as hate crimes and aggravated harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was released without bail following his arraignment at Brooklyn Criminal Court.<\/p>\n Bias hate crime attacks against the LGBTQ community across New York City were down, according to NYPD statistics<\/a>. Twenty-three sexual-orientation hate crimes were reported as of June 2025, with a total of 285 incidents in 2025, compared to 41 reported sexual-orientation hate crimes for the same period last year, with a total of 341 incidents in 2024.<\/p>\n