Last month, he told the BBC that the incident had made him feel that “homophobia is still an issue in this country”.
“I have been out since but even walking from the bar to the taxi I was really on edge. You always think ‘it won’t happen to me’,” he added.
The exterior of the Irish Bar, Seamus O’Donnells – the alleged attack took place outside (Google)
“It was just a regular night, the pub had a drag event on and they were handing out paper pride flags.
“My boyfriend was given one and we went outside when we were approached by someone who ripped the flag out of his hand and started stamping on it.
“They were trying to get a reaction out of us, calling us homophobic slurs.”
He told the BBC that his boyfriend was also attacked during the violent incident, which he said “blindsided” him and left him with “horrific” bruising.
One man has already come forward in connection with the attack, however police are still trying to identify the other two men. A CCTV image of the pair was re-shared on X/Twitter on March 29 in an attempt to move the investigation forward.
Chief Inspector Vicks Hayward-Melen said: “Our investigation into this concerning incident is progressing and we now want to identify the three men in the CCTV image released, as we believe they can help us with our enquiries. If this is you, or if you know who any of the men are, please call us.
“We will be keeping the victim, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and the owners of the Seamus O’Donnell’s bar updated on the latest developments.”
Speaking to the BBC in February about the alleged hate crime, the man said he was “worried” that those responsible had not been found.
He said: “I do worry that I’d be recognised if I’m out in Bristol and it is hard to enjoy yourself when that’s on your mind. I am Bristolian, I have lived here all my life, and I have always felt safe here and accepted.
“For me to experience something like this in my home city is really upsetting.”
The body of a 21-year-old transgender man, Alex Franco, has been found in a “remote desert area in Utah County,” close to the city of Lehi.
It’s believed that Franco died from a single gunshot, however police say they are waiting on a coroner’s report.
Taylorsville Police, who are investigating, said that two teenagers aged 15 and 17 have been arrested and charged with “multiple felony charges” in relation to what they are treating as a possible homicide.
Alex Franco had previously been reported as missing, possibly abducted, on Monday (18 March), after bring seen getting into a 2000s Jeep Liberty. Just after Franco got into the vehicle, witnesses heard a gunshot and the jeep sped away. Franco’s body was found on Tuesday 19 March.
Police said video footage from the scene “clearly identified the sound reported by witnesses as a gunshot.” The alleged abduction is currently part of the investigation.
Alex Franco’s body was discovered in a remote desert some 50 miles from the area where he was last seen stepping into a Jeep on Sunday afternoon, according to the Taylorsville Police Department, who had previously appealed for witnesses. (Facebook)
Police say that they are continuing to search for a third occupant of the vehicle. They also believe that Franco knew at least one of the people in the car and got into the vehicle willingly.
Franco’s girlfriend, Alyssa Henry, told KUTV that “friends of friends” had picked Franco up on Sunday afternoon, seemingly with a plan to drive to a park.
“The investigation so far has not revealed that this was a hate crime,” Lt. Aaron Cheshire of Taylorsville Police reportedly told the press at a conference on Tuesday (19 March).
Alex Franco (everloved.com)
“It was confirmed by the State Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday that the body found was the person who was reported as abducted,” Taylorsville PD also confirmed in the press release.
Alex Franco’s loved ones have created a crowdfunding campaign to accept donations for Alex’s funeral expenses, writing: “Alex’s death was unexpected, and we don’t have the funds we need to pay for his funeral… We love you so much Alex, we miss you. Fly high with the angels. Rest in paradise until we meet again.”
Police are urging anyone with information about the incident to call the non-emergency dispatch number for Taylorsville PD at 801-840-4000.
Former Las Vegas Raiders star Carl Nassib made history during Pride month in 2021 when he came out as gay.
“I actually hope that, one day, videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary,” he said in a post on Instagram. “But until then, I’m going to do my best, and my part, to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”
Having also played for the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nassib announced his retirement from the NFL last September.
Many people believe that Nassib was the first player to come out, but that’s far from the case. Sure, he was the first to come out while on the sport’s regular season roster, but the title of “first” actually goes to Dave Kopay, who revealed his gay identity 26 years earlier, three years after retiring.
What’s more, in 1969 Kopay was on the same team as two other gay NFL football players, training under the legendary (and open-minded) Washington coach Vince Lombardi. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers.
To date, there have only ever been 16 out gay or bisexual NFL players – hardly any, in the grand scheme of things, especially when you think about the huge number of footballers who have donned a uniform since the NFL was founded in 1920.
There are undoubtedly more players who never came out, but sadly that means their stories are lost in the mists of time.
Thankfully, we do know the incredible, powerful and heart-wrenching stories of three players. Two lost their lives during the Aids crisis, but all of them were truly talented.
These are the stories of running back Dave Kopay, who played between 1964 and 1972, Jerry Smith (1965-77), a tight end with Washington, and Ray McDonald (1967-68), a running back, also for Washington.
Dave Kopay
Dave Kopay was the first professional team sport athlete ever to declare his homosexuality. He made the announcement in 1975, three years after his retirement, following a nine-year NFL career.
He played for five teams during his career: San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay. After he came out, he tried to get into coaching, but he claims that NFL and colleges expressed no interest after his sexuality became public knowledge.
Dave Kopay, pictured in 1977 (Getty)
Kopay spent a lot of his younger years denying his sexuality. He joined the Theta Chi fraternity when he arrived at the University of Washington, and it was at the there that he says met the man he now calls the great love of his life. But he was still very much in the closet, and trying to deny who he really was. After all, this was the early 1960s, when declaring he was gay would have essentially ruined his prospects.
Describing that time to the University of Washington Magazine, he said: I was never thinking I was a gay man because I just wasn’t like ‘one of them’. Just talking about it like that almost reinforces the utter bullsh*t that society uses to identify gay folks.
“I didn’t have the knowledge or strength to take it on then, and even after I did take it on, there were many, many times that it almost consumed me and took me into deep depression.”
Letters from fans helped him to find the strength to carry on, the former running back explained.
Kopay is alive and well. He became a Gay Games ambassador, and was a featured announcer in the opening ceremony for Gay Games VII, in Chicago in July 2006.
Jerry Smith
In 1986 Kopay revealed, in his autobiography, a brief affair with fellow NFL star Jerry Smith, who played for Washington (then the Redskins, but now called the Commanders) from 1965 to 1977, playing in a losing Super Bowl team in 1973 – although he didn’t name Smith at the time.
Tight end Smith kept his sexuality very private, focusing on his career. After officially retiring at the end of the 1978 season, he quietly came out as gay to a few family members. He moved to Austin, Texas, where he co-owned a gay bar called The Boathouse.
Jerry Smith kept his sexuality private even after revealing he had Aids. (Getty)
In 1986, Smith revealed that he had contracted AIDS, hoping to bring awareness about the disease and de-stigmatise it – a brave move as, at the time, the prevailing belief was that it was an illness that only affected “drug addicts and hairdressers” as Jim Graham, director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, put it in an interview with the Washington Post in 1986.
Smith’s teammates all visited him as he lay in a Maryland hospital. He died, aged 43, on October 15, 1986, of an AIDS-related illness, a year after being diagnosed with HIV. Twenty-three players from Washington’s 1973 Super Bowl team reunited for the funeral, with several, including Sonny Jurgensen, Charley Taylor and Bobby Mitchell, serving as pallbearers.
“I don’t know how many of the players even knew he was gay, but I’ll tell you one thing: if they had known, they wouldn’t have cared,” Jurgensen has said.
Ray McDonald
As it turns out, Washington had not one, not two, but three gay men on the roster in 1969. The third was Ray McDonald, who had studied at the University of Idaho.
Questions about McDonald’s sexuality are believed to have started late in his college career, with rumours spreading that he was seeing a man at Washington State University, about 10 minutes from Idaho’s campus.
He went on to be drafted by Washington and during the rookie talent show at a training camp in 1967, McDonald delighted some with his singing skills, while others, it’s said, raised their eyebrows.
Ray McDonald played for Washington for two seasons and once delighted teammates with his singing voice. (University of Idaho)
At the time, Washington was coached by the now-legendary Vince Lombardi, who was no stranger to the LGBTQ+ community: his brother was gay, and many former players say he knew some of his team were gay. Not only did he not have a problem with it, but he also went out of his way to make sure no one else would make it a problem.
“Lombardi wanted to give him every benefit of the doubt and every chance and said if he found out that any coach was challenging McDonald’s manhood, they [would] be fired immediately.”
Former running back A.D. Whitfield, who played for Washington between 1966 and 1969, agreed that McDonald’s sexuality was something of an open secret.
“People more or less knew he was gay,” he said. “In the first year, there were all kinds of stories about incidents around town.”
One of the biggest incidents was when McDonald was reportedly arrested for having sex with another man in public.
It’s tragic that none of these great athletes felt they could come out during their career, but their legacy lives on through players like Carl Nassib.
Last week, a 52-year-old gay man was fatally shot in a Tampa dog park in what his friends are describing as a hate crime.
When he was shot, the victim had reportedly just had a run-in with another man who had allegedly been harassing him at the park for months, repeatedly threatening him and hurling homophobic slurs.
TheTampa Bay Times reports that the day before a man fatally shot John Walter Lay – known as Walt – Lay recorded a video of himself speaking directly to the camera, explaining, “So this morning while I’m walking — and we’re the only two here — (the gunman) comes up to me and screams at me, ‘You’re going to die, you’re going to die,’ and I asked him to just leave me alone, and so far he has.”
Friends of Lay told The Tampa Bay Times that the next morning, at the same park and at about the same time , the man shot Lay dead.
A local sheriff’s office have confirmed that 65-year-old Gerald Declan Radford was the shooter. He claims he shot Lay in self-defence. However, his friends don’t agree that would have been the case.
“In my opinion, there’s no way in hell this is really self-defense,” said Albert Darlington, 68, who was Lay’s friend and landlord. “For over a year, Dec has done nothing but harass Walt. He screams and hollers and calls him a f—-t every time he gets to the dog park. He’ll sit there and he’ll say, ‘I’d like to punch him right in the f–king mouth’ … and it has gotten worse and worse and worse.
Florida has been a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ+ activity recently, much of it instigated by Republican governor Ron DeSantis. In May 2023 alone, six new bills were signed by DeSantis in attacking LGBTQ+ rights in the state.
In response to that, Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign issued updated travel advice for LGBTQ+ people considering visiting or moving to Florida, telling queer people to “reconsider” their plans and that it was not a safe place for LGBTQ+ travellers to visit.
A photo of John Walter Lay, taken in 2018 (Facebook)
Lay’s friends told The Tampa Bay Times that he worked in customer service for a health care company, and delivered food and drove for Uber in the evenings. One of his friends added, “He was nice to everyone and treated everybody as a human being.”
His friends claim that Lay and Radford were initially on friendly terms. But after Radford found out that Lay was openly gay, Radford began to target Lay, calling him slurs when he was walking in the park. It’s said that Radford’s politics ‘leaned to the right’.
The Tampa Bay Times reviewed Radford’s Facebook page and found that it included reposted memes that were disparaging to LGBTQ+ people.
It’s believed that the shooter is yet to be arrested or charged.
”We looked around at each other and I thought, this guy just killed our friend and he is not in handcuffs?” one of Lay’s friends is reported as saying. “It was unbelievable to us.”
As the community mourns Lay’s loss, his faithful dog Fala stands as a poignant reminder of his enduring legacy. Lay’s final wish was that a friend in Tampa would take in his dog if anything happened to him, as he wanted to ensure Fala’s continued care within the familiar confines of the Tampa community he called home.
Lay’s friend intends to continue to walk Fala in the dog park despite the fatal attack, explaining that Fala “would be happier with the Tampa pack he already knows”.
