Washington, D.C. gay couple say they were attacked by 2 teens, who called them ‘monkeypox f----ts’

A gay couple said they were attacked by two teenagers who allegedly called them “monkeypox f----ts” on Sunday afternoon.

The couple, 25-year-old Robert and 23-year-old Antonio, who didn’t provide their last names, told local LGBTQ news outlet Metro Weekly that the terrifying incident resulted in a six-hour stay at a local emergency room.

The attack happened around 5:40 p.m. in Northwest D.C.’s hip Shaw neighborhood.

The two men said they were walking to a bus stop after an afternoon outing at the gay bar Kiki when they encountered a group of teenagers, about five males and two females, who started making fun of how they were dressed.

Robert was wearing a colorful Hawaiian shirt, while Antonio had on a crop white shirt with a rainbow Polaroid logo.

A gay couple said they were attacked by two teenagers who allegedly called them “monkeypox f--ts” on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022.

One of the teens in the group, a male, approached the couple and sucker-punched Robert, who fell to the ground.

As Antonio protested, a second teenager punched him in the face, striking his glasses.

Some in the group fled the scene after a witness called the police, but the two females approached the couple to apologize.

“I was kind of pissed and said something along the lines of ‘This is who you hang out with? That’s f----d up,’” Robert told Metro Weekly. “But one of them said their dad was gay and it was messed up that they attacked us. But I was still pretty pissed at the whole incident, so I let them pass.”

Officers arrived a few minutes later and took the two victims to the emergency room at Howard University Hospital, where Antonio received three stitches on his upper lip.

A photo shared by the couple shows the Polaroid top with large stains of blood.

“Nothing like this had happened to me before, so I have no idea what it’s going to look like going forward, but it definitely will be a different feeling walking down the street for sure,” Robert, who was born in Texas and moved to D.C. in 2019, told the newspaper.

His boyfriend, also born in Texas, said that he has seen more “overt homophobia” in the district than in his native state.

“There are more altercations on the street or verbal comments from random people vs. at home,” said Antonio, who moved to D.C. in 2020.