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Man Faces Hate Crime Charges After Allegedly Attacking Gay West Point Couple

West Point

Thomas Clabough, 57, of Queens NY is awaiting arraignment for the August 2 assault.

According to Gothamist, Thomas Clabough, 57, of Queens, NY has been brought up on hate crimes charges and is awaiting arraignment for his alleged August 2 assault on Daniel Lennox-Choate and his husband Larry Lennox-Choate, the first same-sex couple to be married at the chapel at the chapel at West Point Academy, from which they both graduated.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, according to the NYPD, Clabough entered the SOHO Newstand 1 at 2:30pm August 2 to buy beer. While there he hurled anti-gay statements at the couple, which led to a verbal altercation. Clabough allegedly punched Daniel Lennox-Choate. The couple then proceeded to kick Clabough's ass.

After the assault, the couple recapped on Facebook:

"It's hard to believe that in 2015 we would have to deal with anti-gay hate crimes in soho of all places but that's what happened today. First off- we're ok. Aside from one fat lip and a sore punching arm, we are fine. The guy who screamed anti-gay obscenities at us in a bodega before sucker-punching Danny? He left covered in his own blood with his tail between his legs after I handled the situation and tossed him in the street like the coward loser he is. The hate crimes division of the NYPD is on the case and we have full faith a positive outcome will follow."

Then last week the couple thanked their supporters, also via Facebook:

First, we want to just say thank you to everyone- family, friends and strangers, for your concern and support. We feel the love and it is overwhelming in the best possible way. Our inboxes are overflowing with kind words of encouragement and disbelief of what happened.

We would like to encourage all of you who have felt moved enough to share a link or to send us a message to find some small way to contribute to the positive change we're all more than ready for when it comes to hate crimes and bullying. It doesn't even have to be of the LGBTQ variety. Unfortunately, hate comes in countless flavors and each of them stinks. Instead of hashing it out in the comments section of a news article, reach out to your political representatives and call for zero tolerance policies that aim to make good on the promise that all men (and women, of course) actually are created equal in this country. Find an organization, either local or national, that takes up this cause and tries to stand up for every victim of this sort of heinous crime. Let's be the generation that says ENOUGH! There are hundreds of non-violent ways to send a clear message that this sort of behavior is intolerable and that we just won't take it any longer.

Now, I'd like to end with an inspirational quote:

"I'm a survivor (What?)
I'm not gon give up (What?)
I'm not gon stop (What?)
I'm gon work harder (What?)
I'm a survivor (What?)
I'm gonna make it (What?)
I will survive (What?)
Keep on survivin' (What?)"

#MarchOn

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Alex Panisch