A 17-year-old teen from the greater
Houston metropolitan area says that he was lured to a park and beaten
because he's gay.
Dylan Beard of Baytown told Houston's
KHOU that he was jumped at Jenkins Park.
“They lured me indirectly. They had
one of their friends, who I'm also friends with, tell me to come up
there and they walked up and did it,” Dylan
said.
A girl was the first to hit him.
“Then two of her friends who are guys
jumped in and they all started hitting me, got on the ground [and]
hit me and punched me,” he said.
Jennifer Beard, Dylan's mother, said
that the altercation left her son with a broken nose, as well as
numerous other injuries.
“His face was swelled, his nose was
broken, he bit through his tongue, his bottom teeth were chipped, his
knees were scabbed everywhere,” she said.
Dylan added “It's tough being gay”
because “we are out of the norm, I guess.”
The girl is facing an assault charge
but Dylan's family wants officials to investigate the incident as a
hate crime.