Gay-Bashing Just a Bashing?

A young man was attacked outside a mall in western New York on New Year's Day -- the 20-year-old says it was because he was perceived to be gay, while the alleged assailants say that's not the case.

The man, whose name was not made public, tells police he was targeted by two Buffalo women because they believed he was gay, even though he says he's straight. "They were yelling gay slurs," the victim's mother, Michelle Hamilton, told WKBW.com. There were also reports of a note containing antigay slurs left on the victim's car, which was vandalized.

Joy Darden, 18, and Deonna Burnett, 19, are accused of beating the man and attacking him with pepper spray. They claim the attack wasn't about the man being gay, and Burnett's father says the women have known the man for years. Burnett's father also said his daughter has no problem with gays, and that she has many gay friends.

The attack at the Walden Galleria in Cheektowaga follows another alleged gay bashing in nearby Buffalo in which a lesbian was stabbed outside a nightclub in the early hours of New Year's Day -- she lost vision in one of her eyes.

Read the full story here.