Stonewall Inn Basher Denies Homophobia

Matthew Francis, one of two defendants accused of beating Benjamin Carver inside the historic Stonewall Inn in New York City over the weekend, said he does not hate gay people, because, after all, his sister is a "full-blown lesbian."

According to the New York Daily News, Francis made the comments Wednesday in an interview from his jail cell in Manhattan, where he also said he had no plans to apologize for the attack.

"I'm not going to say sorry, because I don't know what I should be sorry for," he said.

"I don't hate gay people," he said. "I don't hate anybody."

Francis, 21, and Christopher Orlando, 17, were charged with assault as a hate crime and attempted robbery for allegedly beating Carver, 34, inside the Stonewall Inn bathroom early Sunday morning while demanding money. The bar is the site of the 1969 riots that sparked the modern gay civil rights movement.

The Daily News reports that Carver, who was visiting from Washington, D.C., maintains that the suspects asked whether he was gay in the bathroom, then called him a "faggot" before launching their attack. He required stitches above his eyebrow.

Francis, who is still waiting for someone to pay his $10,000 bail, told the Daily News that he even spends time in lesbian bars on occasion.

"'My sister's a full-blown lesbian,' he said, explaining he sometimes shows up at the Staten Island bar Blackdog on 'lesbian night' because his sister bartends. 'I don't discriminate against gay people.'"