Homophobic Harasser Tells Gay Jewish New Yorker He's 'Desecrating God'

A gay Jewish man in New York City has posted a video showing the harassment he endured at a subway station for wearing a pink yarmulke.

Adam Eli was leaving a station in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood Sunday when another man, a stranger to him, began yelling at him. "You're desecrating the name of God," the stranger says in the video, which Eli shared on Twitter and which was picked up by several New York media outlets.

"What, because I'm gay and wearing a kippah?" Eli responds, using another word for yarmulke. "Is that why?" He was also carrying a beaded purse and wearing a rainbow Pride patch on his jeans. The harasser follows up by saying, "Stay in the closet. ... Take your kippah off. This is not Judaism." The man calls being gay an abomination as well.

"He started following me and chasing me and yelling at me, and then I realized how angry he was and how intense it was getting, so I started filming," Eli told New York TV station WLNY. Eli eventually went into a store to avoid the man. He did not file a police report, as he thought it would serve no purpose.

Eli noted that many other people in the LGBTQ population suffer much worse. "Look at the hatred and violence that is in this video directed at a cis white man, and now try to imagine the type of venom and hatred and violence that's thrown at trans people and transgender people of color every single day," he told the station.

Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted support for Eli Monday night and also shared the video, which carries a trigger warning, so be aware that is contains disturbing content.