NEBRASKA: Straight Man Gay-Bashed After Standing Up For Friend In Drag

An Omaha straight man told local news that he was attacked outside a restaurant after standing up to three men that were harassing a friend of his who was in drag. The assailants escaped but surveillance video and credit card records might identify them.

Ryan Langenegger said he and his two friends, Josh Foo and Jacob Gellinger, were eating at the Pepperjax Grill in the Old Market around 2 a.m. when the harassment began. Jacob was dressed in drag. "We were eating and there was three guys watching us and one of them stepped up and was a foot or two away from my friend {Gellinger} and he just kept saying, 'Should I? Should I?'" Langenegger explained. Gellinger said eventually he told the men, "I know I'm a boy in a dress."  Langenegger said the men then told Gellinger, "Yeah, you're disgusting and more colorful language and insisted on using more derogatory toward my two friends." That's when the three friends decided to leave the restaurant. But according to Langenegger, the men followed them outside and eventually cut them off, preventing them from getting to their car and leaving.

Langenegger: "I see this happen all the time with my friends and it’s really sickening. It's 2013, we live in Omaha, a lot of people don’t realize that this stuff is going on and it's just not right. And I'm just not going to stand by and watch my friends and pretty much family get degraded. It's just not right." WOWT-TV has a video interview at the link. (Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother and Arksarbent.)