2 Folsom Fair tourists attacked in apparent hate crime

Neil Frias (left) and Jeff White were pepper-sprayed. Neil Frias (left) and Jeff White were pepper-sprayed. Photo: Jeff White / Courtesy Jeff White Photo: Jeff White / Courtesy Jeff White Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 2 Folsom Fair tourists attacked in apparent hate crime 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

What was supposed to be a weekend of revelry and excitement for two friends in town for San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair turned ugly Saturday night when five assailants attacked the men with pepper spray for no apparent reason other than they are gay.

The violence was particularly shocking for Neil Frias and Jeff White, both 28, because they were assaulted in a city lauded for its progressive values and broad acceptance of the LGBT community.

“I’m trying to make sense of it,” Frias, who works as a publicist in Manhattan, said Sunday. “I would think what happened last night would happen somewhere else, not here.”

The friends were visiting from New York for the weekend festivities surrounding Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair, a world-famous leather-themed street party in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood packed by fetishists celebrating the city’s kinky subculture.

Frias and White said they were attacked at about 9 p.m. outside a McDonald’s at Golden Gate Avenue and Fillmore Street in the city’s Western Addition. As Frias left the fast-food restaurant, he said five men pulled up in a blue minivan. “They were saying, ‘You fags are destroying family values,’” Frias said. “I said I didn’t want any trouble, and one of them got out of the van. I thought he was going to take a swing at me, but he sprayed me across the face.”

Frias said he was hit with the unmistakable “searing sting” from the pepper spray as a second man came at him with another can of the aerosolized weapon. A third assailant, he said, attacked White, who crawled into a ball to protect his face from the painful blast.

“I was completely vulnerable,” he said. “I thought they were going to start beating me.”

A nearby woman shouted that she was calling the police, prompting the mob to jump back into the minivan and speed away. Police and paramedics responded to the attack, and the two victims returned to their Union Square hotel.

“The thing that was the most remarkable about the situation is how unprovoked it was,” White said, still reeling from the encounter Sunday morning. “I was literally tying my shoe when they came at me. It’s mind-boggling.”

Officers at the San Francisco Police Department’s Northern District station said they were aware of the attack and were searching for surveillance video that may have captured the incident.

“We take these crimes very seriously,” said Officer Carlos Manfredi, a San Francisco police spokesman. “If anybody feels they can attack someone based on their sexual preference, we’re going to go after them and hold them accountable.”

Frias said part of the reason he comes to San Francisco is because of its major influence on LGBT rights. But hate crimes are an all-too-common reality — even here and especially during events that celebrate the LGBT community.

San Francisco police reported at least two hate crimes targeting the LGBT community during June’s Pride festivities. Emmanuel Morancy, 50, was arrested and charged with attacking two gay women during the Pride Parade, police said. Earlier that morning, an unidentified assailant yelled an antigay slur before firing a pellet gun at a 25-year-old man.

Such hate crimes, though, are notoriously underreported to police, according to experts. A 2014 survey of more than 400 LGBT people, conducted by the San Francisco LGBT Center, found 45 percent of people had experienced physical violence and 70 percent of people reported being harassed due to their sexual orientation.

Frias and White, who say they have both dealt with violence and bullying on various levels, were determined to not let Saturday’s violence define their trip to San Francisco. The physical pain from the attack had subsided by Sunday, as the two geared up for the fair.

“I’m mad that I didn’t get to go out last night,” White said. “It’s Saturday night in San Francisco Folsom week.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky